ExtremeRavens Posted Monday at 11:30 AM Posted Monday at 11:30 AM PITTSBURGH —The win probability in the final three minutes Sunday night flickered by more than 40 percentage points before the Ravens let slip what would have been a third straight AFC North crown. They lost to the Steelers, 26-24, in heart-breaking fashion at Acrisure Stadium. Here are five things we learned from the game: Sunday night’s fourth quarter epitomizes Ravens shortcomings Was there a more fittingly cruel way for this season to end than that fourth quarter? It was an incredible show of theater. Just when you were ready to count the Ravens out, they gave you a reason to believe. Then, as they have repeatedly this time of year, fell short in a critical moment. The final stanza ping-ponged in the way Baltimore’s season did, with incompatible phases of the football, one giving another a chance but the three never neatly tethering together. “This sucks. This moment sucks,” linebacker Roquan Smith said. “We had the game right there, right there in our grasps, and it slipped away.” Sunday night proved one of the craziest games in a lengthy rivalry. The Ravens and Steelers duked it out for three hours. They traded body blows in the fourth quarter, scoring a combined 27 points. Ultimately, Pittsburgh clinched its first division title since 2020 and sent home the Ravens, who hadn’t missed the playoffs since 2021. The Ravens’ postgame locker room was a cocktail of frustration and confoundment. They were supposed to be a Super Bowl contender. They weren’t supposed to be 1-5. They were supposed to be the kind of team who could rally and make the playoffs. They weren’t supposed to slip in December and rally before the new year only to face plant in January. Lamar Jackson was equal parts “devastated” and “furious” for how it ended. “It’s disappointing,” coach John Harbaugh said. “I think our guys fought. We were that close to winning the [AFC] North, and we didn’t get a chance to get it done. So, all that other stuff is history. We had a chance to do it; we didn’t do it. We’re disappointed, and we’ll move on.” Tyler Loop misfires season’s final bullet There he sat, still in full uniform while most others had already showered. Loop cupped his head between his hands. At one point, he pulled a Bible out from his bag and peered at a passage. A few teammates walked over to show support. As holder Jordan Stout said, most of those messages fell on deaf ears in the immediate aftermath. What can you say to a 24-year-old rookie kicker who just missed the biggest kick of his life? “I honestly don’t know,” veteran long snapper Nick Moore said. “It’s a very difficult situation to be in. Obviously, we practice for that all season. We spend every single day, every single week working for that moment. At the end of the day, all you can do is do your best. It just didn’t work out for us there. The truth of the matter is that it was a nearly impossible situation to thrust an untested rookie into. Before Sunday night, Loop had only attempted three second-half field goals to tie or take the lead. He made a go-ahead chip shot in the third quarter against Minnesota, nailed a game-tying 44-yard attempt in the fourth quarter against Cleveland and missed a 56-yard try that would have broken a tie with the Patriots. That’s not very many opportunities to prepare for the pressure of shouldering a season-on-the-line kick while many of the 65,400 fans swirled yellow towels in his peripheral. Whether Loop could be ready for a moment like this was a question going back to August. Baltimore hadn’t had that problem in years, relying on Justin Tucker, perhaps the greatest kicker ever, whose Ravens tenure ended during an NFL investigation into allegations by more than a dozen local massage therapists of sexual misconduct. Three months later, the Ravens drafted his successor. Loop showed a powerful swinging leg and confident stroke, but could the kid be trusted in a moment like that for a team that believed it had Super Bowl potential? “I feel for Tyler,” running back Derrick Henry said. “I talked to him. I just told him just to keep his spirits up, deal with it tonight, and then tomorrow, the sun rises again.” Loop said he knew right as his foot struck the ball that it was a misfire. “We call it hitting it thin. It spins fast and goes off to the right,” he said, with Stout and Moore standing over each shoulder. Loop admirably answered 11 questions about the most disappointing moment of his football life. He explained further that when he kicks a football, he aims for the fourth lace of the shoe but that strike felt a little low. His toe scraped a few blades of grass on the downswing, too. Harbaugh ushered Loop off the field and into the