Steelers OLB James Harrison was the Ravens killer

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:

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.