Reaction to Ravens' Loss in Pittsburgh

Published Nov 17, 2024, 11:24 PM
Team insiders Ryan Mink and Garrett Downing break down the Ravens' 18-16 loss to the Steelers, including a rough day for the offense, the concern level with Justin Tucker, and a rebound day from the defense.

Welcome into the Lounge presented by DraftKings.

I'm Ryan in here with Garrett Downing and we are going to give you our breakdown from the Ravens eighteen to sixteen loss here in Pittsburgh. Tough loss for the Ravens in a game where you know, it just feels like the Ravens haven't been able to put it together on both sides of the ball, right. The defense plays better, the offense struggles against the Steelers, and it felt like just another Ravens Steelers game that goes the wrong way, right, Like this is the script for the Steelers to beat the Ravens, and it just they just seem to bring out kind of the worst in the Ravens.

It feels like, Yeah, I think when you go back and look at the Steelers have now won eight of the last nine against the Ravens, and when you look at that those games, a through line is that the Ravens have hurt themselves in a lot of these situations. And you look at this game. The Ravens turned them all over three times. They fumbled on the second play of the game, they missed two field goals, missed some open wide receivers. You have a play that looks like a shared catch that turns out to be an interception. Penalties, of course, how can I leave that one out? And so you have you basically.

Have you have.

You have turnovers, penalties, special teams, miscues, and then some not being as sharp as you could be in certain situations. All those things combined to a game where you don't give up a touchdown, but you still lose.

Right.

The fact of the matter is, the Steelers have made the Ravens play on their terms too often in this rivalry in recent years, and they did so once again today. This was the Steelers blueprint, right. They keep the game close. It's a kind of a defensive slug fest. They make you make mistakes, you make self inflicted mistakes, they turn the ball over.

It's just it feels like I've watched.

This game too many times now, and it's a tough one. The Ravens have to figure out a way to get over this hurdle when it comes to Pittsburgh, because you know, I also to a degree, I think, yes, the Ravens hurt themselves the penalties, the turnovers and all these things, but the Steelers, the Steelers defense just beat them just beat the Ravens offense, like you can't just take it away from the Steelers defense. On the the other hand, either right, it wasn't like the Ravens other than the penalties were clicking by any means. Offensively, they were out of sorts. They had no rhythm throughout the whole game. They hit a few chunk plays. That was about it. I mean, the defense just flat out beat the Ravens offense. They met their match today, this high scoring number one in the league offense.

When you talk about turnovers too, like those were not plays that were just gifted to the Steelers. You have Patrick Queen, for example, forced that turnover on Isaiah likely he ripped that ball out that he popped on it, you know, so like that he gets credit for that play.

The turnover. The interception was.

A ridiculous It was a ridiculous play and there's a little bit of flukiness evolved in that. But the defender made a great play on that to be able to put his hand up there and then he came down with the football when they were wrestling around with it on the ground like that was a great play by the linebacker and so like, yes, you can say, oh, we shot ourselves on the foot, but those are also the Steelers making plays in those situations. So I think that's I think that's a fair point. It was interesting in terms of the offense and we talk about them being out of sorts all game, like what was it was? What were the Steelers doing to make it difficult? And the common theme and hearing from the Ravens, both John Harbaugh and Lamar Jackson, they pointed to the penalties and shooting themselves in the foot and finding themselves in these situations, whether in second and fifteen or first in twenty and they're starting at their own fifteen yard line because of a special team's penalty. Basically, the penalties just put them in bad situations and that's really what they felt like, got this offense out of sorts.

I think there's a degree of that, but that's not the only thing. I think that there's too much pressure. I think, you know, Lamar, again, the narrative of Lamar's struggles against the Steelers is going to continue. You know, this was I think probably not it was not his sharpest game when sixteen to thirty three, in part because he was pressured so much. And look the guy made some spectacular throws in the fourth quarter and made something out of nothing, one of which was dropped, you know, another one wiped out by penalties. You know, I mean he kind of willed them back into this game in the fourth quarter. But two any missed opportunities early in this game, you know, fades, things like that, overthrows, and you know, to his credit, he was only sacked twice. Ran his way out of a lot of those sacks, but he was under pressure a lot. And the Ravens the rape. The fact of the matter is the Ravens just really did not have many answers for the Steelers. So, yes, the penalty is putting them behind the chains and first down, second down.

