BALTIMORE -- "I JUST LOVE CRUSHIN' THEIR F---ING SOULS!"
That beautiful bellicosity, my friends, was bellowed from the visiting locker room at M&T Bank Stadium late on this Sunday night, reverberating over maybe the whole of Maryland even as it was punctuated by a fist-pump so animated it might've thrown this individual's shoulder out. I know by whom, but it doesn't matter in the slightest, mostly because it could've come from pretty much anyone on either side of Steelers vs. Ravens, the NFL's bitterest and bestest rivalry for the better part of the past couple decades.
That's how this thing goes. It's about the fight. It's about the physicality. It's about the fire. And, of course, depending on the outcome, it's about a frustration like no other.
So hey, guess which team planted the upper thumb onto a 16-13 final after this little filing through the locker room down the hall.
Patrick Queen, Baltimore's weakside linebacker, on the fight: "We got whooped. We got our ass whooped."
Brent Urban, a defensive tackle, on the physicality: "They did a great job of just coming off the ball. It hurts, man. It’s tough to lose to your rival ... and to lose like that."
Broderick Washington, another defensive tackle, on the fire: "They came out with fire. They really wanted to win the game."
John Harbaugh, head coach, on the frustration: "We let them do what they want. It wasn't good."
At the same time, let's not forget that, in the astonishing stretch that's seen 18 of these teams' past 30 meetings now decided by three or fewer points, someone's had to step up with actual football plays -- and the requisite poise -- to make the decisive difference. And that most beloved of all traits in the Mike Tomlin universe is that rare bird who can do both ... to the ratbirds.
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Emotion apparently wasn't much of a priority for Kenny Pickett upon taking the huddle with 4:16 left, the Steelers down four, and the ball 80 yards away from where it needed to go. As Diontae Johnson told me, "We'd done most of our talking on the sideline just before that. There wasn't anything left to say. We knew what we needed to do."
Again, he meant. Because only a week ago at Acrisure Stadium, they both knew and delivered. On Franco Harris' night and amid 40,000-plus frozen faithful, no less.
This time, because Najee Harris and the running game were unstoppable from at 50-yard opening possession, the drive started with a Najee run for 7 yards, another for 2, then a Kenny keeper to move the chains.
Followed by 20 yards of across-the-body goodness to Pat Freiermuth out to midfield:
"Just a great throw by Kenny," Freiermuth would recall.
It had to be. Roquan Smith, the omnipresent linebacker who'd tormented the Steelers in their previous meeting three weeks earlier back home, was hovering.
Very next snap saw more downfield fun, this of 28 yards to Steven Sims:
Hardly the tightest spiral, but right between the 8 and the 2.
And if Sims could've stuck the landing, as I'd later tease him and he'd reply with a grin, "Yeah, I know. Next time."
"Stevie really did a huge job by bending in there on that seam," Kenny'd bring up on his own. "Biggest play of the drive besides the touchdown."
That brought the two-minute warning, followed by a 4-yarder to Sims, and then this 5-yard run by Najee that I felt was his most authoritative of an evening that he'd cap with 122 yards on 22 carries:
A terrible spot would force another first-down sneak, but ... man, I can't take my eyes off that Olympic hurdler's sprint.
Maybe it's a bit hokey, but it was in this moment that I knew the offense, which hadn't mustered more than three field goals and which has endured red-zone mudslides all season, would finish this one right.
"When you've got a running back running for you like that, everyone feels it," Kevin Dotson told me, and a second glance up there shows he played a prominent part by pushing Queen back several feet.
Two quick blanks later, it was third-and-8 at the Baltimore 10. Now 56 seconds left. And it's what happened here that ... well, for anyone who remembers the NFL Films from a week earlier in which Tomlin was shouting, "We grew up tonight! We grew up tonight!" ... this looked like the next notch on that growth chart:
Jason Pierre-Paul, Baltimore's venerable edge guy, beat Dan Moore at left tackle to flush Kenny from the pocket. But Kenny kept his footing after Paul had a swipe at him, made the second of his four scheduled reads on the sequence, then flicked a dart to Najee. With Smith, again, on coverage.
