Is There Anything Better Than Steelers vs. Ravens?

 

Yesterday's matchup between the Steelers and the Baltimore, the thirtieth time that head coaches Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh have faced each other (more on that later), a 20-19 win for the Steelers, produced an obvious answer to the question stated in the headline above:

No, there is nothing better than games between the long time AFC North rivals, Pittsburgh and Baltimore.  I remember on one Sunday night  game between the two teams, Chris Collinsworth said something to the effect that he could watch these two teams go at it 16 games each season if the schedule makers would allow it, and it is hard to disagree with the sentiment.  Yesterday's game was no exception.

The Ravens came in with an AFC best record of 8-4, and the Steelers were on life support at 5-5-1 coming off of two straight losses where they gave up 82 points and were soundly thrashed by the Cincy Bengals 41-10 last week.  The Ravens dominated the Steelers defense and the Steelers offense was totally impotent in the first half, yet Baltimore went into the locker room at half-time with a mere 7-3 lead.

The headline over Ron Cook's column in the Post-Gazette this morning said it all about what then transpired:

On this day, the old guy came through for his team

The "old guy" in this case was, of course, 39 year old quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.  He may be a shadow of his younger self, but he somehow summoned up a measure of his past greatness by producing 17 fourth quarter points and produced the 39th fourth quarter comeback of his career.  If an athletic performance can be defined as "heroic", Big Ben's game yesterday falls into that category.  If this is to be his final season, as was reported this past week, then it is a shame that yesterday's game wasn't the final game of the year.  A gutsy comeback win over the team's bitterest rival would have been a great way to walk into the sunset.  However, there are more games to play, and if the Steelers still have life in their playoff hopes, then it will be the sheer force of Roethlisberger's will that will get them there.  It might not happen, probably won't happen, but it will still be fun to watch down the stretch.

T.J. Watt, the team's best player and perhaps the best defensive player in the NFL, did not practice all week due to COVID protocols, but was able to play, and he dominated the game, with sacks and pressures on Lamar Jackson, including one on the Ravens' final play, the attempted two point conversion with :12 to play that would have won the game for the Ravens.  Watt forced Jackson's pass to wobble just enough so that his pass to TE Mark Andrews fell out of reach.

About that two point conversion.  After the Steelers took a 20-13 lead with 1:38 to play, the Ravens proceeded to march down the field and score a TD to make it 2019 with :12 left.  Baltimore HC John Harbaugh eschewed the sure PAT that would send the game into overtime and went for a two point conversion to win the game outright then and there.  It was a gutsy coaching call, and he is no doubt being second guessed all over the Inner Harbor today, but why in the hell not go for it?  And it added yet one more layer of lore and legend to the Steelers-Ravens rivalry.

Oh, and about those Tomlin-Harbaugh face-offs.  Yesterday, was the 30th time that these two coaches' teams have played against each other.  This is the most such coach-to-coach encounters in the Super Bowl Era, and the third most in NFL history.  George Halas and Curly Lambeau faced each other 41 times , and Halas and Steve Owen went against each other 31 times.  After yesterday's game, Tomlin holds a 16-14 edge over Harbaugh.    Tomlin's Steelers are 2-1 in post season games with the Ravens.  The Steelers have been to the Super Bowl twice (1-1) in that time, the Ravens once, winning it.  The teams and the coaches meet again in the final game of the season on January 9.  At that point, the game may be meaningless for one or both of the teams, but it will no doubt be another epic encounter, and I can't wait to watch it.

If you want a better write up on this game and the nature of this Rivalry,  I cannot recommend the Post-Gazette's Gene Collier's column in this morning's paper.  You can read it here.