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Brooke Pryor
BALTIMORE — Seven days after fans at Acrisure Stadium loudly chanted for him to be fired, Pittsburgh Steelers coach Mike Tomlin blew a kiss to the camera as he walked off the field after the Steelers’ 27-22 win against the Baltimore Ravens.
Quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who completed 23 of 34 attempts for 284 yards with a passing touchdown and a rushing score, was blunt when asked what the win meant for Tomlin and the Steelers, who face questions about their coach’s job security after their loss to the Buffalo Bills in Week 13.
«Means maybe you guys would shut the hell up for a week,» Rodgers said with a smirk.
The outside noise reached a fever pitch in the fourth quarter against the Bills, but Steelers players insisted they ignored calls for Tomlin to lose his job.
DK Metcalf, who had a season-high 148 yards on seven receptions (12 targets). «Coach T is a great leader for us, and he’s done nothing but take the bullets for us. Even when we’re high and when we’re low, he’s always come in every day, has been steady and stayed the same, always motivated us to always play our best ball, and that’s what he did last week.
«We knew what was at stake — first place in this heated rivalry, and yeah, the better team came on top.»
The Steelers (7-6) entered the day with a 63.1% chance to make the playoffs if they beat the Ravens (6-7), according to ESPN Analytics. A loss would’ve dropped Pittsburgh to 16.8%.
Not only did the win significantly improve the Steelers’ playoff odds, which sat at just 32% entering the game, but it also gave Tomlin a 22-17 head-to-head record, including the playoffs, against Ravens coach John Harbaugh, the most wins by one coach over another coach in the Super Bowl era, according to ESPN Research.
«I’m grateful for how calm he stayed throughout the process, ups and downs,» edge rusher Alex Highsmith said of Tomlin’s demeanor this week. «He continues to come in and be the same coach that he is day in and day out.
«… I love playing for him. I love playing for this team. We’re just going to keep fighting and keep stacking wins.»
The Steelers led by as many as 14 points in the first half as Rodgers connected on the kind of downfield throws that had eluded him throughout the season. Rodgers hit Metcalf for a 52-yard completion — on a pass that traveled 44 air yards — on the first play of the game to set the tone for the game. Before that completion, Steelers quarterbacks were 0-for-10 on passes that traveled at least 20 air yards from Week 9 to Week 13, according to ESPN Research.
Then, as the Ravens cut into their deficit with a pair of touchdowns, and the Steelers’ offense sputtered, Pittsburgh’s defense stepped up to close out the win. Though the offense went three-and-out in its three fourth-quarter possessions, the Steelers’ defense held the Ravens to two field goals, a turnover on downs and a walk-off sack by Highsmith.
The Steelers blitzed Jackson on nine of his 20 fourth-quarter dropbacks. In the first three quarters, Pittsburgh brought a blitz on just 5 of 20 dropbacks.
Cincinnati’s 39-34 loss to the Bills — they acknowledged they need to add to it with a strong outing against the Dolphins on «Monday Night Football» next week.
«We just got to stack it,» said Patrick Queen, a former Raven who got his first win as a visitor at M&T Bank Stadium on Sunday.
«I don’t think we even think [the win] is a confidence-booster, I think it’s just the fact that we just got to go out there and do it again. I think it’s more of us being consistent. It was flashes this game; we still wasn’t as consistent as we need to be.»
Sunday marked the Steelers’ first true road win since they beat the Patriots in New England in Week 3, but they still haven’t won back-to-back games since beating the Patriots, Vikings and Browns in consecutive outings from Week 3 to Week 6. Three of the Steelers’ final four games are against AFC opponents, including a road meeting with Cleveland and a regular-season finale hosting the Ravens.
«Everything is about the future,» Queen said. «Today, we just had to be present and do what we had to do to control our destiny in the future.»
