Tyler Huntley stated he was simply in search of anyone to make a play. At the final gasp of one other constricted night time for the Ravens offense, that was all of the quarterback may do: Look for assist. From somebody, anybody.
None got here, and now the Ravens head into the ultimate week of their common season needing as a lot assist from with out as from inside. Huntley slammed his fingers towards his helmet as he watched Steelers security Minkah Fitzpatrick choose off his last-minute move, clinching Pittsburgh’s 16-13 comeback win Sunday at M&T Bank Stadium and transferring the Ravens one step nearer to an undesirable playoff highway journey.
There’s quite a bit they want performed over these subsequent two weeks, however not quite a bit they will do about it. The Ravens (10-6) want beginning quarterback Lamar Jackson again from a knee damage, or another treatment for an offense that completed with 240 yards Sunday and has scored no a couple of landing in 5 straight video games. They want a more healthy protection, or a minimum of enhancements from a unit that light down the stretch but once more.
The Ravens want the Buffalo Bills to beat the Bengals on Monday night time, or else they’d enter their Week 18 recreation in Cincinnati and not using a shot on the division title. They must beat the Bengals subsequent Sunday to have a shot at both the AFC North crown (and its attendant No. 3 seed) or the No. 5 seed, which might get them a highway matchup towards the fourth-seeded AFC South champions.
A New Year’s Day defeat had left the Ravens with a really apparent decision.
“I think everyone knows we need to play better right now,” guard Kevin Zeitler stated. “We have another game next week against a very good opponent. It’s going to be a good ‘coming-to-Jesus’ this week. We’ve got to get this figured out, or else nothing good will happen.”
They’d wish to overlook how Sunday night time ended. With a win, the Ravens would’ve pressured a winner-take-all Week 18 matchup with the Bengals (11-4), eradicated the Steelers (8-8) from playoff rivalry and handed Sixteenth-year coach Mike Tomlin his first dropping season.
Instead, the Ravens left what may be their remaining recreation in Baltimore this yr with their fourth last-minute defeat in 16 video games. Pittsburgh rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett’s 10-yard landing move to working again Najee Harris, who’d slipped by inside linebacker Roquan Smith in protection with 56 seconds remaining, was the distinction.
The Ravens had their possibilities to place the sport away Sunday, simply as they’d their possibilities in all 5 of their earlier late-game losses this season. The offense simply wouldn’t cooperate.
The Ravens’ fourth quarter had all of the anticipated drama of a prime-time rivalry matchup however not one of the required of completion. After two Steelers discipline targets trimmed the Ravens’ result in 13-9 halfway by way of the fourth quarter, working again Justice Hill returned a kickoff to Pittsburgh’s 40-yard line.
The Ravens wanted solely slightly offense to arrange kicker Justin Tucker for a discipline purpose that may’ve restored their landing benefit. They as an alternative went backward, dropping three yards and sending on punter Jordan Stout.
Nothing may shake the Ravens from their offensive malaise. Taking over at their 36 on the next possession, they went three-and-out once more. Running again J.Ok. Dobbins was stuffed for no achieve on third-and-2, and Stout got here on for one more punt with simply over 4 minutes left.
The subsequent time the Ravens had the ball, they had been trailing for the primary time since early within the second quarter. Pickett (15-for-27 for 168 yards) accomplished 5 of six passes for 64 yards and the late rating on the Steelers’ go-ahead drive.
“They finished the game,” defensive lineman Brent Urban stated afterward in a morose Ravens locker room. “It’s unacceptable as a defense. We need to finish those games out. I didn’t play well enough. The defense didn’t play well enough, and that’s just what it is.”
The Ravens’ recipe for a playoff berth, secured in Week 16, hadn’t been attractive: Run the ball and cease the run. On Sunday, each strengths light at inopportune occasions. “They flipped the script,” coach John Harbaugh stated.
