Kirk Herbstreit issued a scathing indictment of the Steelers’ effort to begin their wild-card spherical loss to the Ravens on Saturday, as Baltimore jumped out to an early two-touchdown lead and Pittsburgh — once more — struggled to generate any form of offensive rhythm in response.
“It’s one thing to lose X-Os against a really talented offense,” Herbstreit mentioned on the Amazon Prime broadcast with simply over 4 minutes remaining within the first half, “but where the hell is the fight? This is the Pittsburgh Steelers. There’s nothing. They’re just going through the motions.”
The identical points that plagued the Steelers to shut the common season, once they misplaced 4 consecutive video games and 5 of their final seven, carried over into their opening postseason matchup, when the Ravens outgained them 464-280 in whole yards and 299-29 on the bottom.
Derrick Henry ran by way of defenders and picked up 186 yards and two speeding touchdowns, and the Steelers — after falling behind 21-0 late within the second quarter — didn’t handle any factors till Russell Wilson hit Van Jefferson for a 30-yard landing within the third quarter.
“If I were a Steelers fan, the thing that would concern me watching this first half, you’re in the postseason,” Herbstreit mentioned in the course of the second quarter. “You’re getting dominated. I don’t see any fight. I don’t see any pushback.”
At one level, after the Pittsburgh protection lastly compelled Lamar Jackson and the Ravens to punt, the Steelers had an opportunity to trim their deficit to 1 possession, however the offense stalled.
They punted the ball again to Baltimore.
And with the clock persevering with to empty within the fourth quarter, that each one however sealed their postseason exit.
“They were the better group today,” head coach Mike Tomlin instructed reporters postgame, in response to the Related Press. “The X factor was Lamar’s unique talents. It seems like every time we got him behind the sticks, he made up for it.”
Wilson, who snagged the beginning job from Justin Fields after lacking the primary six video games with an damage, accomplished 20 of 29 passes for 270 yards and two touchdowns, however an offense that struggled in the course of the common season by averaging 22.4 factors per sport and the Tenth-fewest yards per sport (319.4) within the NFL couldn’t hit both of these marks as soon as the playoffs arrived towards a stout Baltimore unit.
After advancing, the Ravens will both journey to Orchard Park to face the Payments — if Buffalo, the No. 2 seed, defeats the No. 7 seed Broncos on Sunday — or host the No. 4 seed Texans within the divisional spherical subsequent weekend.
