Looking deeper into the Baltimore Ravens frustrating 13-10 loss on Sunday Night Football to the Pittsburgh Steelers, you can see why the Steelers hung around close enough until a big break changed the tone and shortly after, the outcome of the game. That big break didn't happen until late in the contest, but the simple fact that Pittsburgh was within scoring distance to even have that opportunity was a result of their domination of the time of possession battle.
Pittsburgh controlled the ball for over 34 of the game's 60 minutes, which is huge in the realm of winning footbll games. Even more telling, the Ravens barely touched the ball in the second half, having it for only 10:36 of the 30 minutes, leaving the Steelers with 19:24 to figure out a way to win the game.
Finally, going three-and-out on half of the Ravens total possessions is not going to be the best way to win a close game, unless you have thaose big, long scoring plays on quick strikes that put points on the board. Even Ravens WR Derrick Mason was realistic when he admittedly said that the team's offense is just not that good. The Ravens usually win games when they dominate the time of possession clock, having long, time-consuming scoring drives that eat up the clock and wear down their opponents. When you see the Ravens lose the time of possession battle on the clock, it will usually mean they have also lost the game as well. Sunday night was unfortunately, a prime example.