Steelers narrowly defeat the Ravens in an exciting back-and-forth contest

The Pittsburgh Steelers advanced to their seventh straight win of the 2020 season as they narrowly defeated the Baltimore Ravens on the road.

Who would have predicted the first seven games of the season going quite like this for the Steelers? Despite a 38-year-old quarterback returning from an elbow injury that caused him to miss all but two games in 2019, Ben Roethlisberger led his team to their seventh straight win to open the season – narrowly defeating the Baltimore Ravens in a 28-24 contest that came down to the wire.

The game kicked off with a bang, as now starting linebacker, Robert Spillane, picked off a pass from Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson and took it back 33 yards to the house to give the Steelers a 7-0 lead to start the game. However, it didn’t take long for the Ravens to respond. After an iffy late hit out of bounds call on Cameron Heyward, Baltimore marched down the field and scored a touchdown on a 6-yard pass to Myles Boykin.

The second quarter was one to forget for Pittsburgh fans, after the offense repetitively stalled, the Ravens scored 10 straight points against a gassed defense to own a 17-7 lead entering halftime.

Fortunately, the second half was a different offense for the Steelers. After rounding up just 22 passing yards in the first half, Roethlisberger and company got into a rhythm in the third quarter, as the Steelers scored 14 unanswered points to give Pittsburgh a 21-17 lead.

After the Ravens methodically marched down the field and capitalized for another touchdown, the Steelers answered back with a score of their own on a pass to Chase Claypool – going up 28-24 with 7:29 remaining in the game.

Eventually, the offense was able to chew some clock and the defense turned up big late in the game. The Ravens were given one more chance as they got the ball back with under a minute remaining. During the final play, Jackson tried to find a receiver for a score as time expired, but Minkah Fitzpatrick timed the play perfectly – deflecting the ball away as he collided with the receiver.

What we learned from Steelers win

Though it certainly wasn’t always pretty, the Steelers were able to hang on to win the game. What’s most encouraging was to see the turnaround on the offensive side of the ball. Though Pittsburgh scored just 7 points in the first half of the game, they were able to outscore the Ravens 21-7 in the second half. It’s encouraging to know that the Steelers have the capability of coming behind from double-digit points to win the game against a very good football team.

Unfortunately, this win didn’t come without a cost. Defensive linemen Tyson Alualu and Cameron Heyward both suffered injuries in this contest, and losing them for any amount of time could prove to be devastating to one of the league’s premier defenses.

Obviously, Steelers fans should be thrilled to pull off a win against their most heated division rival on the road, but we hope the Heyward and Alualu are going to be okay. Fortunately, they shouldn’t be needed against the league’s most banged-up team as they face the Dallas Cowboys in Week 9.