The Ravens put together one of their best performances of the season in a 34-17 victory over the rival Pittsburgh Steelers at M&T Bank Stadium.
Here's a dive into the film from the week:
Ravens' interior runs gashed Steelers.
Derrick Henry has had a lot of success on outside runs this year. As we documented in this piece earlier this season, the toss left was an early-season finishing move.
Sunday evening against the Steelers, the Ravens got their interior run game cranked up, despite going against a tough Pittsburgh defensive line led by veteran Cameron Heyward.
Baltimore's offensive line, which was yet again under scrutiny heading into the bye, won the battle in the trenches against the Steelers and Henry took advantage with his legs and vision, rolling for 162 yards on 24 carries.
"If there's a crease or a gap that's pretty wide, he's going to take advantage of that," Heyward said of Henry. "From the first quarter on, it felt like we never really got control of him."
Henry had seven explosive runs, the most by any player in a game this season. He ran between the tackles on a season-high 62.5% of his carries, including five of those long runs, per Next Gen Stats.
Center Tyler Linderbaum was strong once again and got his highest run-blocking grade (74.9) from Pro Football Focus (PFF) since Week 10. Right guard Daniel Faalele had one of his best run blocking performances of the year (66.3), and rookie right tackle Roger Rosengarten (75.5) got his highest run-blocking grade of his career so far.
"I think they were controlling the line of scrimmage," Steelers outside linebacker Alex Highsmith added. "Embarrassing, to say the least, the way they ran the ball against us."
Ravens pass protection held up versus an intense Steelers blitz.
The Steelers have not been a particularly high blitzing team this season, but Offensive Coordinator Todd Monken predicted they would bring the heat against them, just as they did in their Week 11 meeting.
He was right. The Steelers blitzed a whopping 68% of all defensive snaps, the highest rate the Ravens have seen all season.
Yet Pittsburgh got just eight pressures, just 32% of all snaps. Jackson was sacked once on the Highsmith strip-sack on the Ravens' first drive and wasn't hit the rest of the game.
Steelers All-Pro edge rusher T.J. Watt was dealing with an ankle injury that may have slowed him down some, but it's still rare to see him and Pittsburgh's other pass rushers held so quiet.
Justin Tucker is kicking the ball straight.
Justin Tucker went into the bye with three misses against the Philadelphia Eagles weighing on him. He's come out of it with 11 straight made kicks.
Tucker drilled a clutch 51-yarder against the Steelers, despite heavy winds at M&T Bank Stadium and thanks, in part, to a good hold by punter Jordan Stout. He also hit a 23-yard field goal and has been true on all nine of his extra points since the bye.
Perhaps most importantly, at least going forward, is that a look at Tucker's kicks shows that they are going straighter. He had been plagued by a hook that kept pushing the ball wide left this season, but Tucker has had straight end-over-end kicks since the break.
Todd Monken put a wrinkle on John Harbaugh's play to trick Steelers.
Last week against the New York Giants, the Ravens used a play designed by Head Coach John Harbaugh to score a touchdown with rookie Devontez Walker.
This week, it appears Offensive Coordinator Todd Monken used a very similar concept, but with a wrinkle, to score the game's first touchdown against the Steelers.
The Ravens used an unbalanced line with left tackle Ronnie Stanley lined up wide to the right. On both plays, Jackson faked a run pitch to the right, getting the defense to react heavily in that direction.
Against the Giants, Walker broke wide open down the hash marks. Versus the Steelers, two defenders stuck to Zay Flowers running a similar route up the hash, but tight end Isiaah Likely was left wide open in the flat.
Kyle Van Noy is still getting it done.
It's not often that pass rushers have their breakout in their 30s, but that's the reality Kyle Van Noy is in, as he is proving once again that age is just a number.
At 33 years old, Van Noy had 1.5 sacks against the Steelers, setting a new career-high (10.5) on the season and joining the double-digit sack club for the first time in his 11 NFL seasons.
On Van Noy's first sack, he was setting a pick for a looping stunt by defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike. Van Noy kept his balance and they both met at the quarterback.
He used straight power on his next sack of the evening, pushing 6-foot-5, 311-pound Broderick Jones, a 2023 first-round pick who is a decade younger than Van Noy, into Russell Wilson's lap before breaking free to pounce.
Extra Points
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