Impressive Baltimore Ravens end Pittsburgh Steelers' season

We’ll never know if the absence of All-Pro running back Le’Veon Bell cost the Pittsburgh Steelers an AFC playoff win on Saturday night.

But we do know that all night, the Baltimore Ravens were a step ahead of the Steelers in a 30-17 win.

Outside of a two-play sequence in the fourth quarter in which Ravens running back Justin Forsett lost a fumble and Steelers receiver Antonio Brown caught a long pass on the next play to set up a touchdown, the Steelers did not play well. The Ravens had a lot to do with that.

The Ravens came up with some huge plays, and the Steelers made very few. Whenever the Steelers sustained drives, they generally settled for field goals. Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco outplayed Ben Roethlisberger, who was coming off a career year in the regular season for Pittsburgh. Roethlisberger’s hurried interception to Terrell Suggs in the fourth quarter when the Steelers trailed by eight points, combined with Flacco’s touchdown pass on the next play, basically put the game away.

Bell’s absence with a knee injury clearly hurt. But the Ravens plainly outplayed the Steelers. Now the Ravens move on to play the New England Patriots next week. A Steelers team that looked like a possible dark horse in the AFC is out. Or, perhaps we were just picking the wrong dark horse.

The Ravens earned it in Pittsburgh. Flacco played a very efficient game. The Ravens did a fair job keeping the explosive Steelers offense without too many back-breaking big plays. Baltimore kicker Justin Tucker was tremendous, kicking three long field goals (including a 45- and 52-yarder) at Heinz Field, which is historically tough on kickers. Baltimore simply did everything right.

Even at the end when the Steelers tried to rally, the Steelers were sloppy. Trailing by 15, Dri Archer’s touchdown with 4:40 left was called back on a holding penalty on left tackle Kelvin Beachum, who grabbed Suggs after he got beat. Roethlisberger was sacked the next play and he had to leave the game with an injury. His head hit the turf hard when Courtney Upshaw tossed him to the ground and backup Bruce Gradkowski came in. Tight end Heath Miller took a huge shot on the next play, and he had to come out of the game too. Roethlisberger returned later in the drive, and on his first play back in he threw an interception into the end zone. So yeah, it was quite a costly penalty.

The Steelers-Ravens rivalry runs deep. And Steelers fans can say that with Bell it would have been different. But the fact is, the Steelers might have won the division, but the Ravens have bragging rights until next season.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdowncorner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab

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