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| Big Ben finished with 340 yds passing. Photo Credit: Bill Streicher/USA Today Sports |
Ben Roethlisberger threw for six touchdowns as the Steelers defeated their rivals, the Ravens, 43-23 at Heinz Field on Sunday night.
By: Michael Hanley
This victory improves Pittsburgh to 6-3 on the season, gaining a split of the season series with Baltimore. It also keeps them right in the thick of the AFC North division race.
For the Ravens they drop to 5-4 and have made more work for themselves to reach the top of the AFC North with failing to gain that tiebreaker over the Steelers for what would have been a season sweep had they won Sunday night.
A 35 yard strike from Joe Flacco to Torrey Smith gave the Ravens an early 7-0 lead. It capped off a methodical drive that kept that Steelers defense off balance throughout the series. Flacco would finish with a solid night completing 30/45 passes for 303 yards, two touchdown passes and one interception.
Le'Von Bell would get the Steelers into the end zone as he caught a 5 yard touchdown pass from Ben Roethlisberger. It was a drive that was desperately needed by Pittsburgh as they had not generated much success at all within their offense up to that point. They could now settle in and point to some things they did and continue to run them until Baltimore figures out how to stop them.
Steelers defense would create a turnover courtesy off great pressure applied to Flacco, who threw up a duck of a pass and it was intercepted by James Harrison. They would cash in on this opportunity as Big Ben found a wide open Martavis Bryant who caught the 19 yard touchdown pass to put the Steelers up 14-7.
Ravens would counter with a Justin Tucker field goal to cut the Pittsburgh lead to 14-10. That would turnout to be the closest the Ravens would get to the Steelers for the rest of this game.
Just before half, Big Ben would strike again as he unleashed a beauty of a touchdown pass to Markus Wheaton which went 47 yards and further increased the lead to 22-10, the extra two points coming courtesy of a converted two point play.
It was a huge momentum gainer as Pittsburgh further solidify their grip on this game. All of a sudden that secondary of the Ravens now were getting consistently burned and having trouble winning any of their match ups against the Steeler wide receivers.
Antonio Brown would burn the Ravens secondary on a 54 yard touchdown catch that included him juking some Baltimore defenders on his way to the end zone. It put the Steelers up 29-10 and all but putting the Ravens to bed for the night. Brown would finish the night with a tremendous performance with 11 catches for 144 yards including a touchdown reception.
Jacoby Jones would give some spark to the Ravens with his 108 yard kickoff return to make the Steelers lead be reduced to 29-17.
Martavis Bryant would get into the scoring act again as he caught a touch pass in traffic from Roethlisberger from 18 yards out to continue the rout as Pittsburgh would go up 36-17. The young wide receiver for Pittsburgh continues to show growth in his overall game as the games come and go. He is beocming a more reliable target for Big Ben to count on and use in the passing attack.
Pittsburgh would go on and close this out, a one sided affair that is a rarity in this intense rivalry.
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