Wait, did I just write four reads?
Mm-hm, but it took some digging. I first asked Sims and Diontae Johnson, seated together in one corner of the locker room, if either of them had been the play's primary target.
"Not me," Johnson replied with a shrug before looking at Sims. "Was it you?"
"I don't know," Sims came back. "But I'd have been OK with that."
George Pickens and Freiermuth also ran routes. Neither of them knew, either.
I tried Najee.
"Heck no, wasn't me."
So finally, I caught up with Kenny, who'd lay it all out: "I've got to look at Diontae in the right corner, but they came down hard on him. There's George in the middle, and Pat, too."
That's his last glance toward the middle that one can observe here:
"And I know Sims is going to the back of the other side," Kenny'd continue. "But I saw Najee, and that's the way I went."
Definitely throwing to Najee and not Sims?
"Definitely."
His fourth read.
Almost as impressive, Najee needed no signal to take off rather than stick nearby in case Kenny'd take off on a run. Although there'd been some social media fuss that Kenny used his left hand to motion Najee into the end zone, Kenny denied that, and a closer look at the play shows he was using the hand to regain his balance after Houston's pursuit:
"Give Najee the credit," Kenny'd say.
"Kenny made the play," Najee'd say.
They both get it and made it, I'd say. And infinitely more important, Tomlin would wind up saying plenty about both.
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Of Kenny, he'd offer on his own in his press conference preamble, "I can't say enough about our young QB. He smiled in the face of it. He’s always ready to be that guy in the moments that we need him. And it’s just good to see the young guy do that. We marched forward.”
I followed up by asking the extent to which he values a young player coming through in the end even if all else doesn't go great, and he replied with a reference to his Pitt upbringing next door on the South Side: "I just think we benefited so much from close proximity in the evaluation process. None of us are surprised by what he does from an intangible standpoint."
Of the team's previous first-round picker, he'd offer, "Najee wants it. He wants to be the focal point. He likes the tough circumstances."
Of those two together: "It’s good to have young people who are running to it, as opposed to from it. We’ve got some young people who run to the action, and that’s a good thing.”
Of the touchdown itself: "The play got extended, Kenny moved to his left, and Najee kept his eyes on him. Just two highly competitive guys finishing and making a play. Much like last week, I just like the overall demeanor of the collective in those moments when it’s thick. Nobody's acting funny. You can drill it, but it’s just that. It’s a drill. The reality of it is always a little bit different than the drill work.”
And just like that, a 2-6 team that'd appeared to be dragging its young offense into an outright disastrous second half somehow enters the NFL's 18th week at 8-8 with a shot at a winning record and at least a mathematical shot at making the playoffs. Neither's optimal in a broader scenario, obviously, but to recover at that scale and while committing to the kids on this offense ...
"It took time," Najee'd tell me. "But it was always going to take time."
"I think it's just confidence that I've always had in myself now showing up on the field," Kenny'd say. "And I think guys are starting to feel that, which is always good. Going into the huddle and seeing how confident everyone is, as a quarterback, you know they have a lot of belief in you. And I have a lot of belief in those guys in the huddle. When that's there, you definitely have a shot. So this is a step in the right direction."
He then caught himself.
"But you know, there's a lot of business to take care of.”
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GETTY
Kenny Pickett throws the winning touchdown pass to ...
GETTY
... Najee Harris, who catches it, holds on, and stays in-bounds.
• Playoffs? Playoffs?
Be prepared to break out the Jim Mora impersonations after seeing what still needs to occur, per Chris Halicke.
