PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Don’t take anything away from the win on Saturday. Forget the post-season for a minute, the Steelers are proud of how they played against their rival in a 17-10 road win to end the regular season.
Yes, there were key played who rested for the Ravens. No one more so that the odds-on NFL MVP Lamar Jackson, but as Baltimore players and coaches said all week, they wanted and tried to win. The Steelers imposed their will on the lines, rushing for 155 yards in the swamp.
“We didn’t really care about who was out there or how long they were going to play,” said Steelers tailback Najee Harris who rushed for 112 yards. “We wanted to play so physical that if they did play their ones, we wanted Harbaugh to say we got to get them out of there because of how physical we are playing. I think we did that today.”
“We are just all straining more,” said tight end Connor Heyward. “We want it more than the teams we are playing. It’s going to come to that every game. Sometimes it’s about the ‘x’s’ and ‘o’s’, but this game was about who wanted it and who won the line of scrimmage and made the splash plays.”
Mason Rudolph’s splash play to Diontae Johnson gave the Steelers the lead early in the fourth quarter and they never looked back.
“It’s AFC North football, a great rival,” Johnson said. “Great defense on that side of the ball. You can’t take them lightly, never. It was a big win, to get these two wins this year (against Baltimore). We won on the line of scrimmage and came out with a ‘W’.”
Rudolph ran it right back to the men who protect him and got that run game going.
“Proud how we ran the ball up front,” Rudolph said. “We controlled the line of scrimmage pretty darn well and we knew we would have to ride the wave of our offensive line and they paved the way for us.”
It wasn’t just the offense, granted with a back-up quarterback, the Steelers held the Ravens to one touchdown, only four, third-down conversions and 224 total yards.
“When you get in those situations you got to be the man or watch him work,” said corner Joey Porter, Junior. “I felt like everyone wanted to be the man today. Still within the framework of the defense, nobody is trying to do their own thing. When you have that, you have a great defense.”
That continued even when the defense lost its best player, TJ Watt, to a knee injury with 4:14 to play in the third quarter and the game tied. Watt had eight tackles in the first 40 minutes, yet guys who weren’t on NFL rosters just weeks ago, took advantage of opportunities.
“TJ went down in the fourth and guys stepped up,” said defensive captain Cam Heyward. “A guy like (safety) Eric Rowe, I don’t know how he wasn’t on a damn team. That man has just balled out and we needed every big of it. Mark Robinson getting a sack. It was a multitude of guys.”
“I felt like whatever went wrong, we had an answer for it.”
Rowe finished with a team-high 12 tackles. Markus Golden a sack, Miles Killebrew, a reserve safety, had four tackles, Myles Jack had three tackles.
“It’s huge,” said linebacker Alex Highsmith. “It’s the biggest rivalry in the NFL. It’s AFC North ball. To be able to cap that off at the end of the season to finish 5-1 in the division was huge, was huge for us.”
Regardless of getting in the playoffs, the Steelers were proud of a pair of wins against their biggest rival and five in the division this year.
Forget what could have been for a minute, this team finished strong and hopes for more ball ahead.