Steelers report card: Grading Pittsburgh’s win over the Ravens
By Tommy Jaggi
Offense: C+
Clearly, the offense performed much better in the second half than in the first, but I still need to give a collective grade for the performance. While the Steelers did score a respectable 28 points in this contest, it’s important to remember that 7 of those came on the defensive side of the ball, as Robert Spillane picked off a pass from Lamar Jackson and took it 33 yards to the house.
Despite a defense that created a whopping 4 takeaways, Pittsburgh’s offense was able to turn that into just 21 points all game long. As I mentioned earlier, the offense was non-existent in the first half, and the running game never caught on. James Conner managed just 47 yards on 15 carries, and the team managed exactly 3.0 yards per rush.
The passing game was equally impressive. Though the Steelers had a few key touchdown drives in the second half, Ben Roethlisberger completed just 21 of 32 passes for 182 yards and a dismal 5.7 yards per attempt.
What helped the Steelers is that they took much better care of the ball than the Ravens, as Ben threw for 2 touchdowns without throwing an interception. Chase Claypool had the only lost fumble of the afternoon for Pittsburgh. This offense was good enough to win, but they certainly didn’t win because of the offense.