The Ravens were not favored heading into Saturday night. They were starting Lardarius Webb, who had been victimized by Antonio Brown earlier in the season, Rashaan Melvin, who was pulled off of Miami's practice squad a month ago, in a secondary that couldn't stop the Steelers in November. The offense sputtered during the last three games, scoring no touchdowns in the first quarter of any game, struggling to run the ball. and to make matters worse Rick Wagner and Eugene Monroe were out, meaning that the Ravens were starting rookie James Hurst at left tackle and rookie John Urschel at right guard because Marshal Yanda hat to play at right tackle.
Not to mention the Ravens were playing at Heinz Field, a place where the Steelers had not lost a playoff game since 2007 and a place where the Ravens have never won at in the playoffs. Vegas had the Steelers winning by three points. Others were not nearly as optimistic and predicted a blowout favoring the Steelers.
On Saturday the Ravens did what they so often have done during the Harbaugh-Flacco era, come in and mess everything up.
The offense started out slow, as they would go three and out on the first possession, and even though a Bernard Pierce touchdown run and a Justin Tucker field goal had them leading 10-9 at halftime, Joe Flacco completed 5 out of 11 passes, and the Ravens were losing the time of possession battle by over 11 minutes.
The second half had the offense heat up, as Joe Flacco would start to take over the game, keeping drives alive with big completions to Steve Smith and Owen Daniels, as well as converting a 4th and 1 on a QB keeper, and he topped it all off with touchdown passes to Torrey Smith and Crockett Gillmore.
James Harrison, who for so many years has been the thorn in the Ravens side, and was one in November, but he was prevented from making much of an impact, as the Ravens offensive line allowed only one sack on Joe Flacco.
The defense didn't get their redemption on Saturday night. They got their revenge. Ben Roethlisberger was sacked five times, and a sack by Courtney Upshaw forced Ben Roethlisberger to miss three plays before throwing an interception to Darian Stewart. The Steelers had a difficult night, as they only scored one touchdown, despite making five trips to the Ravens redzone, Ben Roethlisberger, as mentioned earlier was sacked five times, and threw two interceptions. The Steelers only scored one touchdown, a six yarder to Martavis Bryant coming off of a Justin Forsett fumble. The Steelers would finish the game with a Heath Miller fumble and the Ravens went into victory formation from there.
The Ravens' victory ended a 51 year postseason drought against Pittsburgh that goes back to the Baltimore Colts, and includes the Baltimore Orioles, as well as the Ravens in 2001, 2008, and 2010.