And the plot thickens.
After a disaster at home, where “Fire Tomlin” chants broke out, Renegade was booed, and the Steelers were run over by a freight train, surely this is the outcome we all expected, right?
Instead, for one week, the Steelers reversed fortunes. Walking into Baltimore and facing a fellow 6-6 team team who was just as desperate for a win as they were, it was Pittsburgh who was able to rally their troops, bold old and new, and swipe the division lead.
Time will tell if this can lead to any kind of late-season surge, but for the moment, everyone can exhale. In the meantime, here’s my thoughts on this game.
1: The Rodgers Revival
These were the types of games that the Steelers brought Aaron Rodgers in for.
When the weather gets cold and you’re on the road against a divisional opponent, you’re at risk of falling below .500, and control of the AFC North hangs in the balance, you need your four-time MVP to look like one. If the Steelers were going to salvage anything out of this season, yesterday was a must-win.
At 6-6, the Steelers were playing a playoff game in early December. And with his (and his team’s) back on the line, he stepped up and delivered like the vintage Rodgers we all hoped was still in there.
This was his best game as a Steeler, bar none. Rodgers went 23-of-34 for 284 yards, and a passing touchdown. He wasn’t perfect; there was a few simple throws that you expect a quarterback to make that he didn’t execute on. But more often than not he found success when he let it fly.
He also looked much more spry than we’ve seen from him earlier in the season. Rodgers was able to escape from collapsing pockets, and the 42-year-old passer found ways to evade a few sacks just long enough to get rid of the ball. Don’t get me wrong, the offensive line deserves a ton of credit for how they protecting Rodgers in this game. But he shaved a few years off the clock on the field Sunday.
Rodgers was tough, as well. He wrestled a batted ball away and was able to keep possession for the Steelers, even with a broken wrist lodged in a pile of arms. He even ran it in for a touchdown! Who saw that coming?
Coming off of statistically one of the worst games of Rodgers’ career, this was exactly the type of performance that the Steelers so desperately needed from him.
2: Metcalf’s Mega Day
Just like the Steelers desperately needed a game like this from Rodgers, they also needed a breakout game like this from Metcalf.
The new Steelers WR1, who has immense skill but has not quite satisfied the needs of his role, put up season-highs nearly across the board with 12 targets, nine receptions, and 148 yards.
Against the Ravens, Metcalf found a way to deliver the deep ball threat in a way he hasn’t been able to do almost all season. The Steelers had not successfully completed a pass of 20+ air yards in over a month, one of the more tremendously depressing statistics out there.
They rectified that as soon as possible Sunday. Pittsburgh’s first offensive play of the day was a 52-yard pass directly to Metcalf, who had a one-on-one down the sideline and made the catch.
He was targeted nine times in the first half, and on the first play of the second half, Rodgers went right back to him for a 41-yard pass play.
This wasn’t the first time the Steelers have targeted Metcalf heavily. But the scheming and decision-making about when to deploy Metcalf was the best it has been all season.
Rodgers and offensive coordinator Arthur Smith used a blend of deep shots and quick passes to allow Metcalf to showcase the best of both worlds. Simply getting him targets isn’t always going to see him succeed, but getting him the right opportunities gives you this kind of Metcalf more consistently.
Let’s hope this is a sign of more things to come from the team’s best receiving option.
3: The Receiving Reinforcements
The much maligned wide receiver unit saw some sizable changes in personnel on Sunday.
Marquez Valdes-Scantling, a former receiver to Rodgers from his time in Green Bay, was elevated off the practice squad for this game. After the Steelers scooped him up over a month ago, we really hadn’t heard anything about him. But, he was on the field
Adam Thielen, the 35-year-old wideout who the Steelers claimed off waivers Tuesday, was also on the field. With just days to acclimate to his new offense, Thielen was a starter for Pittsburgh, and took a lot more reps in the receiving game than I would have expected.
Ultimately, neither one of them had major impacts in the passing game. Thielen had one catch for four yards, and Rodgers only looked the way of Valdes-Scantling one time in a terrible offensive play call. But, the mere threat of some new weapons, especially someone like Valdes-Scantling, whose specialty is the long ball, kept the Raven defense a little more honest.
That extra attention paid to other guys allowed Metcalf to get way more one-on-one looks than he is used to, especially in the first half.
I will be interested to see their usage in following games, and what it means for some of the other guys in that room, namely Roman Wilson.
4: The Running Game Needs Remedied
The running game was a mess for the Steelers, on both sides of the ball.
With possession, the Steelers could only muster 34 total rushing yards. Kenneth Gainwell was their leading rusher, at 15 yards. It was horrendous. Every run went nowhere, forcing the Steelers to rely an uncomfortable amount of their offense on the passing game, which usually does not show up the way it did against the Ravens.
Meanwhile, Baltimore’s rushing game was on fire. The Ravens compiled 217 total rushing yards, over six times the number that Pittsburgh had. Derrick Henry led the way with 94 yards on 25 carries, but any Ravens runner who had enough cracks at it had success.
Keaton Mitchell had 76 yards on six carries, and Jackson took off seven times for an additional 43 yards, and a touchdown. And that’s not even during a full game of committing to the run. Baltimore tried to beat Pittsburgh through the air early in this game, and only later leaned on the running game, which found tremendous success.
The Steelers have now allowed 466 rushing yards over their last two weeks, and have been out-gained by 374 yards on the ground. That stat is going to slip under the radar just a little because the Steelers won on Sunday, but it’s one of the uglier stats you’ll find.
This team badly misses Derrick Harmon, but even without him, this cannot continue to happen.
5: Isiah Likely’s Catch
Alright, let’s get to the part that you’ve probably all been waiting for. Let’s talk about that Isaiah Likely non-catch.
The Ravens thought they had a touchdown to take the lead with 2:47 to go, when Lamar Jackson found Isaiah Likely in the endzone. Likely caught the pass, and with the ball in his hands, Joey Porter Jr. had knocked it out. At first, Porter’s punchout seemed meaningless, but officials took a minute to review the touchdown and made the surprising call: Likely did not complete the catch.
As you can imagine, the folks at M&T Bank Stadium did not agree. John Harbaugh was livid on the sideline as his offense was forced to trot back out there to try and score again. In the end, the Ravens were pushed to a fourth down situation, which they went for and didn’t get.
Pittsburgh couldn’t do anything with that turnover on downs, but they wasted just enough time and forced Baltimore to burn a pair of timeouts, making their last failed attempt under a severe time crunch.
But even if the Ravens had a couple more chances after this call, this is the play that everyone will be talking about all week.
Honestly, in real time, I thought he had it. I was shocked when they took that touchdown off the board. I can certainly see why Ravens fans felt like they were robbed.
It’s just one of those plays that is so hard to get “right.” By the letter of the law, that’s not a completed catch. He did not get the third step or the “football move.” But, it also feels like one of those “come on” plays, where it looks in real-time like it’s an easy touchdown.
And so, we kick off another week of the NFL’s favorite topic, “what exactly is a catch?” Somewhere on a nice sunny beach, Jesse James is smiling.
Fifth Avenue Sports 
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