• When an offense grinds out 198 yards on the ground, it's never about one person. Chris has that angle, and all I'll add is a rare tip of the cap to Matt Canada for utilizing Najee and Jaylen Warren in the same backfield for the first time. On every such occasion, it felt as if Warren could spring one.
• Oh, let's hear it for the line, too.
No, not Tomlin's awkward remark toward reporters: “Those guys have been on the upswing all year. Matter of fact, you guys stopped asking me about them in a negative light. That’s probably a good thing.” He hadn't been asked a 'negative light' question about those guys in more than two months, back when such questions were very much merited.
Rather, let's hear it for Dotson sharing with me how this week's game plan required him to do most of his blocking at Baltimore's second level:
Don't pass that without pressing play. It's tremendous inside-football stuff.
• I'm told that Tomlin's halftime words for his players were ... robust.
• Say what one will of how long it took, but credit to Tomlin and the defensive staff, also, for finally utilizing Mark Robinson and, within that, for informing Robinson and DeMarvin Leal that they'd have prominent roles in this game because of their propensity for being physical.
"Can’t say enough about those young guys stepping up," Tomlin would say. "The reason we played them is, although they lack experience, the type of game that we were in lended itself to their approach to ball. They’re combative, confrontational young people, and it was needed.”
Robinson had seven tackles, Leal three.
Between Robinson and Robert Spillane, who had a team-high nine tackles -- eight solos! -- and Myles Jack leaving with an injury, it was all but exposed where Devin Bush really belongs on the depth chart. And for that matter, why he won't be back in 2023.
• Robinson's assignment was almost gimmicky, with him lining up in the C-gap as extra reinforcement against the run. Harbaugh lamented that the Ravens "never adjusted" to it, adding, "We should've attacked it."
• I asked Robinson about his evening, and he lit up: "I'm so happy to be out there. I love the action, man."
T.J. Watt, at the next stall, giggled upon overhearing it.
"Mark throws his face in the fan every time he's going to hit hard," he'd say. "I’m super-proud of the development he's showing this year."
• Speaking of T.J., how about a sack, two tackles for loss, three quarterback hits and a welcome menacing presence throughout.
"Tell you what," he'd tell me. "That's the healthiest I've felt in a long time. That was so nice."
• This Cam Heyward incident was almost such a stupid, stupid thing. I had a good talk with the big man afterward, and he seemed genuinely relieved it didn't impact the result, but wow, imagine if it had. And from there, imagine the outcry for the NFL to allow replay challenge for something like that.
• Danny Smith's abysmal-on-this-day special teams shouldn't be lost in the victory. A missed field goal, a long kick return allowed late and two penalties ... that ain't it.
• Anyone still complaining about a first-round pick being invested in a running back?
• Every game should end with a Minkah Fitzpatrick interception. It'd be like the national anthem in reverse or something.
This one rolled the credits right after Minkah read Ty Huntley's eyes on Baltimore's final snap.
“A couple of plays before, they were in the exact same look, same play," Minkah recalled. "He scrambled and looked back across the field. I think the guy was open behind me, but he threw it short. That was really critical. I felt the guy going across my back and just made a break on the ball.”
Of that same pass, all Huntley would say is, "Minkah made a play."
• Thanks for reading my football work, as ever. I don't take it for granted.
• Happy new year!
GETTY
The defense celebrates Minkah Fitzpatrick's game-sealing interception.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Schedule
• Standings
• Statistics
THE INJURIES
Hurt in the game: LB Myles Jack (groin) and CB James Pierre (concussion) exited and didn't return. Chris has the full report.
The inactives: S Tre Norwood (hamstring), QB Mason Rudolph, LB Malik Reed, G Kendrick Green, LB Tae Crowder, DT Jonathan Marshall.
THE SCHEDULE
Well, there'll be a game against the Browns, it'll be Sunday, and it'll be at Acrisure Stadium. All we know for now. Still no kickoff time. Chris and I will be there.
THE MULTIMEDIA
THE CONTENT
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