The final score of Saturday night's wild card matchup between the Steelers and Ravens indicates a closer game than was had. The Steelers managed to outscore the Ravens 14-7 in the second half, securing a respectable-if-you-squint 28-14 final score. But everything that happened in the second half of this game—all those nice passes Russell Wilson threw to his receivers—was perfunctory, because by halftime the Steelers had already been run over and left for dead.
"Run over" is not a metaphor in this instance. There is simply no other way to describe what happened to the Steelers through the game's first two quarters, in which the Ravens built a 21-0 lead. After the Steelers ended the first drive of the game with a punt, the Ravens went on a 13-play, 95-yard drive that ended in a touchdown and ate just over seven minutes off the clock. The Ravens ran the ball on nine of those 13 plays, and it became immediately clear that the Steelers' defense was incapable of stopping the Ravens' ground attack. Derrick Henry's first big run of the game went for 34 yards and came as the result of a direct snap. It was a play that augured what was to come: The Ravens' offensive line creating huge gaps for Henry to run through, and Henry dishing out physical punishment to any defender brave enough to try and tackle him. I guess you could say Henry used a stiff arm on Minkah Fitzpatrick to gain a few more yards at the end of that run, but it was really more of a punch.
Derrick Henry absolutely son'd Minkah Fitzpatrick. Sent him to hell. #Ravens #Steelers #NFL
— Adam Silverstein (@adamsilverstein.bsky.social) 2025-01-12T01:29:13.699Z
After a brief spurt of punts, the Ravens decided to see just how far they could push their physical advantages over the Steelers, and so their second scoring drive of the game became a monument to brawny football. This one was for the sickos: Thirteen plays, all of them runs, 85 yards, and just under eight minutes stripped from the clock. It's worth seeing the drive laid out in all its turf-chewing glory, just to get a sense for how relentless the Ravens were:
- Derrick Henry left tackle for one yard
- Lamar Jackson up the middle for eight yards
- Mark Andrews (direct snap) up the middle for three yards
- Derrick Henry up the middle for eight yards
- Lamar Jackson right tackle for one yard
- Derrick Henry right guard for three yards
- Derrick Henry left tackle for two yards
- Lamar Jackson scramble for 20 yards
- Lamar Jackson scramble for two yards
- Lamar Jackson right end for nine yards
- Derrick Henry left guard for three yards
- Derrick Henry left end for 17 yards
- Derrick Henry left guard for eight yards; touchdown
Once a team demonstrates that it can do something like that to their opponents in a playoff game, there's no need to worry too much about what the final outcome will look like. The Steelers were squashed, trampled, and buried; they were never getting back in this game. The final stats paint a picture of destruction: Fifty of the Ravens' 72 plays were runs, and they finished with 299 yards on the ground. Henry accounted for 186 of those yards on 26 carries, and Jackson added 81 yards on 15 carries.
It's hard to understand how the Ravens ever lost five games—a Week 2 loss to the Raiders? How?—but there's no need to fret about the past. This is a team that has the best offense in the NFL, the best quarterback in the NFL, the biggest and strongest running back in the NFL, and what might be the league's most unstoppable scheme. The Ravens' RPO attack functions more or less like an elite pick-and-roll; Jackson and Henry run those plays with such perfect balance, understanding, and timing that they can manipulate defenders to move in whatever direction they want, creating openings to attack. T.J. Watt is supposed to be one of the best defensive players in football, and he spent all of Saturday night tackling ghosts. The final highlight of the game, Henry's 44-yard touchdown run in the second half, was a perfect demonstration of how Jackson can use his gravity in the RPO to create running lanes for Henry. Jackson stuck the ball in Henry's gut and held onto it for as long as he possibly could. When he finally released the handoff and burst out of the backfield without the ball, he had drawn half of the Steelers' defense with him to the left side of the formation, leaving Henry on the right with nothing but green grass to run into.
I don't know if the Ravens play a purer form of football than any other team in the league, but there is no offense that's more satisfying to watch when it is humming at full capacity. Football is a complicated game, but sometimes having the best offense in the league is just as simple as this: Get two of the league's most dynamic athletes in the same backfield, put their hands on the ball at the same time, and take advantage of the ensuing panic.
