NFL
By: Joey MacDonald
For the 2nd week in a row, the Baltimore Ravens have lost a divisional matchup this week against their arch-rivals, the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Ravens, throughout the game, were behind and couldn’t capitalize on the opportunities presented to them. And, you add in an Isiah Likley 4th quarter touchdown that the referees controversially took away, and the Offensive line’s poor performance, and it ended with a 27-22 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.
The Baltimore Ravens, for the 2nd game in a row, got beaten by a division rival last week on Thanksgiving, by the Cincinnati Bengals; this week it was by the Pittsburgh Steelers, and now puts the Ravens on a much harder path to make the playoffs and win the division. Lamar Jackson had an up-and-down as he went 19 of 35 completions for 219 yards with 1 touchdown and 1 interception. And that 1 interception was a costly one as it turned into a Pittsburgh touchdown on the next possession, which put the Ravens down by 14 points, but the Ravens scored at the end of the half to make a one-possession game. Also, the Ravens’ running game had a solid game as they ran for 217 on the ground and mostly from both Derrick Henry and Keaton Mitchell. But the game came down to a controversial call. With 2:47 to go, Lamar Jackson threw a pass to Isiah Likely for what looked like a clean 13-yard catch for the go-ahead touchdown. But after checking the replay, the refs controversially overturned it to an incomplete pass, as the referees say that Likely didn’t complete the 3 step process of a catch. And now the Ravens will have a tough pill to swallow after this tough loss, and now will have to get ready for their 2nd matchup, the Bengals, next Sunday at 1:00 pm.
The defense had another tough particularly the secondary, as Aaron Rodgers threw for 284 on 23/34, and most of his passes were to D.K. Metcalf, as Metcalf had 7 catches for 148 yards. But the run defense had a great day as they held the Pittsburgh Steelers to only 34 yards on the ground, which made up for the secondary getting burned through the air. Roquan Smith led the team in tackles with 10, as Smith continues to be the leader of the defense that continues to struggle. And, the pass rush was nowhere to be found as they only registered one quarterback hit on Aaron Rodgers in the entire game. Overall, it was a disappointing day for the defense, but the Ravens have four more games to get together to try to make the playoffs.
The Pittsburgh Steelers, on the other hand, played like a much better team, and Aaron Rodgers made the throws he needed to make to win this game for the Steelers. As he made throws to 10 different receivers on the day, he was able to have a mistake-free football game. While the defense did make some plays to slow down the Ravens’ offense and Lamar Jackson. At the end of the game Steelers were able to hold on at the end thanks in large part to the controversial non-touchdown catch by Isiah Likely in the 4th quarter with less than 3 minutes left in the game.
The Ravens know that they got screwed big time by the referees by that controversial call in the 4th quarter, which took away the potential winning touchdown against the Steelers. Now moving on to Week 15, the Ravens will travel to Cincinnati to take on the Bengals in their 2nd matchup in 3 weeks, as the Ravens will look for revenge against the Bengals from that beatdown on Thanksgiving night. But now the Ravens will have a lot of work to do in these last 4 games to try and catch the Steelers and win the division, or they might be looking at a long offseason with all the eyes being on John Harbaugh and see if he will be back in 2026 and beyond.
