PITTSBURGH — There’s a saying in the Ravens locker room that you aren’t really a Raven until you’ve beaten the Steelers, and if that’s true, a lot of players officially became Ravens today, perhaps none more unlikely than quarterback Anthony Brown.
The undrafted rookie from Oregon, who had been on the practice squad all season, was pressed into action when Tyler Huntley — who was starting for injured Lamar Jackson — left after being placed in the concussion protocol, and Brown calmly guided the Ravens (9-4) to a 16-14 win at Acrisure Stadium that was essentially sealed by what head coach John Harbaugh called one of the great drives in the history of the rivalry.
It was the Ravens first win in the past five games against their AFC North rivals, and as is often the case when these teams meet, it became a bruising war of attrition, with both teams losing their starting quarterbacks to the concussion protocols.
Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett went into the concussion protocol after getting slammed to the turf on a sack by Roquan Smith early in the first quarter, and though he briefly returned to the game, he left for good after one more series. His replacement, veteran Mitch Trubisky, threw three interceptions, including two with his team in the red zone.
Huntley, meanwhile, left the game midway through the third quarter after he was hammered by Minkah Fitzpatrick while trying to run for a first down on third-and-4. With Jackson already inactive because of a knee injury, on came Brown, a practice-squad elevation because of Jackson’s injury who was in uniform for the first time this entire regular season.
The Ravens took a 13-7 halftime lead on the strength of a 4-yard touchdown run by J.K. Dobbins and a pair of field goals from Justin Tucker that kicked him into the Ravens’ record book.
The Ravens were still ahead 13-7 when Calais Campbell blocked a Steelers 40-yard field-goal attempt early in the fourth quarter, and the Ravens then converted an epic 13-play drive into Tucker’s 30-yard field goal with 3:19 left for a 16-7 lead.
This being the 2022 Ravens, where no lead is too big to feel safe, the Steelers (5-8) zoomed down the field on a 75-yard touchdown drive in less than a minute, but they opted against an onside kickoff with 2:30 left, and the Ravens were able to kill the remainder of the clock.
Here are five quick impressions of the win for the Ravens, who play at Cleveland on Saturday, with TBA at quarterback:
1. In a series with a lot of unlikely heroes, Anthony Brown might be the most unlikely of all.
Backup quarterbacks have had their share of the limelight in this rivalry, with a backup starting 12 times in this series since 2009. Charlie Batch won for the Steelers, and Ryan Mallett stunned the Steelers and won for Baltimore. But Ravens quarterback Anthony Brown, a backup to the backup who had literally never worn his uniform in an NFL regular-season game, might have topped them all as he steered the Ravens to a 16-14 win.
Brown, an undrafted rookie from Oregon, had not played a snap for the Ravens since the preseason, plugging along in anonymity as the No. 3 quarterback on the practice squad. But with Lamar Jackson sidelined by a knee injury, Brown was in uniform at Acrisure Stadium, and suddenly he was on the field after Tyler Huntley went into the concussion protocol.
Not only was Brown called into action, but his first snap came with the Ravens backed up at their 1-yard line, with Steelers fans in full throat right behind him, after Marcus Williams intercepted a pass by Mitch Trubisky. Welcome to the NFL, kid.
Brown promptly dropped back in the end zone and calmly threw a 3-yard pass to Demarcus Robinson.
“That’s kind of how he is,” head coach John Harbaugh said. “His personality is that. He is kind of calm and cool and collected. Very much, very much a student of the game. Works very hard in terms of preparing himself.”
An 11-yard run by J.K. Dobbins then got Brown out of the shadow of his own goalpost.
“I’ve been hearing it my whole life from my father: Stay ready so you don’t have to get ready,” Brown said. “This was just a testimony to that … and making sure that I was ready whenever this moment came.”
Brown finished 3-for-5 passing for 16 yards, but most important, he played error free, unlike Steelers quarterback Mitch Trubisky, who threw three interceptions. Brown played with poise, operated the offense efficiently and engineered a dominating fourth-quarter drive that included a critical third-and-4 completion for 7 yards to Mark Andrews.
“When he came in, he controlled the huddle, he controlled the offense, he had us exactly where he wanted us,” tackle Ronnie Stanley said. “He did his job, and I couldn’t ask anything more of him.”
Harbaugh said he thought Huntley seemed OK after the game – “He’s reciting the months of the year backwards. Can you do that right now?” he asked with a smile — but will defer to medical professionals on Huntley’s availability for the Cleveland game. Jackson is likely out again, which means Brown could be in line to start at Cleveland in six days.
“Just being around Anthony, he has this confidence about him,” Stanley said. “The moment’s never too big.”
2. J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards showed the 1-2 punch the Ravens have lacked.
J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards were back on the field together for the first time all season, and they anchored a Ravens ground game that piled up 215 rushing yards. Dobbins, activated from injured reserve a day earlier, finished with 15 carries for 120 yards and a touchdown. He and Edwards (13-66) wore down the Steelers with a punishing, demoralizing fourth-quarter drive that Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said “will go down in history as one of the greatest drives in this rivalry.”
Leading 13-7, the Ravens took over at their own 30-yard line after Calais Campbell blocked a Steelers field-goal attempt, and they marched down the field on a scoring drive that sucked out more than half of the fourth quarter clock.
Dobbins and Edwards carried a combined total of nine times on a 13-play drive. Fullback Patrick Ricard also plowed forward for a key 2-yard gain on third-and-1, but the drive ran through Dobbins and Edwards and lasted almost eight minutes. After Dobbins was stopped on third-and-4 from the 13, Justin Tucker hit a 30-yard field goal that extended the Ravens lead to 16-7 with 3:19 left.
