What we learned from Steelers' gritty Week 11 win over the Ravens

I honestly did not believe I would be saying this after ten games of the 2024 season, but the Steelers are in first place in the AFC North Division after having beaten the Baltimore Ravens at home by a meager two points. The margin of victory does not matter but sometimes it does.

If you did not get a chance to watch the game, do yourself a favor and watch it, but watch it with the understanding that it was perhaps the worst offensive performance of the 2024 season. The defense looked 'shaky' as well, but we pulled it out at the end and that's all that matters.

With that in mind, let's see what we learned on the offensive side of the ball.

Steelers' offense has gone 'in reverse' following the Ravens game

Six field goals, that's it. That's the entirety of what the Steelers offense generated against the Ravens. I understand that AFC North games are generally low-scoring events because they are usually defensive battles, but it's not like the offense did not have chances to score at least one touchdown.

If you're a statistics person like I am, you'll love this. The Steelers had four chances from the red zone to score a touchdown and were denied, for one reason or another. The reality for me is very simple. If we didn't have Chris Boswell, a.k.a, the 'Wizard of Boz', as our kicker, we probably would be talking about a loss.

To further illustrate how seemingly ineffective the offense was against the Ravens, the only two significant areas the Steelers dominated, if you want to call it that, were the turnover margin and the time of possession.

To be clear, these are significant areas in which to dominate, but when you possess the ball for thirteen minutes and 'change' more than your opponent and you score zero touchdowns, something is not clicking on offense and Arthur Smith is to blame, in my opinion.

When Smith was hired, I was optimistic that he would resurrect the Erhardt-Perkins type of scheme we ran in the early 1990s which was essentially a ball-control scheme where you ran to set up the pass. That is not entirely what we seeing right now.

We are ranked nineteenth in total yards per game as of this discussion. While that is an improvement over where we were ranked in 2023, we are ranked twenty-eight in total passing yards per game. That's awful, plain and simple. To close the loop, we are ranked eight in total rushing yards per game.

I have said this numerous times and I will say it again, the 'old school' in me loves the fact that we can run the ball seemingly at will, but this is the modern NFL. This is a pass-first league. You have to have balance and right now, the Steelers offense is in a state of imbalance.

Let's see what we learned on the defensive side of the ball.

Pittsburgh's defense is playing at an elite level

I know I sound like a broken record. Almost every week, we talk about how the Steelers defense is playing at an elite level. That was again the case with the Ravens. Although we gave a shade under three-hundred and thirty yards, we held the high-scoring Ravens offense to sixteen points.

When I say high scoring, the Ravens offense is ranked second in points scored per game, as of this discussion. To put it into perspective, our offense is ranked fourteenth, slightly above middle-of-the-road territory. Frankly, I don't see the offense improving to the point where we could afford a less-than-stellar performance from the defense.

The Steelers defense managed to generate three turnovers and two sacks, which is no small feat considering who the opposing quarterback is, or as Mike Tomlin refers to him, 'Mr. Jackson'. One of those turnovers came courtesy of Payton Wilson, our 2024 third-round pick out of North Carolina State (NC State).

Arguably the defensive play of the year, Wilson single handly orchestrated what proved to be a game-winning INT, which led directly to another Boswell field goal late in the fourth quarter. As I have always said, football is the ultimate team sport and the Steelers defense is playing as a team.

Let's see what else we learned.

Steelers are a first-place team but they're not playing like one

To state the obvious, the Steelers are in first place in the AFC North. With a quick turnaround this week and a road game against the Cleveland Browns ahead of us, we could find ourselves on the other end of the spectrum, but that's a discussion for another time.

READ MORE: 3 eye-popping concerns as Steelers battle with Ravens for AFC North clout

Good teams find a way to win even when things aren't necessarily going as planned. I'm sure Tomlin and company did not plan on not being able to score at least one touchdown against the Ravens, but thankfully for us, we have 'Boz' and an elite defense.

While those two factors are wonderful, I don't know how sustainable our modus operandi is concerning the offense. At some point, we are going to need the offense to trade six field goals for six touchdowns, but I just don't see that happening as we sit here today.

What I do see happening is this: Tomlin will continue to lean on the defense to get us out of stadiums with the 'W' and that's all fine and dandy, as it were, but what if the defense simply has nothing left in the tank? What will Tomlin do at that point? For right now, that question need not be answered.