Steelers report card: Grading Pittsburgh’s win over the Ravens

Coaching: B+

This was a tough grade to assign, and I feel like I could have handed out a different grade for each coach at each point of the game. Collectively, I decided to go with a B+.

Like most Steelers fans I saw ranting on social media, I was not a fan of Randy Fichtner’s first-half playcalling. Pittsburgh had no success running the football against the stacked boxes on the Ravens defense, and they repeatedly got themselves into obvious passing situations on third down – ultimately converting just 3 of 9 third downs to keep the chains moving.

However, I did think that Fichtner called a much better second half (whether this was him mixing things up or just allowing Roethlisberger to take the reigns, I don’t know). In the third and fourth quarters, the Steelers had much better success when they went to five-wides and started passing on the Ravens. they also drew some big pass interference calls down the field.

Defensively, I thought Keith Butler called a solid game. T.J. Watt and Dupree constantly tracked down Lamar Jackson as they trusted the middle of their defense to hold up against the run in the RPO. While the team gave up a lot of rushing yards, it only translated to 24 offensive points for the Ravens.

As always, Tomlin impressed with his ability to rally his troops in the second half and come from a 10-point deficit to defeat a challenging opponent on the road.

Overall, it wasn’t Pittsburgh’s best collective performance, but it’s good to know they can still close out games against great competition when things aren’t going according to plan. That may have been the toughest opponent they will face all year.