This was the kind of 1-2 punch the Ravens envisioned when the season began but had been missing with Dobbins never at 100 percent. After missing all of last season with a torn ACL, Dobbins returned in Week 3 this year, but scar tissue limited his range of motion and he was shut down after four games to have a cleanup procedure done.
Dobbins returned in this game and quickly re-established himself, gashing up the middle on a 44-yard run before being run out of bounds at the Steelers’ 4-yard line.
“On that long run I had, I’m still not in shape that I need to be in, because I would never have got caught,” Dobbins said. “I’m pretty upset about that, but it’s only going to keep getting better.”
Dobbins, though, slashed off right tackle for a 4-yard touchdown on the next play for a 10-0 Ravens lead late in the first quarter.
Playing without starting right guard Kevin Zeitler (knee) – who had not missed a snap all season – seldom-used Trystan Colon and Ben Cleveland filled in and helped the Ravens “impose our will,” tackle Ronnie Stanley said.
That was also true on the game’s final possession; a 6-yard run by Gus Edwards on third-and-3 had quarterback Anthony Brown lining up in the victory formation.
3. Score one for the inside linebackers.
Linebacker Patrick Queen has been frustrated by several near-interceptions that bounced off his hands, or off his chest, and had him spending extra time at the JUGS guns or catching balls at practice.
But in this game, with the Steelers driving deep into Ravens territory late in the first half, Queen soared to make a leaping interception of Steelers quarterback Mitch Trubisky on a pass intended for tight end Pat Freiermuth at the Ravens’ 8-yard line.
On the previous series, linebacker Roquan Smith had denied Trubisky in the red zone as well, picking off a pass intended for Freirmuth at the Ravens 10-yard line.
Smith, acquired by the Ravens at the trade deadline, wasted no time assimilating into the physical nature of this rivalry. He tossed Steelers starting quarterback Kenny Pickett to the turf with a first-quarter sack that sent Pickett into the blue medical tent and, later, out of the game. That sack, incidentally, came after Pickett had to evade Queen, who essentially steered Pickett right into the shot from Smith.
Indeed, these two have become quite the tandem since Smith was acquired in a midseason trade from the Chicago Bears — where Smith had been Trubisky’s teammate. Each totaled six tackles and an interception in this game.
To be sure, the Raven still have some issues to work through on defense, including the maddening ease in which opposing teams move the ball late in games. But early, Queen and Smith stepped up with game-changing plays, and the deadline acquisition of Smith continues to pay dividends.
“Never talk about Pat Queen’s hands again,” head coach John Harbaugh said. “He actually made that demand in the locker room afterward. That won’t be allowed in the future. Those were great interceptions by him and Roquan.”
4. The Ravens win special teams yet again.
The Ravens’ special teams always have an edge because they have Justin Tucker, the most accurate kicker in NFL history. And now he’s the most prolific in Ravens history as well. His first of three field goal kicks in this game broke Matt Stover’s franchise record for career points, and Tucker is now at 1,473 and counting.
But the Ravens won in other special-teams phases as well.
Rookie punter Jordan Stout outperformed his counterpart, Pressley Harvin III, who had a punt backspin like a sand-wedge shot that netted an abysmal 17 yards and set up the two-play, 48-yard touchdown drive that ended with J.K. Dobbins’ 4-yard scoring run. Harvin netted 27.3 yards on three punts, 14 yards less than Stout.
And the Ravens produced one of the biggest plays of the game when 6-foot-8 Calais Campbell got a big paw up and tipped a 40-yard field goal attempt by Steelers kicker Chris Boswell in the fourth quarter with the Ravens leading 13-7.
Campbell said special teams coordinator Chris Horton called an audible, at the last minute calling for a field-goal block alignment with Campbell lining up opposite the center, something they hadn’t practiced all year.
“We hadn’t worked on that since last year,” Campbell said. “It was a good call. He kicked the ball, I had a good chance to get up there and get it, got my left hand on it, and it was a good feeling.”
According to the Ravens, it is the ninth blocked field goal of Campbell’s career, second most in the league since the NFL-AFL merger in 1970.
“I think he’s a Hall of Fame player. He’s definitely a Hall of Fame field goal blocker,” head coach John Harbaugh said.
The Ravens had their onside kick “hands team” on the field for the Steelers’ final kickoff after the Ravens’ lead was cut to 16-14 with 2:30 left, but the Steelers, in a questionable decision, opted to kick deep and trust a defense that had not been able to stop the run. Justice Hill, taking over as the kickoff returner, fielded the deep kick cleanly and set up the Ravens for their final possession, which used the remainder of the clock.
5. This is a big win in the AFC North race.
With the win, the Ravens now are 3-0 in divisional games, and that divisional record could prove to be an important tiebreaker with Cincinnati later this year. If the teams tie for the division lead at the end of the season with a split in the season series, divisional record is the next tiebreaker.
The Bengals are 2-3 in the division after beating Cleveland, 23-10, this week. That means if the Ravens win at least one of their next two AFC North games — at Cleveland on Saturday, Dec. 17, and home against Pittsburgh on New Year’s Day — they are guaranteed to have a better record in the six divisional games than the Bengals, regardless of what happens in their season-ending matchup.
To be sure, the Bengals are not giving the Ravens much margin for error, as the Bengals (9-4) have won five in a row and seven of eight since the Ravens beat them, 19-17, in Week 5. The Bengals still have the tougher remaining schedule, with road games at Tampa Bay and New England and a home game with Buffalo before hosting the Ravens in the regular-season finale.
The Ravens face Cleveland then host Atlanta and Pittsburgh, and it’s anyone’s guess what the quarterback depth chart will look like for any of those games. But getting a third divisional win, on the road in Pittsburgh, could have major tiebreaker implications in a race that feels increasingly likely like it could come down to that.
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox