The Ravens’ journey in the playoffs is set to continue.
The Steelers, meanwhile, will enter the offseason with plenty of questions to answer.
Baltimore cruised to a 28-14 victory Saturday night over Pittsburgh in the AFC wild-card round, clinching a spot in the divisional round. The Ravens are headed to the second round of the playoffs for the second year in a row (they had the first-round bye last year as the AFC’s No. 1 overall seed).
Here’s what we learned from Saturday’s game.
Ravens: These Ravens have what it takes to win the Super Bowl — something Lamar Jackson & Co. haven’t been able to do in previous years despite their regular-season success. It’s because of the Derrick Henry effect on their run game, which doesn’t need to be overly reliant on Jackson’s legs anymore. The former Tennessee Titans star had 26 carries for 186 yards and two touchdowns in the win over the Steelers, leading a Ravens rushing attack that produced 299 yards.
Henry registered 1,921 yards and 16 touchdowns in the regular season, but quite frankly, that’s not enough for these Ravens. The standard is reaching (and hopefully winning) the Super Bowl after falling short in the playoffs repeatedly in the Jackson era, including last season’s loss to the Chiefs in the AFC championship game.
Henry’s power translating to the start of the playoffs — albeit against a struggling Steelers team — is a needed sight for the franchise, offering a relief of sorts. It’s also a reminder of how historically dominant Henry is at this point on the calendar. He entered the postseason averaging the most rushing yards per game in December or later (99.8) in the Super Bowl era, including the playoffs (minimum of 30 games played). With his performance Saturday night, he’s now tied with Hall of Famer Terrell Davis for the most playoff games of at least 150 rushing yards (4).
On the other side of the ball, Baltimore’s defense started to bend in the third quarter, allowing multiple explosive pass plays against the Steelers. That won’t cut it against the caliber of AFC offenses the team could face in the divisional round or the conference championship game. But the Ravens were great enough defensively in the first half (they posted a shutout) and showed enough as the league’s No. 1-rated defense over the eight weeks of the regular season that how the wild card ended shouldn’t be too much of a concern.
This is what it comes down to: The Ravens have Jackson, Henry and an ascendant defense. Yes, having leading receiver Zay Flowers out of the picture due to his knee injury (at least temporarily) hurts Baltimore. But overall, the team has everything it needs to make a run at the Super Bowl. Anything short of representing the AFC in New Orleans should be considered a failure.
Steelers: This becomes the most pressing question in Pittsburgh: Who’ll be the starting quarterback in 2025?
A couple of months ago, Russell Wilson — who’s scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent this offseason — was the easy answer. There was talk of him receiving a deal of at least $30 million per season. He started his tenure as the Steelers’ QB1 on a heater, after all. He played efficient football. He guided Pittsburgh to a 6-1 record in his first seven games. But everything fell apart offensively over the last four weeks of the season, all losses. His play regressed. Now you add this playoff dud to the conversation.
Then there’s Justin Fields, who’s also set to be a free agent. As Pittsburgh’s starter the first six weeks of the season, he was OK. He made good decisions, didn’t turn the ball over and was a major rushing threat with his legs. He’s also just 25 years old. But he hasn’t shown the ability to threaten defenses vertically — which Wilson was able to do when he was inserted as the starter, opening up Pittsburgh’s offense.
Really, there are no easy answers for the Steelers. Slotted in the back half of the first round, they won’t be in position to grab a quarterback in what’s considered a weak draft at the position anyway. Free agency is what they must look at if they don’t re-sign Wilson and/or Fields.
But even with that, is playing better at signal-caller enough to lift a Steelers team that has now lost six straight playoff games?
Ben Arthur is an NFL reporter for FOX Sports. He previously worked for The Tennessean/USA TODAY Network, where he was the Titans beat writer for a year and a half. He covered the Seattle Seahawks for SeattlePI.com for three seasons (2018-20) prior to moving to Tennessee. You can follow Ben on Twitter at @benyarthur.
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