BALTIMORE — Marlon Humphrey ran down the left sideline, ball in hand, looking back at Pittsburgh Steelers receiver Calvin Austin, who pursued Humphrey in vain. With his 37-yard touchdown return, Humphrey essentially delivered the Ravens a playoff berth and vanquished several years of frustration as the Ravens rolled past the Steelers, 34-17, at M&T Bank Stadium on Dec. 21.
With the win, the Ravens (10-5) clinched a spot in the postseason and drew into a tie for first place atop the AFC North with the Steelers (10-5) with two games left.
It marks just the second win for the Ravens in the past 10 games in the series and is the first game in that span decided by more than one score.
The Ravens took the lead for good at 24-17 when Lamar Jackson threw his third touchdown pass of the day, this one to Mark Andrews, late in the third quarter. That score came after the Steelers had erased a 10-point Ravens lead.
With the Ravens driving with the lead on their next possession, Jackson threw an interception at the Steelers’ 8-yard line, which seemed to open the door for another Steelers rally.
But the Ravens’ defense made sure Jackson’s first interception in four games didn’t become costly.
Two plays later, Ravens linebacker David Ojabo pressured Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson, whose pass intended for MyCole Pruitt instead sailed into the arms of Humphrey, who had an open lane down the left sideline for the first pick-six of his career.
“Shoutout to ‘Marlo’ and the defense,” Jackson said, “because those guys [played] lights-out all game.”
The Steelers were playing without top wide receiver George Pickens (hamstring), but Wilson led a couple of impressive scoring drives and finished 22-for-33 for 217 yards and two touchdowns.
Wilson, though, also had the game’s two biggest turnovers.
With the game tied at seven and the Steelers threatening to take their first lead, Wilson scrambled, found an opening and raced 19 yards toward the end zone. Ravens safety Ar’Darius Washington upended Wilson, who lost the ball, and Kyle Van Noy recovered at the Ravens’ 4-yard line.
The Ravens proceeded to march 96 yards in eight plays, and Jackson’s 14-yard touchdown pass to Rashod Bateman gave the Ravens a 14-7 lead midway through the second quarter.
The Ravens led 17-10 at halftime, but Wilson’s 12-yard pass to Cordarrelle Patterson tied the game with 5:14 left in the third quarter.
The Ravens answered on their next drive, as Jackson carved up the Steelers on a quick 60-yard drive that ended with a 7-yard touchdown pass to Andrews.
That touchdown — the first of Andrews’ career against Pittsburgh in 11 games — was also the 37th of the season for Jackson, which broke the Ravens’ single-season record set by Jackson in 2019.
Here are five quick observation of the win, the Ravens’ second of three games in an 11-day span; they visit Houston on Christmas Day:
1. Marlon Humphrey has been a playmaker all season.
Earlier in the year, Marlon Humphrey sounded personally offended to see the Ravens’ pass defense ranked among the worst in the league. He pointed fingers squarely at himself and his teammates rather than at rookie defensive coordinator Zach Orr, and said the players needed to hold one another accountable.
Humphrey’s leadership has been on display all season, and so has his big-play ability.
At Tampa Bay in Week 7, the Ravens were trailing 10-7 and looking flat-footed against Baker Mayfield and the Buccaneers. Then Humphrey made an end-zone interception that turned the momentum of the game.
The Ravens scored the next 27 points and rolled to a 41-31 win.
Three weeks later, the Ravens trailed Cincinnati 21-7 at M&T Bank Stadium. They had given up a 67-yard touchdown pass and had been forced to punt. The Bengals were threatening to run away with the game. Then Humphrey forced a fumble that was recovered by Roquan Smith at the Bengals’ 31-yard line.
Five plays later, Derrick Henry scored, and the Ravens rallied to win 35-34. Afterward, several players credited Humphrey with making the play that changed the tenor of the game.
Then in this game, he delivered maybe his biggest play of all. It is the third touchdown of his career, with the other two coming on fumble returns in 2019. It capped a monumental week for Humphrey, who also welcomed a new baby this week.
After the game, Humphrey, now in his eighth season with the team, said he “bleeds purple and black” and said he’s grateful to have his pick-six in “the archives” of the Ravens-Steelers rivalry.
2. Lamar Jackson exorcised some demons with this win.
Ever the competitor, Jackson was still fuming after the game about his third-quarter interception, just the fourth he has thrown all season. But that was one of few mistakes he made in what was easily his best career performance against the Ravens’ most bitter rival.
Entering this game, Jackson had been just 1-4 as a starter against the Steelers, and his passer rating against them (66.7) was easily the lowest against any opponent. More often than not in the past, Jackson had looked rattled by Steelers’ pressure and struggled to get in much rhythm against them. Even in that lone win, he had thrown three interceptions.
In this game, though, Jackson finished 15-for-23 for 207 yards and three touchdowns, with a passer rating of 115.4. After starting 2-for-6, he went 13-for-17 the rest of the way, including some perfectly placed passes. None was better than a 49-yard pass dropped into the hands of a closely guarded Zay Flowers down the right sideline.
Jackson also made a perfect throw to Rashod Bateman on a 14-yard toe-drag touchdown — the third touchdown in two games and fifth in six games for Bateman — and he went 4-for-4 on the drive that ended with his go-ahead touchdown pass to Mark Andrews.
