Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs wasn't in the mood to talk about personal achievements following Baltimore's 13-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday night.
His performance was impossible to ignore, however.
Suggs had 1 ½ sacks, three tackles for loss and five quarterback hits. He kept Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger on the run all night.
"Terrell played fantastic," Head Coach John Harbaugh said. "Terrell was a dominant player. He's one of the premier players in the league, and he played great."
Suggs broke the postgame huddle in the Ravens' locker room, a sign of the team's appreciation for the work he put in.
He now has nine sacks on the season, the most he's had in a season since 2006 when he notched 9.5. Suggs' career-high of 12 came in his 2003 rookie season.
A year after taking criticism for not playing to his potential, the eight-year pro has now doubled his sack total from last season with four regular season games remaining.
Suggs was asked if Sunday's game was the best of his career.
"No, we didn't win," Suggs said. "You can say you had a good game, but that wouldn't be the best one."
Suggs entered the game as the player with the most career sacks against Roethlisberger (eight). Fellow outside linebacker Jarret Johnson said the team watched film of previous games against Pittsburgh this week and Suggs had "like the first 10 plays" on the highlights.
"So he continued that tonight," Johnson said. "I can't say enough about the guy. He kicked [butt] tonight. Dude's a beast."
It started from the get-go. Suggs and Ngata teamed up for a sack of Roethlisberger that left the quarterback with a crooked nose. Suggs kept after the 6-foot-5 signal-caller even after being bloodied himself in the mouth.
Suggs notched his second sack in the second quarter for a loss of nine yards. He had back-to-back tackles for loss with the Steelers threatening to take the lead at the start of the fourth quarter, which helped hold Pittsburgh to a field goal and kept the Ravens ahead, 10-6.
Suggs nearly denied the Steelers again in the red zone following quarterback Joe Flacco's fumble. On first-and-9 from the 9-yard line, Suggs had a hold of Roethlisberger and was deliberately trying to strip the ball.
Roethlisberger ended up wriggling away from Suggs just enough to awkwardly toss the ball out of bounds for an incomplete pass. The Steelers scored their decisive touchdown two plays later.
Asked how close he was to the strip, Suggs said, "I didn't get it. Grenades and horseshoes. In this game, almost doesn't cut it."
