I don’t know what surprised me more, the fact that Ravens QB Ryan Mallett played a tough game with clutch decisions in his starting debut for a struggling team he barely knows, or the fact that Big Ben and the high-flying Steelers offense didn’t hang 40 points on the makeshift Ravens defense.

But there you have it. Football is a funny game. Somehow the Ravens dug deep and played their most physical game of the season. They ran the ball on the Steelers. They overcame some defensive interference penalties to keep the lid on Big Ben’s receivers in deep coverage. They fought back from a huge defensive offsides penalty near the end to get a key sack on Big Ben from Courtney Upshaw—the same guy who committed the encroachment penalty which had nullified a 101-TD INT by Jimmy Smith.

Intending to be just a casual observer of this game, I found myself mesmerized by Ryan Mallett’s poise out there. I mean, here he was just activated after maybe 10 days in meetings and practices, and he’s changing plays at the line of scrimmage! Amazing—and he clearly has not lost any arm strength as he was zipping the ball with authority.

Good for Mallett— his NFL stock was clearly on decline until this showing against Pittsburgh.

Ryan Mallett threw for a career-high 274 yards in his first start with Baltimore, and the Ravens (5-10) pulled off a 20-17 victory — one of the biggest upsets of the Steelers rivalry series.

The Steelers (9-6) are still in contention for a wild-card berth, despite this unexpected defeat, but they’re in trouble as the Jets raillied to beat New England in overttime. The loss ended Pittsburgh’s winning streak in December but more importantly has them outside looking in for the 6th wild-card spot behind the Jets.

Ben Roethlisberger went 23 for 33 for 227 yards for the Steelers. He was intercepted twice and sacked three times. DeAngelo Williams ran for 100 yards and had six catches for 53 yards.

Up 20-10 with just over seven minutes left, the Ravens appeared to clinch the upset when cornerback Jimmy Smith ran 101 yards with an interception for a touchdown. But Baltimore’s Courtney Upshaw lined up offside on the play, negating the score, and DeAngelo Williams scored his second touchdown with 6:33 left.

The Ravens held on. On fourth-and-15 at the Pittsburgh 37, a pass from Roethlisberger to Markus Wheaton fell incomplete following the two-minute warning.

Down 13-3 at halftime, the Steelers got back into it with the aid of two pass interference calls totaling 53 yards. The penalties, against Smith and Kendrick Lewis, led to a 1-yard run by Williams that cut the deficit to three points.

Later in the quarter, the Ravens put together a 13-play drive that concluded with a punt. Though the march did not produce points, Baltimore kept the ball away from the Steelers for nearly seven minutes and pinned Pittsburgh on its own 9.

Roethlisberger threw his second interception a few minutes later. Mallett connected with Chris Givens for 39 yards and Kyle Juszczyk for 34 to set up a 3-yard touchdown run by Javorius “Buck” Allen, making it 20-10.

Roethlisberger went 7 for 12 for 66 yards and an interception in the first half, a 38.9 quarterback rating.

After the Ravens stuffed Williams on a fourth-down run following the opening kickoff, Mallett’s first drive as Baltimore’s quarterback could not have gone better. He moved the Ravens 75 yards in 15 plays, went 4 for 4 on third down and threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Chris Matthews to complete a possession that lasted more than seven minutes.

The Steelers then settled for a field goal after an apparent 16-yard touchdown catch by Antonio Brown was overturned by a replay.

Mallett produced in his second series, too, covering 61 yards in 11 plays before Justin Tucker kicked a field goal for a 10-3 lead. It marked the first time this season Baltimore got as many as 10 points on its first two possessions.

An interception by Ravens linebacker Daryl Smith led to a 50-yard field goal late in the half.

That’s the other amazing thing about this game— the Ravens haven’t had any big defensive turnovers from their back end for a long, long time.

Final:

	1	2	3	4	T
PIT	0	3	7	7	17
BAL	7	6	0	7	20

Scoring Summary

 

FIRST QUARTER		PIT	BAL
	TD 3:53 Chris Matthews 8 Yd pass from Ryan Mallett (Justin Tucker Kick) 15 plays, 75 yards, 7:07	0	7
SECOND QUARTER		PIT	BAL
	FG 14:48 Chris Boswell 34 Yd Field Goal 10 plays, 64 yards, 4:05	3	7
	FG 10:01 Justin Tucker 37 Yd Field Goal 11 plays, 61 yards, 4:47	3	10
	FG 1:17 Justin Tucker 50 Yd Field Goal 7 plays, 24 yards, 3:21	3	13
THIRD QUARTER		PIT	BAL
	TD 11:18 DeAngelo Williams 1 Yd Run (Chris Boswell Kick) 6 plays, 79 yards, 3:01	10	13
FOURTH QUARTER		PIT	BAL
	TD 10:35 Javorius Allen 3 Yd Run (Justin Tucker Kick) 5 plays, 58 yards, 2:20	10	20
	TD 6:33 DeAngelo Williams 2 Yd Run (Chris Boswell Kick) 8 plays, 80 yards, 4:02	17	20

 

Matchup
1st Downs	21	22
Passing 1st downs	11	16
Rushing 1st downs	6	6
1st downs from penalties	4	0
3rd down efficiency	2-8	9-18
4th down efficiency	0-2	0-0
Total Plays	57	73
Total Yards	303	386
Total Drives	11	11
Yards per Play	5.3	5.3
Passing	193	265
Comp-Att	24-34	28-41
Yards per pass	5.2	6.3
Interceptions thrown	2	0
Sacks-Yards Lost	3-22	1-9
Rushing	110	121
Rushing Attempts	20	31
Yards per rush	5.5	3.9
Red Zone (Made-Att)	2-3	2-3
Penalties	3-25	12-121
Turnovers	2	0
Fumbles lost	0	0
Interceptions thrown	2	0
Defensive / Special Teams TDs	0	0
Possession	25:40	34:20

Baltimore Passing

	C/ATT	YDS	AVG	TD	INT	SACKS	RTG
Ryan Mallett	28/41	274	6.7	1	0	1-9	95.0
TEAM	28/41	265	6.7	1	0	1-9	95.0

Pittsburgh Passing

	C/ATT	YDS	AVG	TD	INT	SACKS	RTG
Ben Roethlisberger	24/34	215	6.3	0	2	3-22	62.7
TEAM	24/34	193	6.3	0	2	3-22	62.8

Baltimore Rushing

	CAR	YDS	AVG	TD	LONG
Javorius Allen	18	79	4.4	1	14
Terrance West	13	42	3.2	0	15
TEAM	31	121	3.9	1	15

Baltimore Receiving

	REC	YDS	AVG	TD	LONG	TGTS
Kamar Aiken	8	66	8.3	0	17	8
Kyle Juszczyk	5	55	11.0	0	34	7
Chris Givens	2	45	22.5	0	39	4
Jeremy Butler	3	38	12.7	0	17	6
Javorius Allen	5	35	7.0	0	10	5
Chris Matthews	3	19	6.3	1	8	5
Maxx Williams	2	16	8.0	0	9	5
TEAM	28	274	9.8	1	39	40

Baltimore Defensive

	TACKLES				MISC
	TOT	SOLO	SACKS	TFL	PD	QB HTS	TD
C.J. Mosley	9	6	0	0	0	0	0
Daryl Smith	8	3	0	0	1	0	0
Courtney Upshaw	5	2	1	1	0	2	0
Kendrick Lewis	5	2	0	1	0	0	0
Kyle Arrington	4	3	0	0	1	0	0
Will Hill	4	3	0	0	1	0	0
Za’Darius Smith	4	2	1	2	0	1	0
Lardarius Webb	3	3	0	0	1	0	0
Shareece Wright	3	2	0	0	1	0	0
Jimmy Smith	2	2	0	0	2	0	0
Brandon Williams	2	1	0	0	0	0	0
Elvis Dumervil	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
Lawrence Guy	2	0	0	0	0	0	0
Timmy Jernigan	1	1	1	1	0	2	0
Chris Matthews	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
Brynden Trawick	1	1	0	1	0	0	0
Zachary Orr	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
TEAM	57	33	3	6	7	5	0

Maybe selfishly many Ravens fans would have preferred a loss to the Steelers to improve draft positioning for next Spring. But in fact it is probably better for the team’s future prospects that young guys getting a chance to play hard together and dig out a big win like Sunday actually happened. They say you have to learn how to win at this level.  Guys like Buck Allen, Courtney Upshaw, Shareece Wright (big plays in coverage!), Za’Darius Smith (tons of DL pressure all afternoon!) and yes, Ryan Mallett— they all learned something about how to win in this improbable outing against the Steelers.