Jackson was sacked on the Ravens’ opening series, but not again. All-Pro T.J. Watt was no factor, and the Steelers recorded no quarterback hits.
This was an important win for many reasons, but maybe most important for Jackson’s ability to prove that he could do it. These teams could meet again in the postseason, and now Jackson has this performance to guide him.
“I thought Lamar was fantastic,” head coach John Harbaugh said, noting that Jackson was “dotting people on the run in man coverage. … This group rushes the passer always. They’re going to give you pressure. He stood in there and made some throws. He always does.”
3. Derrick Henry and the Ravens’ ground game set the tone.
In the first meeting between these teams this year, an early fumble by Derrick Henry proved costly as the Steelers slogged out an 18-16 win. Henry finished that game with 65 yards on 13 carries. This time, he topped that by halftime.
Playing in freezing, windy December weather, the Ravens leaned hard on their bell-cow back and he delivered, with 24 carries for 162 yards. Henry totaled 20 yards on the Ravens’ first two offensive plays, and on their second drive, he carried on the first five plays, totaling 32 yards. Then on the sixth play, Lamar Jackson faked a pitch to Henry, then found Isaiah Likely all alone on the right sideline for a 9-yard touchdown.
Henry finished the first half with 13 carries for 75 yards, then had 11 carries for 87, including a 44-yarder, in the second half. During the fourth quarter, Henry carried on eight of 12 plays before three final kneel-downs by Jackson.
Credit should also go to the offensive line, which produced the most dominant effort by the Ravens up front in this series in quite some time. Led by Henry, the Ravens piled up 220 rushing yards on 38 carries, an average of 5.8 per touch. And after a first-drive sack, Jackson wasn’t sacked or hit at all when back to pass.
“Our offensive line played really great tonight,” head coach John Harbaugh said. “I thought our coaches did a great job scheming up the run game.”
Harbaugh then nodded toward Henry, awaiting his turn at the news conference, and said, “the best in the business right there.”
The one blemish in this game was that running back Justice Hill suffered a concussion after he landed hard on his head at the end of a 25-yard run. After the game, Harbaugh didn’t sound optimistic that Hill would be available to play at Houston in four days.
Still, Henry, who topped 1,600 yards for the season in this game, showed exactly the kind of workhorse effort that plays well in December and January.
4. The Ravens’ safeties deliver yet again.
Moving Kyle Hamilton away from the slot and back to a traditional safety spot has been the considered the key to the Ravens’ significant defensive improvement of the past month. But the other move at that time was to insert Ar’Darius Washington into the starting lineup in place of high-priced, low-return Marcus Williams, and the Hamilton-Washington safety duo stepped up yet again against the Steelers.
Hamilton, as usual, was everywhere. Even after lining up deep, he is so good at diagnosing the play that he will attack a hole and make a solid, fundamental tackle, as he did on Jaylen Warren on the first play of the second half. He can also quickly cover ground laterally and deliver a shot on the sideline.
Hamilton came through with one of the game’s big defensive plays early in the fourth quarter. With the Steelers trailing 24-17, they played for the first down on fourth-and-6 from the Ravens’ 45. Russell Wilson threw a deep pass down the middle intended for Calvin Austin III, but Hamilton arrived just as the ball did to break up the play.
Washington, meanwhile, finished with four tackles and recorded one of the biggest hits of the day when he upended Wilson and forced him to fumble at the Ravens’ 4-yard line. The Ravens recovered and started a 96-yard scoring drive.
Humphrey, among others, says he isn’t surprised to see Washington, who was originally undrafted, excelling the way he has.
“I think ‘A.D.’ has had one of the hardest roles,” Humphrey said, noting that Washington has been a perennial roster-bubble player throughout his four-year career. “Ask anyone around here who’s had the best camp, every year, it’s probably A.D. … We’ve all seen the work that he’s put in.”
It took more than half the season, and for the Ravens to swallow their pride and sit Williams, but it’s clear that everything about the Ravens’ defense looks more settled and more consistent with Hamilton and Washington as the dynamic duo in the back.
5. The Ravens stay alive for the AFC North title but still need help.
With the win, the Ravens stay alive in the race for the AFC North title, but the Steelers, who would have clinched the division with a win, still hold the upper hand.
The Steelers finish with home games against Kansas City and Cincinnati; the Ravens play at Houston and then host Cleveland.
If the Ravens and Steelers each win out, they will both finish 12-5 with a series split. The next tiebreaker is record within the AFC North, but if both win out, they will both be 4-2 in the AFC North. The next tiebreaker is overall record against common opponents. The Steelers would be 10-4 in such games, with the Ravens 9-5.
So just winning the next two games won’t be enough for the Ravens if the Steelers do the same.
But the Ravens do know they are in the postseason again, for the sixth time in Lamar Jackson’s seven seasons.
Linebacker Kyle Van Noy, who hit the double-digit sack mark for the first time in his career in this game, said making the postseason is “a blessing. I don’t take it lightly. But we have so much more to do. Winning 10 games got us in the playoffs, but it doesn’t really mean anything.”
Photo Credit: Kenya Allen/PressBox