By Childs Walker, Baltimore Sun (TNS) With clutch defensive plays and a brutally efficient running game, the Ravens finally achieved a sound victory, 34-17, over their archrivals from Pittsburgh. Here are five things we learned from the game. It was not easy, no matter what cozy story the final score told.
When Lamar Jackson’s pass fell into the hands of Pittsburgh safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, erasing a tantalizing chance for the Ravens to go up two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, all the ghosts of Steelers’ losses past danced right back into M&T Bank Stadium. The Ravens had spent their week of preparation refusing to acknowledge any accumulated pathos from having lost eight of their previous nine to the Steelers. But if there was a moment for all that resilient talk to evaporate into another maddening defeat, this was it.
And then Marlon Humphrey, his brain still foggy days after he witnessed the birth of his son, Duke, swooped in front of his man to snatch Russell Wilson’s pass in the flat. Thirty-seven elated yards later, Humphrey had sent those meddlesome spirits packing. The Ravens would finally beat their archnemesis and not by a little.
Practically, that meant they were a playoff team for the sixth time in seven seasons with a chance to win the AFC North after they spotted Pittsburgh a two-game lead. But this was about more than playoff positioning or even bragging rights in a rivalry. The Ravens had to stare down their deepest fears, their oft-repeated sense tha.
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