Baltimore Beatdown
The Baltimore Ravens’ 2025 season ended in the most horrifying, devastating fashion: a missed 44-yard field goal by rookie kicker Tyler Loop.
The Ravens entered Week 18 needing a win over the Pittsburgh Steelers to win the AFC North and make the postseason. Despite barely resembling a playoff team for much of the season, they still had the chance to be one. Getting in the dance with Lamar Jackson under center would still give them an outside shot at a Lombardi Trophy.
But, as they have the entire year, the Ravens did not play like a team ready to make a run to the Super Bowl. The offense built a 10-0 lead at the beginning of the second quarter and did not score again until midway through the fourth quarter. The defense refused to break in the first half before allowing 24 points in the second. Each unit had its successes, but they could not put together the kind of complementary football that consistently wins games in the NFL.
The momentum of the game swung back and forth all night, but the decisive moment may have come early in the third quarter when Ravens safeties Kyle Hamilton and Alohi Gilman had a head-to-head collision on an incomplete pass. Both left the game to be evaluated for a concussion – during which time the Steelers scored their first touchdown – and only Gilman returned. Baltimore’s defense held at first, limiting Pittsburgh to a field goal after T.J. Watt’s freak interception and forcing a punt on their next possession. But both times the Ravens took the lead in the fourth quarter, their secondary got carved up to give it right back to the Steelers.
Hamilton’s absence was palpable on those drives, as was Baltimore’s complete and utter lack of a pass rush. Aaron Rodgers was sacked twice on the night but only lost four yards; the rest of the game, he had all day in the pocket. Initially, he used that time to target his running backs for catch-and-runs underneath, but once Hamilton was gone, Rodgers took over the middle of the field. No Ravens defender could step up and make a play.
Lamar Jackson almost made none of that matter. After an uneven first three quarters, he donned his cape and made not one, not two, but three huge plays that kept the Ravens in the game. On the first, he pulled a vanishing act to evade a sure sack and dropped a perfect ball to Zay Flowers for a 50-yard touchdown. That put the Ravens up 17-13. The Steelers drove right back down the field to make it 20-17. Then came Part 2, a fake toss that left Flowers wide open downfield for another 50-yard score and a 24-20 lead with 3:49 to play. And when Baltimore’s defense collapsed again, this time with less than a minute to play, Jackson answered the bell once more.
After a missed extra point by Steelers kicker Chris Boswell, Keaton Mitchell’s best kickoff return...
