After the season they had, with the Ray Rice scandal, and barely squeezing into the playoffs with a little help, the Baltimore Ravens still had a mountain to climb. The team had never won a game in Pittsburgh in the postseason, until now.
With field goals being kicked for much of the first half, it seemed like a defensive battle between the two AFC teams. The game’s only touchdown came on a Bernard Pierce 5-yard run.
The second half was all Ravens.
The Steelers could not get anything going in the 3rd quarter and only scored once in the second half, compared to the touchdowns and field goals that the Ravens were putting on the board, completely blowing the game wide open.
By the 4th quarter, Pittsburgh was driving for a comeback and got hit with crucial penalties and key injuries to Ben Roethlisberger and Heath Miller. One one play, Big Ben was taken down on a sack and hit his helmet on the ground, immediately drawing the concussion protocol to see if he was truly injured.
By the time he re-entered the game, he threw a pick in the back of the endzone to seal the victory for Baltimore.
The Steelers didn’t seem to get anything going for much of the game, partly in part because they were without start running back Le’Veon Bell and holding Antonio Brown in check for much of the game. The Ravens defense also put plenty pressure on Roethlisberger, sacking him 5 times, even though he threw for 334 yards.
Baltimore now heads to New England to face the red hot Patriots, who were knocked out of the playoffs in 2012 by the Ravens, in their Super Bowl run that year.