Takeaways: Steelers split series with Ravens after loss
Steel City Underground offers post-game takeaways for every 2024 Pittsburgh Steelers NFL regular season game, focusing on the black and gold, just for members of Steelers Nation.
M&T Bank Stadium is never an easy place for the Steelers to play, but on Saturday afternoon they allowed the Baltimore Ravens to dominate them on both sides of the ball. While the 34-17 Pittsburgh loss meant that neither team was awarded the AFC North divisional title, it did open the door for Baltimore to make the 2024 NFL playoffs. We offer our key takeaways from the Week 16 game.
Two turnovers that just couldn’t be overcome
The Steelers, down some key players due to injury, needed to follow the script they used against the Ravens a few weeks ago. If that game was ugly – which, it was – this game was arguably uglier in other ways. Two critical turnovers, both committed by quarterback Russell Wilson, could have been overcome had the Steelers been able to recover the turnovers they created.
We talked about Wilson needing to come out as a veteran to carry the offense in our preview of the game. We didn’t necessarily mean that he literally had to do so.
The first turnover Wilson committed was a fumble as he tried to go the extra distance and take the ball into the end zone himself. Had he slid and secured the ball, the drive could have continued. It’s hard to completely fault him; we’ve seen Ben Roethlisberger make judgment calls on the field in the past and let it be water under the bridge, so to speak. Aggressive football has risk attached.
The interception that Marlon Humphrey grabbed off of a poorly place Wilson throw, though, came immediately after Minkah Fitzpatrick had picked off Lamar Jackson to get the Steelers defense off the field. That play, and the following questionable play-calling (no hurry-up, down by 17, running the ball up the middle) seemed to speak to the Steelers just being resigned to take the loss.
Russell Wilson speaks to the media. pic.twitter.com/ORkeT0o247
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) December 22, 2024
The Steelers had bounced back, in some ways, after the beating they took against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 15, but regressed in other aspects. And that is what set them up for failure.
Unable to stop “King Henry”
For the second game in a row, the Steelers defense gave up 400+ total yards of offense to their opponent (average of 353.5 over their past six games per Chris Adamski).
While Pittsburgh was able to limit Derick Henry in their first meeting, Henry got the best of the black and gold this week by gaining 162 yards on 24 carries. His longest rush went for 44 yards. Henry had the benefit of an offensive line that was winning the battle up front against a Steelers defense that, once again, couldn’t get themselves off the field.
Cam Heyward speaks to the media. pic.twitter.com/RpbaEJGqBw
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) December 22, 2024
No excuses
It may seem to be too simple to break the game down into just those two things already mentioned being the “cause” of Saturday’s loss, but the incidentals didn’t play as big of a factor.
Yes, not having George Pickens available is painful, but the offense has other players who’ve stepped up – and did today, in fact (we saw you Calvin Austin!) Yes, the defense didn’t have Donte Jackson in the backfield, but he has had some good and bad plays when out there.
So, injuries to Joey Porter Jr. and Ben Skowronek in-game had to be addressed but did not cause the three-score blowout. That brought things back around to execution. The Steelers let themselves down overall and there can be explanations, but no excuses.
On to the next…
Pittsburgh has little time to lick wounds. Week 17 starts in mere days due to the Christmas holiday. The Steelers will host the AFC-leading Kansas City Chiefs on Christmas Day at Acrisure Stadium. Simply getting into the playoffs means little if the Steelers can’t clean up their play in the final two weeks of the regular season.
While not everything in Week 16 was bad – MyCole Pruitt caught his first touchdown of the season that same game Fitzpatrick grabbed his first INT of 2024 – getting back to work to repair errors with a sense of urgency will be necessary as a result of the loss to Baltimore.
