The Steelers may have beaten the Baltimore Ravens in Week 12, but here’s why it feels like Pittsburgh lost.
What a slop fest this was. Both the Steelers and the Ravens seemed like they couldn’t give the ball away fast enough to their opponent early in Wednesday afternoon’s Week 12 matchup. While Mike Tomlin’s team eventually came away with the win, Pittsburgh felt like real losers in a game that initially promised to be one of the most anticipated contests of the season (back when it was scheduled to be played on Thanksgiving night).
The Steelers held just a 12-7 lead going into the first half, and they would have been losing if not for poor clock management on the part of the Ravens (allowed time to expire just one yard away from a score). Eventually, Pittsburgh went on to seal the deal in a game that featured all defense for the Steelers and virtually no offense (at least not in the red zone).
However, the biggest concern after the win was the significant knee injury starting outside linebacker Bud Dupree suffered in the second half of the game. Here are my takeaways from the Steelers win over the Ravens:
Diontae Johnson is both good and bad
When Diontae Johnson is on his game, he is one of the most electrifying receivers in the NFL. In a blink, he can snatch the ball out of the air and cut on a dime. He has the ability to make defenders look silly on any given play and he knows how to move the chains with the ball in his hands. Unfortunately, we did not see that Diontae Johnson on Wednesday afternoon.
Against the Ravens, Johnson was awful. He had multiple drops in this contest – one of which could have helped Pittsburgh secure the win much earlier if he would have reeled in a perfectly thrown ball from Ben Roethlisberger. Johnson also had a fumble in this game that fortunately shot out of bounds.
While he may have caught 8 balls in this contest, he ultimately managed just 46 yards on 11 targets, and his impact on this game was negative overall. Johnson is incredibly inconsistent still, and it would be awful if he had a game like this in the playoffs.
Steelers red-zone execution was horrendous
I’m not sure what is going on with the Steelers and their pathetic excuse for a red zone offense. Pittsburgh seems to have no problem marching the ball down the field, but as soon as they get into 1st and goal situations, the offense seems to stall without fail.
On their second drive of the game, Pittsburgh had the ball at first at goal. What did they do with it? They ran a pitch play and threw twice to Eric Ebron – both times were well short of the end zone. As a result, Pittsburgh went for it on fourth down and Ben Roethlisberger threw an interception on a pass that looked like a terrible decision.
Later in the first half, the Steelers would have the ball inside the in a goal-to-go situation again, but like clockwork, they checked everything down underneath and came away with just three points. Pittsburgh caught a break when the Ravens displayed some horrible clock management in the red zone right before the first half, but this is an area that is thoroughly concerning for the Steelers. If they don’t improve on their ability to capitalize, I can’t see them getting past the Kansas City Chiefs in the playoffs.
Ben Roethlisberger really struggled
This was not Big Ben’s best game of 2020. In fact, it’s towards the very bottom of his performances this year. On 51 pass attempts, Roethlisberger managed just 266 passing yards for a dismal 5.2 yards per carry. He’s trusting nothing he sees down the field and even when he checked the ball down underneath, many of his passes were behind his receiver or just off the mark.
When Ben did take the time to scan the field, he looked fidgety in the pocket and almost no good plays came from it. Roethlisberger had several interceptable passes in this game and his dagger to James Washington late in the fourth quarter was more of a great catch by the wide receiver than anything else.
In 2020, Roethlisberger has been doing enough to get by. He has taken care of the football, for the most part, and has done a good job of spreading the ball out to his receivers. However, we had hoped that he would continue to shake more rust off as the season goes on. That hasn’t turned out to be the case. Though the Ravens were decimated with injuries, Ben just couldn’t find a rhythm through the air. If this doesn’t improve, Pittsburgh will have no chance against Kansas City in the playoffs, assuming they find each other in the AFC Championship game.
Bud Dupree’s knee injury could really hurt Steelers Super Bowl chances
It’s not often that we can say that losing a single defensive player could really hurt a team’s Super Bowl chances, but this is likely the case with Bud Dupree. Dupree went down with a non-contact knee injury late in the second half as fans held their breath. Mike Garafolo of NFL Network reports that the initial diagnosis is a torn ACL for the Steelers outside linebacker.
This is devastating news for a team who knows they can rely on their defense week in and week out. Inside linebacker Devin Bush also went down with an ACL tear earlier this season, and with the Steelers losing their second athletic defensive playmaker for the season, it could really have an impact on this team down the stretch.
Rookie Alex Highsmith has played well this season, but he is no Bud Dupree at this point. The former first-round pick from Kentucky was having the best season of his NFL career, as he 8.0 sacks in his first 10 games. It’s a shame that this had to happen to him late in the season – especially in a contract year. Let’s hope the Steelers will be okay without him in the playoffs.
After all the chaos this week, we are just glad this game is finally over. However, advancing to 11-0 hardly feels like a win when the Steelers squeaked by the league’s most decimated roster and lost one of their best defenders in the process. Let’s hope that they can bounce back from this.