That hurt. That was not the only thing that hurt.

Yeah, And in the turnovers where you have you opened the game. The second play of the game, Derrick Hennery, who's about a surehand as you can get as running back, coughs it up.

It kind of it kind of set the tone.

Now, Lamar made the point that like, now we brushed that thing off, it didn't really affect us. But I think that the narrative that exists when these two teams play you're like, oh, here you go, this is this is a script. This is not the way you want to start that game. And and then and then the turnover right before halftime. Those are two situations where big turnovers by the offense, and then the Steeler converted those into six points on short fields.

And so the defense, as.

We're going to talk about, the defense probably had its best game of the season, but on those six points came on short fields, and the offense just put them in a really difficult position and turn it over twice there. And that's part of why the offense just wasn't able to able to have success. I mean, Henry's happened on the second drive of the game. The Isaiah likely play. The Isaiah likely fumble happened on the first play of that drive. And so you have these drives that are just.

The second drive of the game. It was the second play.

Yeah, Henry Henry second play of the game.

And then and then the Isaiah likely fumble happened on the first play of that drive. So you have two drives to just immediately end with turnovers, right, that's not.

The had plenty of drives to make something happen. The defense gave them many chances, and so they just didn't have the answers point blank. I mean, comes down to a two point conversion, where again they didn't have the answer, right. I mean, they end up running the ball to run left with Lamar just a quarterback keeper right. It wasn't an r p O, just a quarterback run to the left, and blown up in the backfield basically forced him backwards and that kind of threw off the whole timing of the play, the blocks of the play, and he ended up having to just kind of try to fling it to make something happen. But that play just got blew up, blown up by the Steelers.

I mean that him playing it was kind of almost like a fubble Rooski.

It's just.

There was no throw option there. It was run all the way completely and they just blew it up in the backfield. Get the block, got inside Nelly Lamar had to.

Cut it back a little bit, got pushed back a little bit.

Linderbaum then couldn't get across for his block, and Pat McCarey couldn't get pool and get their blocks.

And that's all she wrote. It's a shame they had it.

They had to run to the right, called up and the Steelers were granted the timeout. Just I guess as the ball was snapped and uh uh so the Steelers got a free look at that at what their play number one was, and then the Ravens had to go with play number two basically and it was another Lamar run but it didn't work out.

Yeah, you know, I just I go back to just big picture wise, this game just felt like this is Ravens Steelers. The Ravens offense has been so good this year, and then all of a sudden you get in the situation where they're playing the Steelers and the offense is out of sorts, and you're like, wait, what what is this? And it's and it's the in both teams. I mean, the Steelers didn't score touchdown. The Steelers got had their entire offense was Chris Bossel. He had eighteen points today and they didn't score touchdown. It just felt like the old adages, the cliches, these two hard news teams is gonna be a lot of defense in this game. I kind of felt like that was not gonna be the case in this game, Like that's that's old school, that's that's nineteen ninety four or ninety four ninety.

Six year existence exactly.

That's old.

That's that's the old Ravens Steelers rivalry. I didn't expect that to be the case in this game.

But it was.

It was a defensive slug fest where neither offense was really moving the ball consistently and play and the Steelers had a big play and they came up with the turnovers and they just made life really difficult on this Ravens offense.

Yeah.

Absolutely, I mean this is what it looks like when it's a one sided rivalry, right, Like the Steelers have made the Ravens play to their kind of game, like I said before too many times now, and they made him play it again today, right. They took their offense, got them off off the tracks. They got them, you know. Marlon Humphrey said he was more emotional than he's ever been in the game today. It was super chippy. They were full on scrums breaking out. Patrick Queen spent the whole game yap in it Ravens players, and credit to him.

