7 Steelers surprises in Sunday’s “upset” of the Ravens
What were some of the surprises from the Pittsburgh Steelers 20-19 win over the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday?
Well, one of them was a victory!
Okay, I’m not going to pick that low-hanging fruit, despite many people feeling that Pittsburgh’s season was over after being throttled by the Cincinnati Bengals one week earlier.
However, the win was comprised of many surprises throughout the game, including some of the storylines which saw the Steelers offense score 17 fourth quarter points.
Here’s what stood out to me this week.
T.J. Watt
Watt always ends up in this column, and it’s so difficult to label what he does a “surprise” because he makes the difficult look commonplace.
After being on the COVID list all week, and not practicing, Watt was activated on Saturday and eligible to suit up.
What entailed could be comparable to when Michael Jordan played with the flu in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals. We are witnessing greatness before us in the very same manner, not knowing how ill or prepared Watt was.
The Steelers linebacker would officially sack Ravens QB Lamar Jackson 3.5 times, with one of those being a strip-sack on Baltimore’s final possession of the game. Watt would officially have six QB hits, and unofficially, via Pro Football Focus, have 12 QB pressures overall. He would also be graded PFF’s highest graded Steeler this week with an 87.7.
Watt now leads the NFL in sacks with 16, despite missing 2.5 games. He’s also the only player in NFL history, other than Hall of Famer Reggie White, to have four consecutive seasons with 13 or more sacks.
Montravius Adams
From the Saints practice squad to starting for the Steelers – all in the course of a week!
Adams was signed on 11/30, so he didn’t even have a full week with the team before jumping into a large role.
He would play 46% of the game, securing two tackles as the Steelers new nose tackle as well as a batted pass at the line of scrimmage.
Next time you see 57 on the field, now you’ll know who he is!
Ahkello Witherspoon
Witherspoon is another shocker of sorts.
The Steelers traded with the Seahawks for the cornerback at the beginning of the season, and then he proceeded to not play – to the tune of three games and a total of 39 snaps.
He would shatter those figures Sunday, participating in 68 of the Steelers 74 defensive plays.
Witherspoon was far from a liability he had been accused of earlier in the season, when a busted coverage let the Raiders Henry Ruggs score on a deep touchdown pass from Derek Carr. Instead, Witherspoon would fill in James Pierre, who was already filling in for Joe Haden the last few weeks, with an abysmal outing against the Bengals in the previous game.
Witherspoon’s shining moment on Sunday would come on a third down play, where he would play off of his original assignment and track a ball intended for Ravens TE Mark Andrews, nearly coming away with an interception and forcing Baltimore to punt.
That three-and-out series by the defense would parlay into the Steelers game-winning drive on the next series.
Zach Banner and The Line Shift
When LT Dan Moore Jr. headed to the medical tent, my eyes were laser focused on where Zach Banner was headed.
Banner, who was penciled in as a starter heading into the offseason, hasn’t appeared much in 2021. He began the season on IR, after his rehab from a knee injury didn’t go as smoothly as hoped.
With Moore sidelined, Banner entered the field ahead of previous backup tackle, Joe Haeg – and lined up on the right side of the offensive line, where he initially won the starting job in 2020.
This move necessitated starting RT Chuks Okorafor to slide over into the left tackle position.
While it was short-lived (Banner played only the lone snap) it was telling as to why he hasn’t been inserted into the lineup: the Steelers feel he’s a better right tackle, but also feel Okorafor is better suited to play at right tackle than Banner, but less than shifting Okorafor around and creating, in essence, two new players at both ends.
Now it all makes sense! (And yes, this was a surprise!)
4th Quarter Run Game
46 of Najee Harris’ 71 yards on Sunday came in the fourth quarter. The Steelers would run for 85 total, with Benny Snell adding another 13 – all of Snell’s yardage also came in the Steelers final offensive drive, which was capped off with Diontae Johnson’s game-winning touchdown catch.
That’s 59 of the Steelers 85 yards encapsulated in two fourth quarter drives… against the Ravens.
If that doesn’t surprise you, the next tidbit will when combined with this stat.
John Leglue
A lot of people noticed Leglue in this game, as part of the fourth quarter run game surge noted above.
But did anyone expect this from the Steelers fourth guard?
Leglue, who primarily played in the preseason as a backup center and made the team’s practice squad this season, was the last-ditch effort for Pittsburgh on Sunday. The Steelers had already lost starter Kevin Dotson and his backup, J.C. Hassenhauer, to IR, and then B.J. Finney, who has dealt with back issues all season, suffered the same fate and exited the Ravens game.
That left the team down to option four, Leglue – and technically option five, if you count that Joe Haeg, who primarily plays tackle, has also filled in as a guard too!
I’d say not too shabby of a job then by Leglue. Let’s see if the team thinks the same and calls his number again on a short week. (You never know, he could turn out to be another undrafted find by the franchise, in the vein of Ramon Foster or Alejandro Villanueva.)
Of Ben Roethlisberger's 51 career game-winning drives, 10 have come against the Ravens https://t.co/Q6WWvAXBJl
— Jamison Hensley (@jamisonhensley) December 6, 2021
Ben Roethlisberger
Everyone stuck a fork in good OLD Big Ben prior to this game, including blowing up a rumor of retirement on Saturday, reported first by Adam Schefter and then click-baited all over the web.
Most of those attention-seeking websites and media programs jumped on the bandwagon, with the tried-and-true “he’s done” narrative.
Then Roethlisberger came out and had a perfect passer rating of 158.3 in the fourth quarter, leading the Steelers to 17 points and the victory.
He also broke a tie with Tom Brady to move up to third all-time in game-winning drives by an NFL quarterback.
Not too bad for the geezer everyone wanted to bury in the ground days earlier!
