The Ravens suffered a painful and avoidable defeat to the Pittsburgh Steelers, 17-10. Below are the reactions from the Baltimore Beatdown staff.
Dominant win vs. an AFC North foe followed up with an utter collapse and embarrassing loss the next week. How did they lose?
They started off strong with an excellent touchdown drive and began to head down for another score until a running back fumbled the ball and it’s recovered by the opponent. Then, the offense never found their stride again and let their opponent hang around until the upset occurred. No, I’m not talking about the Indianapolis Colts game.
This was a bizarre game with more failures in execution, though.
Tyler Linderbaum snapping the ball on fourth and two, which turned an easy run the clock and field goal into a turnover on downs to end the half.
Yet another special teams lapse with a blocked punt that turned into a safety that was arguably a defensive touchdown, too. Follow that with a free punt on the safety the coverage team allowed to the 45-yard line that punter Jordan Stout had to make the tackle on.
Receivers aplenty dropped on-target throws from Lamar Jackson, with two in the end zone and more all over the field.
Then, when Jackson throws an errant ball to wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. in the end zone, he can’t get a bail out and it turns into an interception moments after gaining all momentum and with an opportunity to put the Steelers down for good. Alas, the Steelers drive down the field and wide receiver George Pickens bests Marlon Humphrey for a 41-yard touchdown.
Just a collapse that was completely avoidable from the top down. — Kyle Barber
Even though football is a four-quarter game, the Ravens had several opportunities to bury the Steelers and put the game away in the first half. However, several bad drops, yet another lost fumble on a promising early drive, and a questionable decision that cost them points just before halftime allowed their clearly outmatched AFC North rivals to hang around and ultimately prevail.
The incredibly uncharacteristic performance by the pass catchers let down Lamar Jackson long before his ugly late turnovers. This team should’ve won by 20-plus points for the second week in a row but they flawlessly executed one of the best choke jobs in the history of this storied rivalry.
The defense played lights out for all but two drives but the Ravens inability to sustain drives and put the game away on offense gave the Steelers anemic offensive unit enough rolls of the dice that they eventually hit a jackpot play. This will go down as one of the worst losses in recent memory and hopefully it will serve as a painful learning experience that propels this team to greater heights where they consistently play more complementary football moving forward. — Josh Reed
It is hard to gather the appropriate words to put into perspective how preposterous, yet somehow predictable a loss like this is. Just as they did against the Colts a few weeks ago, the Ravens could not get out of their own way against the Steelers.
An astounding number of drops, several of which would have been touchdowns, a massive communication blunder that led to a turnover on downs, and a special teams’ disaster resulting in a safety cost Baltimore what should have been an easy victory with how quarterback Lamar Jackson and the defense was playing for the majority of the contest.
Games in this rivalry almost never come easy but this one falls squarely on the Ravens shooting themselves in the foot over and over again — a recurring theme from recent years. This game is not a harbinger of doom for the rest of the season, but it is indicative of larger issues that has plagued this team for years and prevented them from joining the upper echelon of the AFC contenders.
Coaching and execution both deserve heavy scrutiny following this abhorrent performance. — Dustin Cox
Out of all of the excruciating, inexplicable Ravens losses over the year, this one might just take the cake.
In a game that could have easily been put away at halftime, the Ravens did their very best to keep the Steelers in the game with dropped passes, turnovers, and poor coaching. The Ravens looked like they were on their way to a rout in the first quarter, easily out gaining a Pittsburgh offense that couldn’t move the ball today. However, games aren’t won on the stat sheet and today proved that. While there were multiple mistakes by the team, the dropped passes by the receivers are the most unacceptable. Even just one of the completions would have changed the outcome of the game. Unfortunately, they didn’t.
The Ravens will have a lot to think about on their way to London this week. — Stephen Bopst
The Ravens again squandered numerous opportunities to put a game away and ultimately couldn’t overcome their own mistakes. This one is especially more damaging given they could have improved to 3-0 in the division and taken a commanding AFC North advantage. Between dropped passes, costly turnovers, and questionable coaching decisions, the Ravens left at least three possessions worth of points on the board. Their ability to beat themselves is both discouraging and very frustrating. — Frank Platko
Disrespectful. That’s the word to describe a large portion of the Ravens offensive players today. A list including Rashod Bateman, Zay Flowers, Mark Andrews, and Ronnie Stanley. Disrespectful to their offensive coordinator who called for them to have moments to shine. Disrespectful to their head coach who never calls out his players in front of the media. Disrespectful to their defense who dominated the Steelers a majority of the game. And most of all, disrespectful to their quarterback, who looks bad for late game turnovers that shouldn’t have happened because they should have been up by 20 points by the 4th quarter.
It was a pitiful perform today. I’m not slow to call out Harbaugh for bad performances. But today is about the players failing. Flat out failing. It will be a long quiet flight to London tomorrow. They need a bounce back performance against the Titans in the worst way. — Zach Canter
