The Ravens Bully Their Way To A MASSIVE Win In Pittsburgh Despite Being Down 2 QB's

Archie Carpenter. Shutterstock Images.

LET'S GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What an absolute bully ball effort by the boys in Pittsburgh today. Lamar Jackson or not, we know it's always going to be a scrappy one in this rivalry. It became an uphill effort when Lamar went down last week and was declared out for sure. I mean who could have imagined we would have been dogs going into this game with the way these teams' seasons have gone, yet there we were. That hill got steeper when Tyler Huntley got trainwrecked in the 3rd quarter and Anthony Brown, a rookie who has hardly even dressed for an NFL game let alone taken a snap, had to jump into the fray backed against his own 1 yard line holding a 1-score lead. But the boys dug deep and were able to get it to the finish line thanks to a big boy 4th quarter drive that I'll be talking about for a long time.

It was all about the middle of the field today. On both sides of the ball, that's where the game was won. The Ravens shoved it right down the Steelers throats for the majority of this game. JK Dobbins came back from a 7 week hiatus and looked as good as ever. 15 carries for 120 and a tuddy, which was their only punch of the game. JK busted a big one early in the 2nd quarter and punched it in on the next play.

Bigger than all was the MONSTER drive I mentioned earlier. After a monster blocked FG by Calais Campbell (who else?), the Ravens took over on their own 30 with a 6 point lead and 11:14 left. The mission? Get that clock to 0:00 by all means necessary.

Sure enough, the Ravens run game took over.

JK for 5, JK for 4, Ricard for 2. FIRST DOWN.

Incomplete to Duv (stupid play), D-Rob for 6, Andrews for 7. FIRST DOWN.

JK FOR 14. FIRST DOWN AND FIELD GOAL RANGE.

JK for 6, the Gus Bus for 7. FIRST DOWN.

From there the Ravens were eventually stopped and took the field goal but the damage was done. 13 plays, 55 yards, and 7:55 chewed off the clock to make it a 2-score game with 3:19 left. An absolute clock buffet to basically win the game. Yes, things got a bit hairy there towards the end and the offense had to come out and bully their way to another game-winning first down, but that drive is what won this football game.

On the other side of the ball, the defense came up huge in some big spots today. They knocked out Kenny Pickett in the early going and Mitch Trubisky was forced to come in, but no tears for Pittsburgh there. Vegas wasn't moving the line regardless of which guy was in. Mitch threw himself some dimes out there. Dropped a bunch of balls in the bucket deep down the left sideline and moved the ball relatively consistently. But when he challenged the Birds down the middle of the field, he paid dearly. PQ and Roquan Smith each came up with gigantic picks deep in our own territory to keep Pittsburgh off the board

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Hell, even Marcus Williams got in the mix when Mitch threw up a prayer

All huge plays that took an otherwise mediocre day defensively and made it great. There's been plenty of days when the opposite has been true. But they stopped the run, they made the big takeaways, and they held on at the end.

The Ravens are in survival mode right now. Just when some key guys like Dobbins and Stanley and Williams are getting back on the field, the QB position is completely in flux down the stretch for the second year in a row. Last year we were able to compete on a weekly basis, but failed to make key plays and close out games down the stretch. Today we did, despite only managing 94 yards through the air. That's not sustainable long-term, but it can do the job in the short term when you run the football and play good defense in special teams. They did that today.

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9-4 and still on top of the division. Time to hold our breath and see if Lamar can get back out there (I doubt it for a couple more weeks) and see how Huntley is holding up.

PS: shoutout to JT for 1.) doing his job as per usual, 26 straight kicks made in that stadium is insane and 2.) becoming the all-time Ravens points leader. All due respect to the greatness that is Matt Stover, that record is in the correct hands now.

Let's go beat the Browns.