Feats of Strength: Another late Kenny Pickett TD drive, Najee Harris' exploits 'push' Steelers to victory in Baltimore

It appears that the Steelers made a whole bunch of New Year’s resolutions in their game against the Baltimore Ravens.

They just waited until New Year’s Day was almost over to follow through on them.

For a long time, it looked like the Steelers were going to get all the outside help they needed on Sunday to keep their playoff hopes alive, only to fritter it away with an anemic performance in Baltimore. It wasn’t until the late fourth quarter of their own game that the Steelers managed to wake up on both sides of the ball to the point that they could muster a win against their hated AFC North rivals on Sunday night.

We may have taken down the Festivus pole. But that doesn’t mean we’re going to pass up a chance to acknowledge some Feats of Strength — and have our usual Airing of Grievances — after a 16-13 Steelers victory in Maryland to keep postseason fantasies alive.

FEATS OF STRENGTH

Carbon copy: As was the case during last week’s win over the Las Vegas Raiders, the Steelers offense did very little through the first three quarters.

But, just like in that victory over Vegas, quarterback Kenny Pickett led the Steelers on a touchdown drive to win the game on the offense’s last possession. Last week, it was a pass to George Pickens with 46 seconds left. This time it was a TD strike to Najee Harris with 56 seconds left.

OH. MY.

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— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) January 2, 2023

Pickett started the drive at his own 20 with 4:16 left in the game. He only had 168 yards passing the whole night, but 64 of those yards came on that game-winning series. The biggest connection of the drive was a 28-yard strike to Steven Sims.

The Najee nudge: Harris was very impactful, beyond just the game-winning touchdown. The second-year back ran for 111 yards on 22 carries.

He also came up with a big play on a third down in the red zone on the game-winning drive. Harris shoved Pickett forward to get a first down through a wall of defenders on a quarterback sneak the Ravens appeared to have stuffed. But, thanks to Harris, Pickett was able to fall forward and get the first down.

In general, the ground game was great. It totaled 198 yards after Baltimore gobbled up 215 against the Steelers in the first game. Jaylen Warren chipped in with 76 yards rushing.

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• ‘The kid’s growing before our eyes’ — Another winning drive led by Steelers’ QB Kenny Pickett

Meanwhile, Baltimore’s rush offense was good. It ended up with 120 yards. But that is 46 yards below the team’s average. And in terms of allowing rush yards, the Ravens entered the game the third-best defense in the NFL at only 87.5 per contest.

So credit both the offensive and defensive lines for the Steelers for improvement against Baltimore in the trenches. Also, Pickett was sacked just twice, even if he did have to rely on his legs a few times to escape pressure.

“You totally redeemed yourself!”: Cam Heyward got busted for an ill-advised personal foul in the second quarter. But he came up with a huge stop in the fourth quarter.

On third-and-2, Baltimore running back J.K. Dobbins was stuffed by Heyward and Mark Robinson with just over five minutes remaining. That forced a punt and gave Pickett plenty of time to execute the game-winning drive.

Dobbins had another good game against the Steelers, totaling 93 yards rushing. He had 120 in the first meeting of the year. But fellow running back Gus Edwards and quarterback Tyler Huntley got nothing done on the ground. They totaled 26 yards on 10 rushing attempts.

Got it when they needed it: The Steelers didn’t force a turnover against the Ravens in the first meeting. And for the first 59 minutes of this game, they failed to do so again.

But Minkah Fitzpatrick finally was able to pick off Huntley with 13 seconds remaining.

MINKAH MAGIC

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— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) January 2, 2023

The Steelers now have 18 interceptions, tied with the New England Patriots for the most in the NFL. Fitzpatrick was huge during the game. Despite suffering an injury along the sidelines in the third quarter, Fitzpatrick came back and turned in nine tackles to go along with his interception.

On Dec. 11 at Acrisure Stadium, it was the Ravens who had three interceptions, while the Steelers had none.

Get a little help?: The Steelers got all the help they could in the early games with the Dolphins’ loss in New England and the Seahawks’ defeat of the Jets.

Now the Steelers need to beat the Cleveland Browns next week and have the Jets turn around and beat the Dolphins. Then the Steelers can claim the last wild-card spot if the Patriots also lose to the Buffalo Bills.

I certainly like Buffalo’s chances of helping out. But the Jets — now eliminated from the playoffs — would have to snap a five-game losing streak if they are to help the Steelers.

Then again, the Dolphins have lost five in a row, too, and may be down to their third-string quarterback.

AIRING OF GRIEVANCES

Downward spiral: A series of failures at the end of the second quarter almost cost the Steelers the game.

Chris Boswell missed a 48-yard field goal with 3:35 left in the first half. Baltimore took over at its own 38-yard line and marched down the field. The drive included a 9-yard completion to Mark Andrews when the All-Pro tight end was left completely uncovered.

Eventually, the Steelers stopped the Ravens on a third-and-16. But Heyward got an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty during a scrum on the pile after the stop.

So instead of just settling for a field goal with 11 seconds remaining in the half, the Ravens took a shot at the end zone and scored on a pass to Isaiah Likely. The Steelers knew Huntley was going to throw. Yet they couldn’t cover and couldn’t generate a pass rush.

That's LIKELY 6@_SNOOP1 to @DaGorilla4

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— Baltimore Ravens (@Ravens) January 2, 2023

Heyward got into a shouting match with Fitzpatrick on the sideline after the sequence. The Ravens then bridged halftime by going 42 yards to set up a Justin Tucker field goal to open the third quarter.

Keep an eye on that guy: The Ravens really only have one receiving threat. It’s Andrews.

Yet he was wide open much of the night. Andrews caught his first six targets for 72 yards. He wound up with 100 yards on nine receptions. The simplicity of finding the tight ends made life a lot easier for Huntley who completed 11 of his first 13 passes. He was sacked just once on the night.

It felt like one of those old games against the New England Patriots when the Steelers knew Tom Brady was looking for Rob Gronkowski and they could do nothing about it.

Feels familiar: As is often the case, the Steelers lost the special teams battle to the Ravens.

In Game 1, Boswell had a kick blocked and Pressley Harvin flubbed a 17-yard punt. On Sunday night, the Steelers allowed a 56-yard return to Justice Hill and Boswell missed that field goal in the first quarter. Plus, the punt return team was flagged for two holding calls.

Meanwhile, Tucker made both of his field-goal attempts, including a 51-yarder. And punter Jordan Stout plunked two punts inside the 20 and had a 56-yarder.

Although if that last punt had only been about 50 yards, that would’ve been better. It went into the end zone for a touchback, giving Pickett 20 free yards to start his game-winning drive.