Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers surprised the NFL world by going down without a fight (14-28) against the Baltimore Ravens in their Wildcard Playoffs clash. Yes, the Steelers had a poor ending to their regular season [4 losses in their last 5], but with Tomlin and Russell Wilson at the helm, many believed that the duo would be able to at least make the game competitive.
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But as we now know, the Steelers massively subverted everyone’s expectations—unless your name is Chris Simms, as the analyst saw the Steelers’ loss coming from a mile away.
Back in November last year, Tomlin’s men knocked out the Ravens in a tight-knit affair at home. Then, a month later, the Steelers lost against their divisional rival on the road. And in the playoffs, they were once again set to face the Ravens on the road. Even so, many banked on Tomlin’s experience to devise a plan to stop Lamar Jackson.
For Chris Simms, however, this possibility was a moot point, especially given the abysmal form the Steelers were in before the matchup, compared to the Ravens, who have been on a dominant run this season.
“This [Steelers loss] was not surprising to me… All that talk that I heard from a lot of people… ‘Hey they [the Steelers] know him [Lamar Jackson]; they know how to play him’ and everything that goes involved in that conversation… Yeah, I get that but also the Steelers have played like sh*t for the last month… It’s not like ‘Oh man, they just blew that one’ or ‘they got unlucky in that game’… They were outplayed in every game, period… So I just didn’t believe in that aspect…”
Another reason Simms saw the loss coming was the way the Ravens bullied the Steelers with their running game in their matchup last month. It turned out to be a 34-17 victory for Lamar Jackson, who, along with Derrick Henry, had their way on the field, making life hard for the Steelers’ defense.
Chris feared an encore in the Wild Card clash, and that’s exactly what happened. In a bid to contain Derrick Henry, Tomlin deployed eight men on the scrimmage line.
But Lamar, being so skilled with his feet, was able to easily switch the play to the receivers. The Steelers’ strategy to over-commit clearly backfired as the dynamic Ravens offense exploited the spaces left open by the Steelers.
While the Steelers could have tried fighting back, Simms noted that the Ravens’ defense has been in such fine form [only 12 rush TDs allowed] that even that would not have paid dividends for Mike Tomlin. With so many things going in the Ravens’ favor, it was clear to the former NFL QB that the Steelers had no chance of winning this game.
“Baltimore [in the last game] moved the ball at will in the run game… [This game] started the same with Derrick Henry left, Lamar Jackson right… it’s like if you overplay one area, you’re going to get screwed somewhere else. (However,) they got answers for everything.”
With the way the Ravens toyed with the Steelers, it will be interesting to see how their divisional-round matchup against the Bills pans out. On top of being in a deadly form, Jackson & Co. will be entering the game with the psychological advantage of having beaten the Bills [35-10] earlier in the season.
While the bookmakers have given equal odds to both teams, the result is likely to favor the Ravens when considering key factors like recent form and technical quality.
