It was one of the highlights of their season, but the Baltimore Ravens didn’t treat it that way.
Needing 2 yards for two touchdowns late in the fourth quarter against first-place Pittsburgh, the Ravens kept star running back Derrick Henry on the sideline and then went short.
The Steelers took over, took the final 1:06 and earned an 18-16 home win on Nov. 17 that left Baltimore 1.5 games behind them in the AFC North.
Many questions remained from the two-point loss, but the biggest of them all was the obvious one: Why wasn’t Henry on the field with the game on the line.
No one from the Ravens has offered a meaningful answer, but Baltimore’s decision to sideline Henry has consolidated a dynamic that has plagued the team over the past few seasons.
The crows seem afraid of how beautiful he can be.
He has Henry, a two-time rushing champion, and Lamar Jackson, a two-time MVP, leading Pittsburgh’s championship-leading 31.8 points per game. So why was only one of them on the field for the big play of the game?
Isn’t this why you signed Henry in March? For times like these? The guy averages 6 yards a carry and only needs to gain a third of that to tie a game against a team that is one away from first place.
Put him on the field!
You don’t have to give Henry the ball—I agree that doing so might be a little obvious—but at least get the Steelers thinking.
Baltimore didn’t, and instead of worrying about stopping Henry or Jackson, Pittsburgh knew the game was in the latter’s hands. The Steelers duly sent home and forced a stalemate on a poor play that looked lost from the start.
I’m not saying the Ravens would have converted a two-point attempt with Henry on the field, but you have to think that any play they ran would have been much stronger.
How could it be so? Getting your running back and quarterback to power you is sure to keep a defense—even one as tough as Pittsburgh’s—at bay.
It’s almost as if Baltimore chose to make the season harder than it needed to be. And that’s not really new.
The Steelers deserve credit, yes, but Sunday’s game was another instance where the Ravens did too much to beat themselves up. This time there were 12 penalties, three turnovers and two missed kicks over a questionable call on a two-point attempt.
In fact, that’s how most of Baltimore’s losses have played out in recent seasons. Timely mistakes and inexplicable passes turn a winnable game into an unforgivable loss.
Last Sunday’s game was different in that it didn’t take the lead in the fourth quarter. The Ravens have plenty of those losses, including two this season. Baltimore blew a 10-point lead at home in Las Vegas in Week 2 and couldn’t hold a one-point lead in the final 2:36 at Cleveland in Week 8.
And there could be more. The Ravens nearly blew a 22-point deficit to Dallas in Week 3 and allowed Tampa Bay to score two points in the final 3:46 of a 41-31 road win in Week 7.
In those situations, it’s almost as if Baltimore finds itself boring and loose just to make things interesting, only to occasionally explode at the end. Neither team has done much of late—the Ravens have lost a league-high 10 games over the past four seasons after leading by at least seven points in the fourth quarter.
It should be especially frustrating for Baltimore fans considering the Ravens rarely get beat.
Baltimore’s last loss by more than eight points came in Week 18 of 2022, a 27-16 loss at Cincinnati that Jackson missed with a knee injury. Since Jackson started, the Ravens haven’t lost more than eight games since Nov. 10. 2021.
It’s like Baltimore doesn’t have a killer instinct. The Ravens have perhaps the deepest roster in the league and can’t dominate, yet they can’t stop dipping their toe.
Whether it’s being too quick in the game or—as was the case Sunday—not using their weapons when they should have, Baltimore has called it too many times.
Chasing their first Super Bowl title in 12 years, the Ravens don’t need to look to Kansas City, Pittsburgh, Buffalo or Detroit to find out who their biggest threat is.
All they have to do is look at themselves in the mirror.
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