If you wanted an old-fashioned, smashmouth football game to finish off your Thanksgiving on Thursday night, you got one as the defending Super Bowl Champion Baltimore Ravens survived a hard-fought effort from the division rival Pittsburgh Steelers, 22-20.
In typical Steelers-Ravens fashion, this one went down to the wire. Down 22-14, the Steelers were inside the Baltimore five-yard line when they handed it off to their workhorse for the night, Le’Veon Bell. Bell was stopped on the play after a vicious helmet-to-helmet hit, and left the game to be evaluated for a concussion.
Just a few plays later, Ben Roethisberger hit Jerricho Cotchery for a one-yard score, cutting it to 22-20. On the ensuing two-point conversion attempt to tie the game, though, Roethlisberger’s pass attempt fell short, giving the Ravens the narrow win.
As for the Ravens, Joe Flacco had a decent outing in this one, finishing up 24-of-35 for 251 yards and a scoring strike to Torrey Smith early on in the first quarter.
With the win, Baltimore now move to .500 at 6-6 on the season, while the loss drops the Steelers to 5-7 on the year.