NFL Winners and Losers of Wild Card Weekend: Romo, Dalton, officials and more
By Andrew Garda
Winners: Baltimore Ravens
Who knew this game would officially be over the moment NFL.com reported that Le’Veon Bell would miss Saturday’s game? Yet it turned out that it pretty much was, as the Steelers offense was lost without him.
All credit to the Baltimore Ravens though, as they put together a tremendous gameplan on both sides of the ball, taking advantage of flaws in the Pittsburgh defense as well as the absence of Bell.
The biggest factor was keeping the Steelers offense out of the end zone for most of the day. It’s fine if Antonio Brown gets 117 yards on nine catches, if he never sees the end zone. It’s not a big deal if Heath Miller catches six balls for 76 yards if he isn’t a big red zone factor.
‘Bend but don’t break’ is a descriptor for too many defenses which don’t deserve it, but the Ravens are definitely a team which proved you can still win while doing it.
We haven’t even talked about the offense which, while it lacked a solid run game, picked apart the Steelers defense with ease.
I don’t think Baltimore goes into Foxboro and beats the New England Patriots but as it’s a team which is heating up at exactly the right time, I’m not sure I would put any money on that.
Next: Losers: Officiating for Dallas-Detroit