The Baltimore Ravens downed the AFC North rival Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday, picking up their first win of the year and avoiding the franchise's first ever 0-4 start to a season. They hit an unfortunate milestone in Week 3, as heading into that game, they'd never started a season at 0-3, but they walked out of Heinz Field with a 23-20 win in overtime.
Ravens vs. Steelers 2015 final score: Baltimore wins, 23-20, in overtime
The Baltimore Ravens kicked a field goal to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers in overtime on Thursday.
Jason Bridge-USA TODAY Sports
It wasn't a pretty game by any stretch, and the Ravens didn't really manage to benefit from the lack of Ben Roethlisberger since Mike Vick had a decent outing starting in his place. What they did benefit from was a poor outing from Pittsburgh kicker Josh Scobee, who missed two straight field goals when the Steelers were up by three points in the fourth quarter.
That allowed the Ravens to kick a field goal of their own to force overtime and eventually take the win from the Steelers.
The first half was fairly evenly matched, with neither team really taking big shots down the field or moving the ball particularly well. Joe Flacco has to be kicking himself after an eight-play drive ended with an interception, but the Steelers couldn't turn that one into points. They finally took a lead in the final minutes of the first half, with Le'Veon Bell running in an 11-yard touchdown.
Baltimore’s ensuing possession was about as quick a three-and-out as you can get, and the Steelers were also able to squeeze in a five-play drive that ended with a field goal, giving them the 13-7 lead heading into the half. After two quarters of play, Flacco had completed 7 of 11 passes for 55 yards and an interception. Backup quarterback Mike Vick completed 11 of 13 passes for 75 yards for the Steelers.
Defense went out the window early in the second half, as the Steelers put seven points on the board with a 9-yard touchdown from Vick to Darrius Heyward-Bey, and then Flacco hit Kamar Aiken for a 15-yard score of his own. After Scobee's missed field goals and Baltimore's successful field goal, the game went to overtime.
There, the Steelers were unwilling to rely on Scobee and went for it on multiple fourth down tries in Baltimore territory. They were unsuccessful each time, and the Ravens eventually made it into Justin Tucker’s range, and he kicked the game-winner late in the overtime frame.
3 things we learned from Thursday’s game
Heyward-Bey almost loses another one
Heyward-Bey was well-known for having poor hands after his time with the Oakland Raiders and Indianapolis Colts. But he's off to a solid start with the Steelers this year, catching 11 of 15 passes thrown his way for 154 yards and a touchdown going into Sunday's game. His hands were certainly not perfect in Thursday's game against the Steelers though, but he did somehow use his elbow to secure this one:
Heyward-Bey has shown better catching ability with the Steelers, and that’s a great sign. This play wasn’t necessarily an example of that, but that was a pretty awesome effort at keeping control of the football as it nearly slipped through his arms. Of course, that doesn’t happen if his hands are in a better position in the first place.
Vick can still play
Vick took over for Roethlisberger for this game, as the latter was out with an injury. Vick is playing in his 13th season in the league, and played in 10 games for the New York Jets last season. On Thursday, he looked pretty much like he has for a long time now: a guy who can still throw the ball really well at times. But he also had some other big plays, like this block on a Bell run that sprung him for a touchdown:
Vick finished the game having completed 19 of 26 passes for 124 yards and a touchdown. He also had 33 yards rushing, and we’d be talking a lot more about how solid he was if he didn’t have to lead a team that could not rely on its kicker late.
Steve Smith is still doing Steve Smith things
Ravens wide receiver Steve Smith likes to talk, if you didn’t know. It’s probably his favorite thing to do, right alongside backing up his talk and whatever else it is he likes to do. He talks a lot, and did so on Thursday against the Steelers. When he wasn’t talking, though, he was making sure a Steelers player knew that he meant business, as you can see below:
While Smith wasn’t talking here, it’s pretty clear that he was probably talking before this and after this. If you recall, Smith was last seen insulting the entire Bengals secondary a week ago. Of course, he was talking a lot of trash after shaking off multiple defenders to a 50-yard touchdown.
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