Marlon Humphrey Punches The Ravens To A Massive OT Victory

What. A. Win. It wasn’t pretty by any means but it was exactly what the doctor ordered. An ugly, gritty, stick it out type of win with a big time player making a big time play.

The offense was disjointed. The defense, while better than the previous two weeks, had some lapses against a 3rd-string QB after Mason Rudolph got literally knocked out of the game (sheesh that was scary, hope he’s ok). But the boys gutted it out thanks to Marlon Humphrey making a helluva play on the football.

The officiating made the game borderline unwatchable. It was flag after flag after flag out there, Walt Anderson and his crew should be embarrassed. I’ll say that the bad calls went both ways, with a clear and obvious pass interference resulting in an INT for the Steelers deep in our territory, and a brutal roughing the passer call benefitting the Ravens on the drive to tie the game being the biggest flags. But in general that type of officiating is just bad for the league. Like I said, really tough to watch and completely killed the rhythm of the game.

All of that said, this is the kind of win you don’t apologize for. Beating your most bitter rival in their building is never easy and that proved to be true today. The Ravens caught some bad breaks and battled through it. It very easily could’ve gone the other way, but Lamar digged deep and drove the offense down the field to get the game into OT, and Marlon did his part to put us in position to win.

And of course, this blog wouldn’t be complete without a tribute to the GOAT. Justin Tucker is so nails and it’s so easy to take him for granted. Guy can kick field goals in his sleep and Heinz Field is notorious for eating kickers alive. The fact that he’s 25 of 26 in his career there is absurd and neither of those clutch kicks today were chippies. The game-winner was as nerve wracking a kick as I’ve seen from JT with it looking like it was missed left, but it faded just inside the upright. Truly a microcosm of today’s game. It planted some seeds of doubt, but ultimately got the job done.

Win puts us at 3-2 and gets the bitter taste of last week’s loss out of our mouths. This was probably one that we thought would be tough to win when the season began, and it was never going to be easy even after the injuries the Steelers suffered. Hard to imagine they can put a season together at this point at 1-4, and who knows what Rudolph’s status will be moving forward. I won’t say that we buried the 2019 Steelers today, but they’re pretty damn close to being dead. We gotta focus on bearing down and taking care of business against Cincinnati at home next week. Let’s keep the momentum going and get better and better each week.

Banks follow up note: A previous version of this blog stated that Justin Tucker is 24 of 25 on field goals at Heinz Field. He is actually 25 of 26. Even better than I originally stated. GOAT.