Steelers vs. Ravens: 5 Surprises in Sunday’s Win

Boswell’s Miss

Following Austin’s score, fans were stunned that the ever-steady Chris Boswell missed the point-after attempt — he was a perfect 40-for-40 all season and it was his first such miss in 77 consecutive PATs.

Review of the film by our editor Tina Rivers suggests the ball was nicked at the line of scrimmage by Ravens rookie Keondre Jackson.

Regardless, the miss loomed large as it no longer gave the Steelers a three-point lead, meaning the Ravens had 55 seconds to simply drive into field goal range and win with a kick.

Loop’s Miss

And that’s nearly what happened, as the Ravens took the ensuing kickoff 41 yards, out near midfield. The Ravens offense would stall, leading to a 4th-and-7 from the 50-yard line, when Jackson would hit a deep shot to TE Isaiah Likely for 26 yards, setting up rookie kicker Tyler Loop for a would-be game-winning 44-yard field goal attempt.

Jackson would take the next snap and kneel to best position their kicker, running the clock down to two seconds while burning their final timeout.

What would happen next will live in NFL history, as Loop shanked the kick wide right, securing the victory for the Steelers.

Steelers Win the North

With the victory the Steelers won their first AFC North division title since 2020 and also secured their first home playoff game, and their first in front of fans going back to 2017.

With the loss the Ravens were eliminated from the postseason.

Bonus Surprise

Want to know what a bigger surprise is? Let’s go back to July and August, when all of the talking heads were down on the Steelers. During the summer their favorites to win the AFC North were the Ravens or Cincinnati Bengals. Now, Lamar Jackson and Joe Burrow are both watching the playoffs from home as the Steelers took the division.

Worse, there were some in the national media that felt Pittsburgh would fall to last place in the division, behind the Cleveland Browns. Looking back on that is about as funny as me looking back on my Yahoo! Fantasy Football D- draft grade, and also taking my league title. (Except the Steelers making the media eat crow is far more satisfying!)