Led by legendary coach Mike Tomlin the Steelers got a much needed 17-10 road win at bitter division foe Baltimore. The win gave them the division sweep over their longtime AFC North nemesis. The win also means the Steelers finish the regular season 10-7 and clinch head coach Mike Tomlin’s tenth double-digit win season in his 17 years as a head coach. It also pads his NFL-record streak of 17 consecutive non-losing seasons to begin a coaching career.
For the Ravens (clinched home field advantage last week), Saturday’s game was about nothing more than trying to prevent rust with some of their guys and hoping to end the Steelers’ playoff hopes. That didn’t happen, and now the Steelers need either a Bills or Jaguars loss on Sunday to clinch one of the AFC playoff spots. For their sake the Bills and Dolphins play an AFC East division-deciding game on Sunday night, meaning neither team will sit key players.
Off The Couch?
As the teams left the field following the Steelers, the aforementioned Tomlin could he heard yelling, “Off the couch!”
That’s in reference to a lot of his players who contributed in Saturday’s win. Hampered by injuries, the Steelers used many players from the practice squad and even one player (Myles Jack) wasn’t even playing football a few weeks ago.
For Tomlin and his team, the Ravens not playing their starters doesn’t change the fact that they’ve won seven of the last eight matchups with their bitter rival. That could be heard in Tomlin’s tone coming off the field.
Steelers Wanted This One BAD
Running back Najee Harris who reached the 1,000-yard rushing plateau for the third consecutive season, rushed for 112 yards on 26 carries and scored one touchdown. The former Alabama standout and Doak Walker Award winner told reporters that it didn’t matter who played for the Ravens Saturday they were gonna feel it. ,
“Whoever was in there, we wanted to play so physical that if they did play their ones, their guys, we wanted John Harbaugh to say, ‘We gotta get them out of there, because of how physical we’re playing.”
That’s nothing new in this heated rivalry that’s become surprisingly one-sided the past four seasons. Even the two coaches who have the utmost respect for each other but don’t really like each other have had a spat or two in the past.
Tomlin leads the head-to-head matchup with Harbaugh 20-15. Saturday’s win also made Tomlin the only coach in the Super Bowl era with 20 wins versus two different coaches, the other being former Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis.
