Derrick Henry, Ravens run all over Steelers in rare rivalry blowout to tie for AFC North lead

BALTIMORE — The Pittsburgh Steelers came here with a chance to clinch the AFC North championship but failed to heed the whistle of a warning from one of the Charm City’s most memorable TV characters.

You come at the king, you best not miss.

A depleted defense couldn’t stop the one-two punch of Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson, and Russell Wilson had a pair of pivotal turnovers as the defending division champion Baltimore Ravens beat the Steelers, 34-17, on Saturday afternoon before 71,313 at M&T Bank Stadium.

It was a rare blowout in a rivalry that normally comes down to the wire as the previous nine games were decided by seven points or fewer. The Steelers had won eight of those games, including four consecutive here.

Instead of a celebration, the Steelers sought consolation.

“We didn’t take advantage of that,” Steelers defensive tackle Cameron Heyward said of the opportunity to secure a home game in the first round of the playoffs. “We talked about a hat-and-T-shirt type of game, but just the recipe we had was not conducive to winning this game.”

The Steelers (10-5) followed a 27-14 loss at the Philadelphia Eagles on Dec. 15 by dropping their second consecutive game and a chance to clinch the division title for the first time since 2020. They still own the tiebreaker advantage over the Ravens (10-5) but host the reigning Super Bowl champion Kansas City Chiefs (14-1) on Christmas Day.

“We didn’t do what we needed to do to secure victory,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. “Really specifically, we didn’t control the run game. We never did. And when you don’t, you’ve got to do some splash plays or win the turnover battle in a significant way. And we didn’t do that, either.”

The Steelers failed to stop Henry, who entered the game as the NFL’s second-leading rusher. The 6-foot-3, 247-pounder ran for 162 yards on 24 carries for his seventh 100-yard game of the season.

Henry became the second rusher to eclipse the 100-yard mark against the Steelers this season, with Tyrone Tracy Jr. of the New York Giants the only other to do so when he ran for 145 yards in a 26-18 loss on Oct. 28.

Jackson entered the game with a 1-4 record as a starter against the Steelers but completed 15 of 23 pass attempts for 207 yards and three touchdowns, finding Zay Flowers five times for 100 yards against a Steelers secondary that was without its top two cornerbacks.

That was irrelevant to the run game, as Tomlin duly noted.

The Steelers played without four starters: strong safety DeShon Elliott (hamstring), cornerback Donte Jackson (back), defensive tackle Larry Ogunjobi (groin) and wide receiver George Pickens (hamstring). Compounding matters, cornerback Joey Porter Jr. left the game in the first quarter with a knee injury and made an aborted attempt to return.

As important, the Steelers failed to recover a pair of Ravens special teams mishaps, including a fumble by Desmond King on a punt return that gave them favorable field position when Chris Board recovered it at the Pittsburgh 41.

Henry ripped off runs of 11, 13 and 9 yards to set up Jackson’s 9-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Isaiah Likely for a 7-0 lead at 5:52 of the first quarter. It was the start of a strong game for Henry, who averaged 6.8 yards and has 1,636 yards this season.

“Once he gets going, he goes north-south,” Heyward said. “It’s hard to bring him down.”

The Steelers answered with a 10-play, 73-yard scoring drive that saw Wilson connect with Ben Skowronek on passes of 17 and 8 yards and Van Jefferson on a 21-yarder that set up a 1-yard touchdown pass to tight end MyCole Pruitt to tie the score 7-7 in the second quarter.

After Jordan Stout shanked a punt, the Steelers turned to their running game and got 11-yard gains from Jaylen Warren and Najee Harris. But when Wilson rolled right and saw open field, he sprinted 19 yards toward the end zone before being undercut by Ravens free safety Ar’Darius Washington to force a fumble that was recovered for a turnover by Ravens linebacker Kyle Van Noy at the Baltimore 4.

“It’s unacceptable. It can’t happen,” said Wilson, who completed passes to 10 receivers in going 22 of 33 for 217 yards and two touchdowns with an interception. “Going into the end zone, I was going for it. I’m not going to fear going for it.”

The Ravens responded by driving 96 yards on eight plays as Jackson picked apart the Steelers defense with passes of 19 and 25 yards before finding Rashod Bateman in the left corner of the end zone for a 14-yard touchdown and a 14-7 Baltimore lead at 7 minutes, 28 seconds of the second quarter.

Justin Tucker converted a 51-yard field goal with 1:43 left in the half to give the Ravens a 17-7 lead, but Wilson led a hurry-up offense downfield to set up Chris Boswell’s 51-yarder and cut it to 17-10 as time expired in the first half.

The Steelers wasted no time going for the jugular in the second half as Wilson tossed a 44-yard pass to Calvin Austin III along the visiting sideline on the first play. They connected again on third-and-6 for a 16-yard gain. The Steelers then brought in Cordarrelle Patterson for a corner fade over outside linebacker Malik Harrison to tie it 17-17 at 5:14 of the third quarter.

But Baltimore answered with a 60-yard scoring drive that featured three plays of 14 yards or longer and was capped by Jackson’s 7-yard scoring pass to tight end Mark Andrews for a 24-17 lead. It marked Jackson’s 37th touchdown pass of the season, a Ravens record.

After punting on fourth-and-7 in the fourth quarter last week at Philadelphia, the Steelers decided to go for it on fourth-and-6 at the Baltimore 45 to start the fourth quarter. Austin was open on a deep post, but Wilson’s pass was underthrown, giving the Ravens the ball on a turnover on downs.

Henry immediately made the Steelers pay, breaking a 44-yard run along the home sideline to the Steelers 11. But Steelers free safety Minkah Fitzpatrick picked off Jackson’s pass on the next play for his first interception since the 2022 season finale.

The Steelers’ fortunes were short-lived as Wilson threw a pick-6. He ran a play-action rollout to the right and threw on the run to Pruitt, but cornerback Marlon Humphrey intercepted the pass and returned it 37 yards for a touchdown and a 31-17 Ravens lead with 13:06 left.

“That definitely changed the game,” Wilson said, “when they got the interception.”

Tomlin elected to punt on fourth-and-12 from midfield, pinning the Ravens at their own 8. Once again, Baltimore put together a back-breaking drive by going 86 yards on 11 plays in a drive that covered 6:09 before Tucker made a 23-yard field goal for a 17-point lead.

Wilson took blame for his two “significant” turnovers, knowing that they proved costly for the Steelers with so much riding on the outcome. Wilson emphasized putting this loss behind the Steelers, given their short turnaround before playing the Chiefs on Wednesday.

“I put that game on me, in the sense that there (were) two great opportunities there for me,” Wilson said. “The one thing I’m not going to do is keep my head down. For us, we’ve got so much great confidence in who we are and what we can do and how we can respond. That’s the only way. There’s a lot of good things we’ve been doing all year. We can’t let a tough game like this take us to a negative state of mind. There’s a lot more to play for, a lot more we’re searching for.”