In a slender Week 14 win over the Steelers, Huntley’s first begin since taking on for Jackson, the Ravens had run for 215 yards towards a stout Pittsburgh entrance. Tomlin promised adjustments within the rematch. Relying closely on six-man fronts and crashing edge defenders, the Steelers held the Ravens to twenty-eight carries for 120 yards (4.3 per try). The Ravens went simply 2-for-4 on their third-and-2 and third-and-1 alternatives, with only one transformed on the bottom.
“They were trying to stop the run,” stated Dobbins, who completed with 17 carries for 93 yards. “They did a good job. They came with some adjustments. But we still did a good job in the run game. Don’t sit here and act like we got shut down in the run game. I don’t know the stats or anything, but we didn’t get shut down in the run game. Let’s not sit here and act like they shut us down. We’ll make an adjustment and we’ll fix it. We’re going to get better from it.”
Just as shocking was the Ravens’ struggling run protection. The group had stonewalled zone-rushing assaults just like the Steelers’ all season, all however forcing Pittsburgh to desert the run late within the groups’ first assembly (20 carries for 65 yards). But with out defensive lineman Calais Campbell, sidelined for the second straight week by a knee damage, the Ravens struggled to clog gaps and shed blocks.
Harris had 22 carries for 111 yards three weeks after ending with 33 yards. Fellow working again Jaylen Warren, restricted to 11 yards in Pittsburgh, added 12 carries for 76 yards. The Steelers transformed 5 of their six third-and-2 and third-and-1 alternatives, together with a fourth-quarter red-zone sneak by Pickett on the sport’s decisive drive.
“We got our [butt] whupped,” inside linebacker Patrick Queen stated. “We didn’t play good football. We didn’t communicate enough; we didn’t play physical enough. We got whupped.”
The Ravens in all probability received’t see a run protection pretty much as good because the Steelers’ within the playoffs. They in all probability received’t battle with their very own run protection as a lot as they did Sunday, both. But greater issues loom for a group ill-equipped to win a shootout within the postseason, whether or not it’s at house in Baltimore or on the highway towards Buffalo or Cincinnati or Kansas City.
The Ravens haven’t scored greater than 17 factors in a recreation since Week 12, Jackson’s second-to-last begin earlier than he damage his knee. Their solely landing Sunday, a 7-yard move from Huntley (14-for-21 for 130 yards) to rookie tight finish Isaiah Likely, got here solely after an unnecessary-roughness penalty on Steelers defensive lineman Cameron Heyward unexpectedly prolonged the Ravens’ final drive simply earlier than halftime.
Until Jackson returns — the timetable for which stays a thriller — little about their offense suggests a challenger mendacity in wait. Tight finish Mark Andrews had 9 catches on 9 targets for 100 yards, however the Ravens’ next-leading receiver, Likely, had 12 yards. Their motley group of large receivers mixed for 2 catches on 5 targets for 18 yards.
“We didn’t do a great job of finding a way to make plays,” Harbaugh stated. “We had a few here and there, but we were behind the chains too much. They were ahead of the chains pretty much the whole game. We have to do a way better job across the board in terms of attacking what they did. They did a nice job. It wasn’t anything we haven’t seen; it was exactly what we saw on tape from them the last three weeks. Just very disappointed. Not one of our better performances at all.”
Afterward, defensive lineman Broderick Washington stared on the ground within the locker room, wanting up solely after a gaggle of reporters approached. Other gamers tended to minor accidents or packed their baggage in silence. Little may provide the Ravens comfort, not a lot past the information that their season would go on previous Week 18.
“We still have all our goals in front of us,” security Chuck Clark stated. “We’re still getting in the playoffs, and we have a chance to go get a [championship]. So we just have to take it one game at a time.”
Now greater than ever, these days appear numbered.
Week 18
Ravens at Bengals
Sunday, TBA
TV: TBA
Radio: 97.9 FM, 101.5 FM, 1090 AM
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Source: www.bostonherald.com