He had a great game.

Let him in tackles, had a huge force fumble like the Steelers. They forced the Ravens into the worst version of themselves than they play, and it's going to be hard for the Ravens to get where they want to go unless they fix that.

They they got to get over that.

Yeah, Lamar made an interesting point, and you know, broadly speaking and feeling like this team has beaten itselves in some really big games and moments of situations, and he said, he goes back to the AFC Championship game last year against Chiefs, goes back to the season opener against the Chiefs, the Raiders, the Browns again today, basically feeling like this team when they lose, they beat themselves, and how do you avoid that. I'd think that that's kind of a complicated answer, Like I don't think there's one fix for how do you not beat yourself? And I don't I think it's more technical than it is emotional thing.

In part, you beat yourself when you're getting beat, right, I mean the Steelers defense is beating them. Yeah, and that's when you get holding penalties and you get some of those things.

When you get beat you beat yourselves.

In part.

That's why they beat themselves against good teams jeeves, you know.

But yeah, there's validity to that there's literity to that.

Yeah. So now are the things that can clean up?

Yes, there's some like you know, Pat McCarey wandering up field and an eligible receiver downfield or an eligible block or whatever. You know, when he's just kind of wandering, he's out of the play and he's just kind of lost track of where he was. Like, yeah, that stuff you clean up. But some of the holding penalties is because you're getting beat.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So.

You know, it's a tough loss.

I mean, I think obviously a big talking point coming out of this is justin Tucker. The two misses proved to be huge, you know, especially on a day when their kicker chrisp Oswal sink six.

Yeah, six or six including some long ones too, over fifty.

Correct, and so you know, where are you at on Tucker And how concerned are you? Is it panic button time?

What is it?

Right?

Well, he missed forty seven and fifty and then he did come back and hit a fifty four yard or so. I thought that was really big for him come back, and I mean it was big in the game, and I thought it was big mentally emotionally. We did talk with him after the game and he did. To me, it did not sound like somebody who's lost his confidence. He talked about it from a technical standpoint and said, on that last kick they did make an adjustment for from a swing standpoint where he was aiming all.

Not a swing standpoint, but just where he was Basically, he's like, they keep going left, so I'm going to aim further right. It was like the most like Layman's explanation of it, like this is what a fan at home would be like if he just left aim right further.

That's what he did.

Well, it's like it's weird because he's basically like, they don't know why he keeps going left.

A year again, it just keeps going left.

I'm going to aim for the right, and he's sat that time and he said that there's no consistent theme as to why in his mind, why all of them have gone left, even though every miss he's had has been wide left this year.

Right. I mean, let's not kid ourselves, like Justin Tucker, as much as we call him at automat Tuck right like he's human.

And yes, he said, I'm confident.

I'm gonna make every kick from here on out, But he's a person right, Like, you'd have a tough time convincing me that, like, even for somebody that's had as much success as him, this many of misses he's had six on the season seven if he include the extra point miss that he had last week, that's more than he had all last season seven misses period. If you're just saying, including the extra point is ties his career high? Yeah, right, And you'd be hard pressed to convince me that Justin Tucker doesn't have something. It's tough mentally for somebody like him, that there's a little bit of a hurdle that he needs to get over at this point.

Yeah, there's probably truth in that.

He's not going to say that, right, He's gonna say, I'm confident.

You have to be you have to be and you keep working and and you have to approach every kick one at a time. That's what That's what it's made him, you know, as good as he is, right, the best, the goat that we've called him all these years, right, And like, can he pull out of this?

Yeah? He can.

I don't think like Justin Tucker is you know, broken, but I think he's hurting right now and he needs to make some kicks and figure out why he keeps pulling this thing left.

Yeah, I think it just comes down to the fact that he needs to make him Like there's I do think that from a game situation standpoint, there could be future games where you have a decision to make, like where in previous years you might say, okay, hey, fifty six yard or no problem, just go ahead and said Tucker out for that. I think that that no problem will send him out there.

