The Ravens beat the Pittsburgh Steelers, 26-23 in overtime in Week 5 of the 2019 season. RSR staff react to the win here…
Todd Karpovich
— The Ravens will exhale after that one. Still, some of the problems resurfaced with the secondary and the run defense. That still needs to be cleaned up.
— Lamar Jackson completed 19 of 28 pass attempts for 171 yards with three interceptions that led to vital points for the Steelers. Jackson didn’t get much help from his receivers as both Mark Andrews and Nick Boyle tipped passes that led to turnovers. Jackson needs to be more effective making deep passes when defenses stack the box. He was solid against the Dolphins but has been trending downward, especially with five turnovers in two weeks.
— The Ravens should be able to stack another win this week against the Bengals. However, the rest of the schedule is unforgiving with games against the Patriots, Seahawks, Texans, Rams, Bills and Browns still looming.
— DeShon Elliott will get his opportunity to be a daily contributor with Tony Jefferson out for the year with a torn ACL.
Carey Stevenson
Whew.
That’s was ummm, something? Since I try not to avoid sadness at all cost I’m going to try to focus on the good things
Justin Tucker
Hollywood Brown and Mark Andrews reentered the game after concerning injuries
Maurice Canady held up very well. After being in a bit of a platoon, Canady took over as full time starter with Averett’s deactivation. Who would have thought we’d need him coming into this season?
Pernell McPhee continues to show life as a pass rusher. If only they could afford to keep his snaps down so that in the 4th qtr someone was in the same zip code as the opposing QB. Ok this is drifting into sadness, see y’all next week.
Nick Capecci
I didn’t post a bold prediction this week because there is nothing bold about this team. I said in the beginning of the season that they are lacking talent in too many positions to be taken seriously, and will over achieve. Today’s game showed that.
This season, the team is shifting into the modern NFL and the roster isn’t where it needs to be. The defensive line lacks interior pass rushers, the edge defenders lack enough moves to win at the point of attack, our inside linebackers can’t really do anything well, and the secondary gets picked apart because they have to cover for too long.
Lamar made some questionable moves that he shouldn’t have had to make, but this team does not play well from behind. Our offense relies too much on young guys and our wide receiver corps is in the bottom five in the league in terms of pure talent and it showed today.
It was a win, but I think against teams like Pittsburgh, a lot of Ravens games this year will be like this.
Chad Racine
Marlon Humphrey is an absolute monster. It’s amazing the national media doesn’t notice one of the top corners in the league.
Having such a close game with an undrafted 3rd/4th string quarterback is still concerning. The defense improved but has a ways to go. The offense still hasn’t captured the magic it did in the first 2 games. We should be happy it was a much needed win at an already critical point in the season.
Derek Arnold
Today started with the surprising moves of making 4th-round picks Anthony Averett and Kenny Young inactive. Those moves appeared to pay immediate dividends, as Young’s replacement, the newly signed Josh Bynes, picked off a pass early in the first quarter. That helped stake the Ravens to a 10-0 lead, which should have been enough to cruise for the rest of the day.
Instead, the Steelers backup QB, Mason Rudolph, put together a 5-play, 75-yard TD drive. After Rudolph left the game, their backup-backup, some dude named Devlin something, gave Pittsburgh a 23-20 lead late in the fourth quarter.
What happened to the revolutionary offense the Ravens were supposed to put on the field? We are right back to Ravens pass-catchers throwing the ball to opposing defenders, a la Breshad Perriman. Where are the deep throws?
Beating Pittsburgh is always awesome. Beating them after giving their fans hope is even better.
Still, it’s tough to be optimistic about this Ravens squad going forward.
John Langley
I caught a lot of flack for being pessimistic this week. I will preface what I’m about to say by saying this is the NFL, and you should take every win you can get.
With that being said, I’m a believer in “bad wins” and this falls right under that category. The offensive play-calling was a bit curious, though the interior offensive line gave Lamar Jackson absolutely no time to make a play. The defense was strong at times while back to the last few weeks on others. Specials teams was overall strong.
Let’s be real here: the Ravens were taking on essentially a rookie QB, that got injured, and in his place, let’s be honest, a guy i never heard of. The fact this was a 26-23 win is very disappointing to say the least. That doesn’t just fall in the defense; the offense has culpability in this as well. I hoped i could come from this game feeling good moving forward, but i simply still don’t. Call me negative, call me pessimistic, call me whatever you want: I believe I’m a realist. I’m about as big a homer as you’ll find, and even i can’t polish this. This is a team that has a long way to go to prove they can compete for a playoff spot.
Now i don’t want to be all negative, there’s some bright spots. Maurice Canady has played quite well since coming back from the practice squad. Maybe that was a message he needed, because he’s clearly gotten it together.
The run defense was much better this week. The tackling was much better. I’d say the defense took a step forward, but there’s still work to be done.
The Ravens head into a home game against a hapless Bengals teams. There’s no real excuse not to get to 4-2, even if it may be a weak 4-2. Hey, a win is a win. Whether it makes me feel better or not, is pretty irrelevant.
