The Baltimore Ravens have been beaten so many times by Troy Polamalu and Ben Roethlisberger, they should have seen it coming.
And yet, it happened again.
Polamalu forced a fumble with a sack of Joe Flacco and Roethlisberger converted the turnover into a 9-yard touchdown pass to Isaac Redman with 2:51 left to give the Pittsburgh Steelers a 13-10 victory Sunday night.
With the win, Pittsburgh (9-3) gained sole possession of first place in the AFC North over Baltimore (8-4) and earned a split of the season series.
“Tough place to play, but let’s be frank, we needed to come here and even the score in this matchup,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. “Thankfully we did, and we’ll push on.”
A fierce defensive battle turned when Polamalu hit Flacco’s arm on a safety blitz. LaMarr Woodley returned the loose ball 19 yards to the Baltimore 9, setting up Pittsburgh’s lone touchdown.
After throwing two incomplete passes, Roethlisberger dumped a short toss over the middle to Redman, who broke tackles by Dawan Landry and Jarret Johnson on his way to the end zone.
Baltimore’s ensuing drive ended at the Pittsburgh 31 when Flacco bounced a fourth-down pass to Ed Dickson with 33 seconds remaining.
The game was a defensive battle, as expected. And Polamalu and Roethlisberger again made the difference.
“Everybody watching TV at home, everybody in the stadium, you all know it you see 43 at the line, four-minute offense, he’s coming,” said Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs, who had 1½ sacks. “It was just like, I hope we have a plan. It just didn’t feel good when I saw that hair at the line.”
Polamalu, of course, wears No. 43. And he’s done it to the Ravens before — his 40-yard interception return sealed Pittsburgh’s 23-14 victory in the 2008 AFC title game.
Roethlisberger broke his nose on Pittsburgh’s first series, was playing with a sprained right foot and was under constant pressure all night. And he still went 22 for 38 for 253 yards.
The rugged quarterback has won six straight starts against Baltimore and is 8-2 in his career against the Ravens. He missed the first game this season while serving an NFL-issued suspension for violating the league’s conduct policy.
“That’s a Steelers-Ravens game, right? Hard-fought all the way to the end,” Roethlisberger said. “Everybody contributes.”
He laughingly suggested that his battered nose helped take his mind off his ailing foot.
“It hurt a lot,” he said of the foot, “but the broken nose took some of the pain away.”
Baltimore blew a fourth-quarter lead for the sixth time this season and had its eight-game home winning streak end.
“Obviously, it was a tough loss. Basically, we gave the game away at the end,” coach John Harbaugh said. “We should have won the football game, and that’s disappointing.”
Flacco was 17 for 33 for 266 yards, but his fumble was the most decisive play of the game
Melanie Hause
This was an excellent game, but we watched from a bar. My boyfriend’s sister bought counterfeit tickets for $300. It was her birthday. So we gave her our tickets since it was her birthday. Has that ever happened to anyone else? We still had fun!