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The Pittsburgh Steelers dropped a massive AFC North clash against the Baltimore Ravens on Saturday 34-17, giving the Ravens the inside track to winning the division and earning a home game on Wild Card weekend. The Ravens handled the Steelers for the entire second half as Derrick Henry ran wild and Lamar Jackson made play after play to lift the Ravens over the top.
The Steelers have now lost two games in a row after dropping another blowout against the Philadelphia Eagles last weekend, and their AFC North lead that was once two games has now evaporated to zero.
After the game, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin didn't hide his feelings when discussing what went wrong on Saturday, according to Brooke Pryor of ESPN.
“We didn’t do what we needed to do in order to secure victory,” Tomlin said, per Pryor. “We didn’t control the run game. We never did.”
Tomlin's assessment went hand-in-hand with that of star edge rusher Alex Highsmith, who was extremely disappointed with the performance of his unit on the defensive side of the ball.
“We didn’t do a good job controlling the line of scrimmage today,” Highsmith said, per Pryor. “Embarrassing to say the least. How they ran, the way they ran the ball against us.”
The Ravens ran for 220 yards on Saturday with 162 of those coming from Henry on just 24 carries and the Ravens scored the final 17 points of the game after Pittsburgh tied things up at 17 late in the third quarter. In the first meeting between the two teams, the Ravens could only muster 124 rushing yards.
Steelers pushing for AFC North title with two games remaining
The Steelers have seen their division lead slip away as the Ravens have caught them over the last two weeks, leaving both teams at 10-5 heading into the final two weeks of the season.
Mike Tomlin and company still control their own destiny in the AFC North, as a pair of victories in Week 17 and 18 will give them the division title based off of a tiebreaker. However, their path to get there isn't admirable.
While the Ravens will have to deal with the Houston Texans and the Cleveland Browns to finish off the regular season, the Steelers have to take on the Kansas City Chiefs and the Cincinnati Bengals. Pittsburgh's path is much more difficult, and it likely has no room for error as the Ravens will be heavy favorites in both of their remaining games.
The difference between a division title and a wild card spot is a massive one. Not only does the winner get to play at home for at least one playoff game, but the path to the AFC title game and the Super Bowl is much clearer. If you win the AFC North snd come into the playoffs as the No. 3 seed, you are likely looking at a date with the Denver Broncos or the Los Angeles Chargers, while the No. 5 or 6 seed likely results in a road game against the Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisional Round if you can make it though game one.
