Steelers top Ravens in rematch
“They kicked for 3 and didn’t score 6,’’ cornerback Joe Haden noted. “That’s really big in making sure we win.”
Those two Ravens drives sputtered at the 5, once when Flacco did not see backup quarterback Lamar Jackson wide open on the right and threw down the middle incomplete. The other came when Hilton tackled Jackson ona run for a 1-yard loss.
And while the Ravens came up short near the end zone, the Steelers came up big. Ben Roethlisberger threw touchdown passes of 7 yards to Conner and 6 yards to AntonioBrown in the first half.
Then, they began the second half with a 75-yard drive that ended with Roethlisberger’s1-yard sneak for a 20-6 lead.
What a difference a month canmake in the NFL.
“We’ve come a long way,’’ said JuJu Smith-Schuster, who led the Steelers with 78 yards receiving and tied Connerwith seven receptions.
“The first game, they just beat us,’’ said free safety Sean Davis, who is a big reason for the improvement on defense. “They wore us down, we couldn’t stop the run. Today, we did what we were supposed to do. We stopped the run and didn’t allow them to make big plays on us.”
Added tackle Al Villanueva: “We were not very good the last time we played the Ravens at home. We knew this was a great chance to redeem some of the mistakes that we made.”
Flacco has not looked good lately. His relatively poor 77.4 passer rating Sunday followed two games of 60 and under since he thew for 363 yards and two touchdowns against the Steelers at Heinz Field.
“He was a little flustered,’’ Hilton said. “We knew our front four was going to be able to get a pass rush, especially with both tackles out of thegame.”
Hilton helped contribute on Baltimore’s first field-goal drive. He leaped in the end zone to knock the ball away from tight end Mark Andrews, 9 inches taller than the5-8 cornerback.
He also had his finger on what has changed with the Steelers.
“Everybody’s focused, everybody’s healthy, everybody’s back in rhythm. We’re finding that rhythm. We’re tackling a lot better, that’s something that really plagued usearly in the season.”
Or, as Cam Heyward put it simply, “We’re doing more thingsright than wrong.”
It’s also no coincidence that Conner rushed for 100 yards in each of these past four wins, scoring seven touchdowns in that time, his first as a receiver Sunday in theNFL.
“That’s common,’’ guard David DeCastro said. “You’re able to run the ball and pass protection becomes a little easier, for sure.”
With the Nov. 13 deadline for Le’Veon Bell to report or not play the rest of the season nearing, the Steelers were not in the mood to talk about theirformer teammate.
“Every player in the NFL has to seize their opportunities to make a name for himself,” Villanueva said of Conner. “Sometimes it’s due to injury and sometimes it’s due to a contract situation. Opportunities in the NFL are not many and he’s taken advantage of that situation.
“I love playing with Conner. I don’t have anything to say about Le’Veon. I don’t even know what shape he is inright now.”
The Steelers, in the meantime, find themselves in a lot better shape than they were fourgames ago.
“Our trajectory,’’ Sean Davissaid, “is high.”