You can drill that. That has changed.

I think in shorter yards just yeah, if you're looking to fourth and three and it's a fifty seven yard field goal, you might say, I'm going for it, yeah, and you're not going to you know, it's a fourth and fourth and four, you're not, of course, right, but like, yeah, I think it could make them a little bit more aggressive on offense.

And so I do think that, Like I'll be honest, if it was going.

If if Tucker had lined up for a game winner, if they had gotten that ball back, I would have had confidence that he's going to make it. I still think in high pressure, clutch situations he can drill those kicks and make those kicks. So I still believe in that but I do think that he's going to have to overcome this hurdle, and so that's what he's going to go to work on. All Right, we'll take a quick break. When we come back, we'll give you our final thoughts on this game. You're listening to the Ravens Lone podcast. We are coming chief from the Sea Geek Studio. We also want to mention our partners with Draft Kings Sportsbook. They are an official sports betting partner of the Baltimore Ravens DraftKings Sportsbook. The Crown is yours. So this defense had the best, their best game of the season. They don't give up a touchdown. The pass rush was really bringing a lot of heat on Russell Wilson, lib By A. Dafeoway, who had three sacks, should have had a fourth on a play that didn't end up counting, but ends up having three sacks in this game. And the defense they had a day and it's disappointing that the Raves aren't able to get a win on a day where the defense, Wait, they took a half.

Sack away from Oway. He got it on the statue here. They got him with two and a half. Steve a half sack.

Initially, that's cool, should have had four, and he just keeps going down.

That is cold.

So it goes I guess two and a half.

But disappointing to have that kind of showing for the defense and then not able to get to win. But it's positive that the defense did have a good game.

That's correct.

It's just frustrating that, like the Ravens have really only put it together on both sides of the ball at the same time in one game this year against the Bills, you know, every other game it's like one side struggling and they just you know, I still believe that this team has the talent, it has the players and everything that like, when they put it together on both sides, I think they can beat anybody and not even it be a runaway. Like, when they put it together on both sides, they're gonna be impossible. I shouldn't say impossible, very tough to beat.

But they haven't done it right now.

The good news is, like the offense has really been stymy by the Steelers defense these past years. But that's a bit about it, right, Like, so I have confidence that this offense is going to turn things around quickly. It's The great news is like, defensively, it's been a trend of issues and I thought that have they turned a corner or was this a turning point in the defense's season potentially, So I think part of it is gonna is Roquan Smith hurt. Well, yeah, it just suffered a hamstring injury.

Yeah, Rokwon had a hamstring injury. Did not return. No update on his status. The Ravens also did make some changes in the secondary. Our Darius Washington stepped in for Marcus Williams and played that safety that safety position. Also, Kyle Hamilton played a little bit more deep safety than he had previously, and they will see the final snap count, but Nate Wiggs was out there a lot and that a looted Morelin Humphrey to play in the slide at times, and so I think that I think that inserting our Darius Washington and having Kyle Hamilton play a little bit more traditional safety may have been part of the recipe for this team. Marlon of course, had a pick in this game, so it was encouraging to see this from the defense. We'll see if they're able to continue off of this, but I think it was a good step. It was a step in the right direction for this defense. And then also I like by this soft from Tredevious White, his first game as a Raven, broke up a couple passes in the end zone, which was good to see from him, and I think he's only gonna to me. He showed this guy should be on the field and his snapshare could increase in future weeks.

Yep, definitely, Ravens fall to seven and four. They have the LA Chargers up next on Monday Night Football, little extra rest after a physical.

Game here against the Steelers.

Ravens are still in good position when it comes to making the playoffs, but now they have a one and a half game deficit to overcome with the Steelers.

Hey, we still get to play them at Mton Banks Stadiums.

Still time, still plenty of times. So this one stings, But Ravens fans will be bound. We'll be back with you next week and we'll bounce back.

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