Former Steelers pass rusher, James Harrison, was once known for being one of the best defenders in the league. However, his best work came against the Ravens.
James Harrison was a treat to watch in his prime. Though he didn’t start his first full NFL season until the age of 29, the Former All-Pro outside linebacker and Defensive Player of the Year was particularly good against one team: the Baltimore Ravens.
Ben Linsey of Pro Football Focus recently released an article about ‘NFL team-killers’, and James Harrison was named as the biggest ‘team-killer’ against the Ravens:
We took a look at the highest graded players against all 32 NFL teams since PFF began grading back in 2006.
— PFF PIT Steelers (@PFF_Steelers) June 14, 2019
Former #Steelers edge defender James Harrison dominated in his matchups with the #Ravens, coming in as their nemesis.
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James Harrison was a fantastic football player who earned 2 All-Pro honors and 5 consecutive Pro Bowl appearances from 2007-2011. However, his play rose to a particularly unnatural level when facing his most hated division Rival.
Harrison was astounding against the Ravens. In Linsey’s article, he had this to say about the Steelers pass rusher:
"No one got after Joe Flacco and the Ravens quite like Harrison over his career. He notched 453 pass-rushing snaps against the Ravens in the PFF era, which is roughly a season’s worth of work, and he turned those opportunities into a league-high 80 quarterback pressures and 20 sacks — nine more sacks than the next closest defender. Those pressures were often high-impact plays, as evidenced by Harrison’s 92.0 pass-rushing grade against Baltimore."
Harrison’s overall grade of 90.3 against the Ravens was out of this world. As Linsey mentioned, James Harrison played roughly a season’s worth of snaps against Baltimore throughout the course of his career and was fantastic in the process – earning 20 sacks and 80 pressures.
Even as recent as 2016 (at the age of 38), Harrison owned the Ravens offensive line with 2.0 sacks and a forced fumble against Baltimore in week 9 of the regular season.
James Harrison was certainly Joe Flacco’s kryptonite, and owned the Ravens offensive line in nearly ever match-up throughout his prolific career. Harrison would ultimately finish his career in Pittsburgh with 760 tackles, 80.5 sacks, 33 forced fumbles, and 7 interceptions.
Though he didn’t particularly leave the Steelers on good terms, Harrison will go down as one of the best pass rushers in a rich history of defensive players in Pittsburgh.
When it was all said and done, Harrison had a terrific career in Pittsburgh, and nobody quite owned the Baltimore Ravens quite like he did.