BALTIMORE — It had been more than a month since the Baltimore Ravens won a football game, so Sunday’s scrappy 21-14 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers felt a little like a season-saver.
“Forgive me if I smile a little more,” coach John Harbaugh said with a chuckle. “I had an official down on the sideline at the end of the game say it was the first time he had seen me smile in a couple years. The officials … we have a rocky relationship.”
“We haven’t won since, what, September?” linebacker Terrell Suggs said. “It’s good to finally get one and get back in the winning column, especially against a division rival. It’s good to win, we just need to do a tremendous amount of work, a tremendous amount of work. You know, it’s good to win, but we ain’t satisfied.”
It wasn’t particularly pretty, as both teams struggled to move the ball in the first half and into the second before the Ravens were able to jump out to a 21-0 lead in the fourth quarter.
With a stingy defense holding Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers offense in check, the Ravens looked like they would win going away after running back Javorius Allen blocked punter Jordan Berry’s kick.
Receiver Chris Moore, playing on special teams, scooped up the punt deep in Steelers’ territory for the easy and eventually game-clinching score.
“It was a great block if you ask me,” Allen said. “Before that punt even got blocked, I told [special teams coordinator] Jerry Rosburg, ’he keeps leaving me. Before the snap, he just runs outside and that’s my man.’ He said, ’OK, we’re going to handle it.’ I knew I could get a block on him.”
“To see [Allen] have that kind of impact on the game in special teams speaks volumes for who he is and for how important it is to commit yourself to whatever way you can contribute to the football team,” Harbaugh said.
The Ravens’ other big play came at the end of the first quarter. Quarterback Joe Flacco, from his own 5-yard line, found veteran wide receiver Mike Wallace on an inside route. Wallace beat rookie cornerback Artie Burns, catching the ball on the 12 and sprinting for the remaining 88 yards into the end zone. That 95-yard score set a Ravens franchise record for the longest play from scrimmage.
“He was just pressing man to man,” Wallace said of Burns’ coverage. “If you press me, you gonna lose 90 percent of the time. Maybe 95.”
That score also tied Wallace’s previous career-high for his longest reception. His previous 95-yard catch came on Oct. 23, 2011, when Wallace was a member of the Steelers.
“I haven’t been there for awhile now,” Wallace said of facing his former team. “It was good, great to see people. But [it wasn’t like] ’I really want to beat my old team.’ That’s out the window. I just really wanted to win because we need to win to get to the lead in the division.”
The Ravens defense, which held the Steelers to just 66 total offensive yards in the first half, set the offense up with a turnover in the third quarter. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger dropped back to throw, but his pass was deflected upfront, popping up into the air and falling directly into the hands of defensive tackle Timmy Jernigan at the Steelers’ 32. Jernigan, a big man with limited mobility, knew exactly what to do with his interception.
“Catch it and fall, that’s it,” Jernigan said. “I wasn’t even thinking [about advancing the ball]. Just catch and fall.”
That interception led to a Ravens field goal.
“It was definitely big,” Flacco said. “Then you get up 21 points and you think you have it. But, these games are always nerve-wracking until the end. All points you can get are big. I think the two-minute drill at the end of the half or game, I think, whoever wins those battles wins the football games. So that definitely was big.”
Roethlisberger struggled most of the day. Through the third quarter, the 34-year-old had just 54 passing yards.
Playing his first game back since meniscus surgery, the veteran was shaky early, but by the fourth quarter, he was able to lead two touchdown drives, one that ended with a 23-yard Antonio Brown reception and one with a 4-yard scramble. Roethlisberger finished 23 of 45 for 264 yards.
“He seemed like he wasn’t hurt, right?” Suggs said. “He was very fluid, he scrambled, almost shook off a sack. I mean, we broke the guy’s nose, and he still continued to play. I wasn’t fooled.”
“He looked pretty Ben-like to me,” Harbaugh said.
Flacco, who had to briefly exit the game after an awkward slide mangled his knee brace, finished with 18 of 30 for 241 yards. Flacco added a touchdown and an interception to his resume.
Baltimore has a short week ahead, facing the still-winless Cleveland Browns Thursday night.
The win against the Steelers puts 4-4 Baltimore in first place in the wide-open AFC North.
“It’s always good to beat your division rivals,” Suggs said. “But, what does it mean if we drop it Thursday? It means [expletive]. It’s time. We gotta start doing what we know we’re capable of doing and winning.”
• Tommy Chalk can be reached at tchalk@washingtontimes.com.
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