Despite Week 16 Woes, Ben Roethlisberger Holds Keys to Playoffs for Steelers

Another key piece for the defensive turnaround is that the Ravens found a way to force the turnovers that have been elusive all season.

Sure, the Pittsburgh Steelers were playing on the road, but everything else about their game against the Baltimore Ravens seemed to be in their favor: the Ravens were playing for pride but little else, and elected to start a quarterback, Ryan Mallett, who hasn’t shown himself to be much more than average in his time in the NFL.

Jameis Winston threw for 295 yards and two scores for the Bucs (6-9).

The Steelers were supposed to make Baltimore, which surrendered a combined 69 points in its last two games, look like a junior varsity team, score an easy win and head into Cleveland in Week 17 with their playoff destiny in their own hands. Mallett completed 28 of 41 passes for 274 yards and a touchdown.

Meanwhile, the Ravens’ defense was bending, but not breaking, under a relentless Steelers rushing attack.

Ravens cornerback Jimmy Smith picked off Roethlisberger on Sunday, one of two interceptions on the day.

The Ravens, who hadn’t led in nearly a month, never trailed in the game, leading 13-3 at halftime and 20-10 early in the fourth quarter before the defense – yes, the defense – put the game away.

And you are wondering why the Steelers lost, 20-17, Sunday to the Baltimore Ravens, a painful, perhaps even fatal blow to their playoff chances?

We saw a lot of the offense that we expected at the beginning of the year, with the running backs being heavily featured in both the run game and in catching the ball out of the backfield. Williams took it in from there. Tomlin won’t get fired, but it’s not going to help him in any debate anytime soon.

But if the Steelers’ two meetings this year with the Ravens serve as any indicator, no upset scenario should come as a surprise in the NFL.

Baltimore swept Pittsburgh (9-6) for the first time since 2011. To that point, Williams had carried the ball three times for 46 yards and former Raven Fitzgerald Toussaint had two carries for six yards. Their 23-20 overtime win October 1 at Heinz Field came when Roethlisberger was out with a knee injury and Mike Vick played quarterback. He also could not dial up any deep balls-Pittsburgh’s longest pass play was a 29-yard interference call; the longest completion went for 27 yards.

He then hit rookie tight end Maxx Williams for seven yards on third-and-5 to set up a first-and-goal. Brown finished with seven catches for 61 yards, but six of those accounted for only 34 yards and there was the touchdown that wasn’t after further review.

The Patriots can wrap up the top seed and home-field advantage with a win in Miami next Sunday.

Roethlisberger floating that 4th-and-15 pass to Markus Wheaton in double coverage with 1:53 remaining that left it to the Ravens to kick all but four seconds of the clock. But after a review, the play was reversed into an incompletion.

Justin Tucker was good from 37 yards to cap a 11-play drive on the next Ravens’ possession. During that period, Kirk Cousins threw eight interceptions, where as in the nine games since he threw just three.