Sloppy performance
With Jackson, other stars sitting out, backup Huntley, offense struggle against rival
In the words of Ravens linebacker Patrick Queen, Baltimore had “written a lot of pages in our book” this season that led to being in the enviable and advantageous position of which it is in.
The Ravens are the top seed in the AFC going into the postseason and have the coveted first-round bye and home-field advantage through the conference championship game. The goal, as quarterback Lamar Jackson has said all season, is to deliver the first Super Bowl title of his career and the first for the organization since the 2012 season.
But before beginning that pursuit in earnest in two weeks, there was the matter of finishing off the regular season against a bitter AFC North rival.
With the rain starting before noon and never stopping, it was a bad night to be an oblong-shaped leather ball Saturday night at M&T Bank Stadium. It was a worse one to be a quarterback trying to throw it, or a fan hoping to see an offensive shootout between the Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers in raw, soaking wet conditions with nothing on the line for the home team.
The Steelers fumbled six times, losing two of them, and the Ravens twice, losing both.
Still, Pittsburgh quarterback Mason Rudolph, a third-stringer at the start of the season behind Kenny Pickett and Mitchell Trubisky, has come up big since taking over three weeks ago and did so again, this time against Baltimore.
With both offenses struggling to move the ball and the game tied at 7 on a third-and-4 from his own 29-yard line at the start of the fourth quarter, Rudolph threw a strike to slanting wide receiver Diontae Johnson over the middle and he took it to the house for a 71-yard touchdown.
Then, after Pittsburgh recovered a fumble by running back Gus Edwards at the Ravens’ 32-yard line, Chris Boswell added a 25-yard field goal with 3:17 remaining to seal the 17-10 victory.
Though the Steelers (10-7) could’ve made the playoffs with a win or loss, the former makes the path simpler. With a Tennessee Titans victory over the Jacksonville Jaguars, or a Miami Dolphins win over the Buffalo Bills, Pittsburgh is in.
“A lot of guys came back just for this moment,” said linebacker Michael Barrett, one of nine Michigan starters in their fifth or sixth years.
Washington is built similarly and led by the type of star who typifies college football’s new era of player empowerment.
Penix is a Florida native who started his career at Indiana — he already has a win against Michigan on his resume — but transferred to Washington to play for DeBoer in 2022.
Finally healthy after four injury-ravaged seasons in the Big Ten, Penix has become a star in the Pacific Northwest. The runner-up for the Heisman Trophy had some voters questioning their decision last week when he threw for 430 yards in a Sugar Bowl victory against Texas.
“Man, it’s a dream come true. To be honest, I’m still wrapping my head around it,” Penix said.
Penix decided to run it back for 2023 in December 2022 and a bunch of talented teammates followed, such as All-America receiver Rome Odunze, and defensive end Bralen Trice and offensive tackle Troy Fautanu, both third-team All-Americans.
“He kind of led the charge. And a lot of guys chose to go down the same road,” DeBoer said Sunday. “I think they just really firmly believe that there was more left out there for this football team.”
It helps these days that college players can make some extra money off their fame and be compensated for name, image and likeness. NIL collectives for both schools concentrated efforts on retaining their established players.
The combination of NIL money and loosening transfer rules seemed to tip the balance of power in college football this season. After years of the same small group of teams locking down the majority of playoff spots, and Southeastern Conference teams or Clemson winning eight straight titles, the top tier of contenders grew — but too soon for the CFP to accommodate all the deserving teams.
The four-team playoff will go out like it came in, with a Big Ten vs. Pac-12 championship as Washington plays the final Pac-12 football game for the conference as it’s currently structured.
During the three weeks leading into the 2023 season, the Pac-12 was plundered by its Power Five competitors. Ironically, the conference then went on to have its most entertaining and competitive season in years, with the Huskies snapping a six-year Pac-12 playoff drought.
The Huskies will try to win the Pac-12’s first national title in football since Southern California in 2004, a parting gift of sorts for the league it helped found in 1915. Washington’s last national championship came in 1991.
The Huskies will join the new coastto-coast Big Ten this summer, and in nine months will welcome Michigan to Seattle for a conference game.
Whether Harbaugh will still be the Michigan coach by then remains to be seen. The presumption and speculation has been that for the third straight year, he will draw interest from NFL teams. Harbaugh spent four years with the S49ers, leading them to a Super Bowl against his brother John’s Baltimore Ravens, before returning to his alma mater in 2015.
It took a while, but the 60-year-old Harbaugh has delivered on the high expectations he brought to Ann Arbor. And despite the tumult off the field, Michigan would like to keep him around.
The uncertainty about Harbaugh, especially with even more NCAA-related penalties possibly looming for him and Michigan, has given this Wolverines’ season a lastdance vibe.
“Everything is right here in front of us, coming down the straightaway, like a thoroughbred,” Harbaugh said. “You can see the finish line. Got the blinders on. Each guy, I’m just going to the whip.”