Sabtu, 28 Desember 2019

Four Downs: Last time Ravens beat Steelers in meaningless finale, Steelers won out in end - TribLIVE

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1.Finale history

The Pittsburgh Steelers have won 11 consecutive regular-season finales and are 17-2 in the regular season’s final game since the turn of the century. But before Steelers fans get too excited about their chances Sunday in Baltimore, know that both of those defeats in finales came at the Ravens.

There is, however, some interesting history involved with one of them.

In 2007, the Ravens win in part was because the Steelers rested several starters because they were locked into a No. 4 AFC playoff seeding. But in 2003, it was Baltimore that was locked into the No. 4 seed and the Steelers that were long eliminated from the postseason – but then-Ravens coach Brian Billick played his starters in that game to the end.

“This is the Pittsburgh Steelers,” Billick said in explaining his decision after a 13-10 overtime victory.

But while Baltimore and Billick appeared to pull one over on their rivals – twice – by winning the division and then beating them in the final game, it would be the Steelers who would get the last laugh via benefiting greatly from that loss over the longer term.

That’s because the defeat dropped the Steelers to 6-10, which ultimately earned them the 11th pick in the ensuing draft. Had the Ravens rested starters and the Steelers won that finale, they would have dropped 2-4 spots in the draft.

This is notable because of who unexpectedly fell to the Steelers at No. 11: Ben Roethlisberger.

We’ll never know for sure how things would have played out had the Steelers picked, say, 14th – but we do know that the team that picked 13th that year, the Buffalo Bills, about two hours later traded future first-, second- and fifth-round picks to the Dallas Cowboys for the 22nd pick so that they could take a quarterback.

And if Buffalo invested that much to nab the eminently-forgettable J.P. Losman, it’s reasonable to believe they would have been highly intrigued by Roethlisberger. That would have left the Steelers with Tommy Maddox as their quarterback and, in all likelihood, probably without the two Super Bowl wins Roethlisberger would lead the Steelers to over the next five years.

Indirectly, all because Billick wanted to stick it to the Steelers.

2. Who’s No. 2?

There is zero question about what the most successful franchise in the NFL has been since 2000. But who is No. 2 to the New England Patriots? The Steelers and Ravens probably have the best cases to be made.

No other franchise ranks in the top five in the league over the past 20 seasons in wins, Super Bowl appearances, Super Bowl wins, conference title game appearances, winning seasons, playoff berths, playoff games and playoff wins. The Patriots lead the NFL by a wide margin in each of those categories, but the Steelers respectively are second, tied for second, tied for second, tied for second, second, tied for fifth, tied for third and tied for second in each of them.

The Ravens are fifth, tied for fifth, tied for second, tied for fourth, tied for third, tied for fifth, tied for fifth and tied for second.

3. Flagging them down

Although the Steelers, according to nflpenalties.com, have had a roughly even number of penalties called on them and their opponents this season (105 on them, 109 on their opponents), there has been a yardage chasm in favor of the Steelers.

The Steelers have gained 243 yards this season relative to their opponents via flags – they’ve been penalized 840 yards and benefited 1,083 yards because of penalties, per nflpenalties.com. That’s the third-biggest net gain in the NFL. In 11 of their 15 games, the Steelers have gained net yardage from penalties relative to their opponent.

Of note: only one team has been penalized more at home this season than the Steelers (63 flags) – but only two teams have been penalized fewer times on the road than the Steelers (42).

Also, just four teams have had more pre-snap penalties than the Steelers’ 42.

4. Kerrith the one

Kerrith Whyte was signed by the Steelers prior to Week 12. Since then and according to PFF, of the 58 NFL running backs who have at least 21 carries Whyte ranks sixth in yards after contact per attempt per attempt (3.95) according to PFF.

He is the Steelers’ highest-graded running back since he joined the team, and his 5.5 yards per carry rank among the top 10 of all backs in the NFL who have had as many carries as he has.

Hey, Steelers Nation, get the latest news about the Pittsburgh Steelers here.

Chris Adamski is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Chris by email at [email protected] or via Twitter .

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2019-12-28 15:38:11Z
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