Baltimore Ravens outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy thought the Pittsburgh Steelers electing to receive the ball first in Saturday night’s game was disrespectful. He felt like it was a slap in the face, and wanted to punish the Steelers for it.
“The first thing I thought when it happened was desperate. … This is disrespectful,” Van Noy said on the McCoy & Van Noy podcast. “We were all kind of pissed off about that. … We stood on business. It was belt to ass. Their defense getting almost 300 yards rushing on them. I’d be pretty embarrassed if that happened to me.”
Van Noy is right, the Steelers certainly got embarrassed. The game was over in a blink of an eye, as the Ravens got out to a 14-0 lead and went into halftime with a 21-0 advantage. The final score was 28-14, but that really wasn’t a true indication of the game. The Ravens just coasted in the second half.
The Baltimore Ravens simply had their way with the Steelers. On the defensive side of the ball, the Steelers had no answer for the Ravens’ read-option attack with Lamar Jackson and Derrick Henry.
Midway through the third quarter, the Ravens had 242 yards rushing, which is the most rushing yards allowed by the Steelers in a postseason game. The previous high was 232 yards at Oakland in 1973. Baltimore finished with 299 yards rushing (6.0 average).
Henry broke the record with a 44-yard touchdown run up the middle to enhance Baltimore’s lead to 28-7 at the 5:49 mark of the third quarter.
Henry finished with 186 yards rushing and two touchdowns. He’s averaged a whopping 7.2 yards per carry. Henry’s 186 yards on the ground also set the all-time playoff rushing record against the Steelers. The previous record was 166, set by Curtis Martin in the 1996 Divisional Round game.
Jackson was also a handful for the Steelers, rushing for 81 yards on 15 carries (5.4 average).
The defense wasn’t the only issue, as the Steelers offense was abysmal in the final five games of the season. It was the first time since 1969 that the Steelers scored 17 points or less in five straight games.
Former NFL quarterback Alex Smith thinks there are serious philosophical questions surrounding the Steelers organization.
“They brought in Arthur Smith this offseason an offensive coordinator renowned for running game and the philosophy was going to be we’re gonna run the football and stop the run right. We plug in Russell Wilson who’s great at play action passing and can do something’s situationally and that’s gonna be our formula to win. You gave up (299) yards rushing and you ran the ball for 29 yards in the playoffs. There’s a total revaluation of where we’re at as a team going forward here. I know we’re getting into who’s playing QB for this team, but who’s playing D-Line or O-Line? I mean serious question marks,” Smith said on Sunday NFL Countdown.