The Ravens And Steelers Made A Mess At The Classic Factory

If the NFC South got the ending it deserved, then so too did the AFC North. The division's season finale couldn't quite match the pathetic reality of two 8-9 teams sitting at home, rooting for two other losing teams to send them to playoffs, but it perfectly captured that which defined this division throughout the season: the perception of prestige undermined by the cold hard reality of badly played football.

Take a quick glance at the result of Sunday night's winner-goes-to-the-playoffs game between the Steelers and Ravens, and you might think we just saw a classic unfold. Here were the two doyens of the division locked in a battle for survival, adding a new chapter to their rivalry that concluded with the Steelers claiming a division title in a 26-24 victory that came down to the last play. Look a little closer, though, and you'll see what this game actually was: one fuck-up crashing into the next.

First, let's acknowledge some of the good stuff that happened. Lamar Jackson, returning to the field for the first time since leaving Week 16's game with a back injury, did some nice stuff out there, and it looked like his 238-yard, three-touchdown performance was going to be enough to drag his team to the playoffs, especially when combined with Derrick Henry's 126 yards on 20 carries. On the other side of the ball, Aaron Rodgers looked a bit like his old self—at least in the fourth quarter, where he completed 11 of 14 passes for 130 yards and a touchdown. Kenneth Gainwell and Jaylen Warren had some nice plays too, I guess.

OK, now for the bad stuff. The Steelers' offense was so bad to start this game that it was booed by the home crowd. Rodgers, stuck in the prison of self-doubt that has turned him into a guy who is terrified to hold onto the ball for more than two seconds, looked doomed to spend the game dinking and dunking useless passes to his running backs. The Steelers, unable to move the ball on offense or stop Henry on defense, were begging to be put away in the first half, but the Ravens only managed to build a 10-3 lead. That lead was put under threat by the Steelers' first productive drive of the game, which brought them to the goal line with two seconds left in the half. Give Mike Tomlin credit for going for the score instead of taking the field goal. Absolutely do not give him credit for calling a toss play to the left, where one blocker was stranded against two defenders, and getting Gainwell stuffed short of the end zone.

The second half wasn't much better. The Steelers scored a touchdown on their first drive of the third quarter, and then tacked on a field goal after Jackson had a pass tipped into TJ Watt's hands. Jackson threw what looked like a knockout blow a few minutes later, smoothly evading a Steelers blitz to find Zay Flowers wide open for a 50-yard touchdown. A competent but mostly uninspiring 17-13 victory for the Ravens is probably how this game should have ended, but then the disastrous mistakes started to pile up.

Ravens kicker Tyler Loop booted the next kickoff out of bounds, giving the Steelers a short field on which to grind out another touchdown drive that for some reason required Rodgers and Tomlin burning their final two timeouts. The Steelers would be up 20-17 only briefly though, because the defense completely lost track of Flowers again, who caught a 64-yard touchdown pass to make it 24-20. And then Rodgers had his biggest play of the season, which was actually just Chidobe Awuzie's biggest mistake of his career. On third-and-10 with just under a minute left to play, Awuzie slipped in coverage and left Calvin Austin wide open for a 26-yard touchdown.

Somehow, there were still more ruinous mistakes to come. Steelers kicker Chris Boswell missed the extra point, making it 26-24, and then Pittsburgh's special teams unit gave up a 41-yard return on the kickoff. The Ravens looked like they were easily going to drive into field goal range, but were derailed when Ronnie Stanley drew a flag for not lining up on the damn line of scrimmage. Pushed to a fourth-and-7 with 21 seconds left to play, Jackson and Isaiah Likely teamed up for what was perhaps the only genuinely great play of the game: a 26-yard catch down the seam that Likely had to leap into the sky to corral.

Convinced that his rookie kicker didn't need the ball any closer to win the game, John Harbaugh burned a down to center the ball, and then left it all to Loop from 44 yards out. Oops!

A devastating missed field goal, followed immediately by a triumphant Mike Tomlin pounding his chest and blowing a kiss to the camera, is the ending this game ultimately deserved. If you aren't wincing in secondhand embarrassment, you aren't watching AFC North football.

The Texans' defense is going to remove all of Aaron Rodgers's limbs from his body next week.