locker room. The longtime coach had a private conversation with his first-year kicker, held an arm behind Loop’s back and consoled him on the way inside. In the visiting locker room, a few seats to Loop’s left, sat one of the few Ravens who knew what Loop was going through Sunday night. Mark Andrews dropped the ball at the goal line in the final play of last year’s season. “It’s tough to be in that position. I know that,” Andrews said. “Football’s like life. It’s about how you bounce back. How hard is he gonna work to be in moments like that? I love Tyler and everything he stands for. I know that he’s gonna carry through and be great.” Added Stout: “They’re going to make a movie about him one day. Ten years down the line when he’s the best in the league, I think he’ll look back on it as the moment that made him.” Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson played one of his best games of the season Sunday night in Pittsburgh. It still wasn't enough. (Matt Durisko/AP) It took 18 weeks, but Lamar Jackson finally played at the MVP level we’re used to Doubting Jackson is a futile exercise. Eventually, at some point, no matter how long it takes, he will make you eat your words. This season has been a trying one for Jackson. He toiled through injuries to half his body. For two months, he failed to log a full week of practice. There were questions about his relationship with his coach and accusations levied against his work ethic. “You’ve got to be calm in the storm,” Jackson responded last week. That he was. Although it will almost certainly be lost in the annals of a storied rivalry and rocky season. Baltimore’s first drive was as smooth as we’ve seen all year, capped by a 38-yard pass to a wide-open Devontez Walker. The offense sputtered from there. Stout punted on four of the next six Ravens drives. Loop hit one field goal then Jackson had a pass tipped into the arms of defensive lineman T.J. Watt for the game’s only interception. Jackson took three sacks, and the offense could barely cross midfield. Then came the fourth quarter. The two-time Most Valuable Player flashed the sort of illogical mastery we’ve come to expect. He escaped two free rushers, held onto the ball for more than five seconds and lofted a deep ball to Zay Flowers for a go-ahead touchdown. Then, when Pittsburgh responded with a go-ahead drive, leaving less than four minutes on the clock, Jackson did it again. He silenced Acrisure Stadium flinging a third-down touchdown pass to Flowers, who on this night, shed the criticism of being a Pro Bowler who couldn’t deliver in the clutch. Trailing again on the final drive, Jackson did it again with a fourth-down rocket to Isaiah Likely that got them into field goal range. “I thought that the plays that were made were incredible,” Harbaugh said. “The sad thing is some of that will get overshadowed now a little bit, but Lamar made some phenomenal plays.” Jackson had a perfect passer rating in the fourth quarter. In the final frame alone, he completed 6 of 8 passes for 171 yards. That was Jackson taking the reins from Derrick Henry, who shouldered much of the offensive burden in the game’s middle half. He ran for 126 yards on 20 carries. Even Pittsburgh’s league-best run defense over the past month had a hard time corralling the 32-year-old future Hall of Famer. It was Jackson who gave his team a chance late Sunday night. He stormed up and down the sideline telling his team, “Let’s be legendary. Let’s put the drive together [in] 55 seconds. We practiced this — 55 seconds and three timeouts.” He came back from injury and, although inconsistent throughout the night, executed at a high level in crunch time. At the twilight of this bristly year, that served as a reminder of who Jackson is. Kyle Hamilton was the Jenga piece that kept the Ravens defense standing this year It was bleak. And it happened rather quickly. Kyle Hamilton and Alohi Gilman collided on an innocuous, incomplete second-down throw. Both Baltimore safeties were shaken up. Gilman stepped into the blue medical tent first to be evaluated for a concussion. He was back on the field three plays later. Hamilton stepped in next. At that moment, it felt more pressing to lock eyes on the visiting sideline rather than track the driving Steelers. Hamilton eventually emerged between blue cloth doors. He didn’t put a helmet on. Baltimore’s highly paid defensive centerpiece joined medical staffers on a cart aimed toward the locker room. The last thing Hamilton saw was Steelers fullback Connor Heyward punch in a tush-push touchdown that tied the game at 10 apiece. With Hamilton on the field, the Steelers offense averaged 3.9 yards per play on 38 plays. They had a 37% success rate, according to analyst Warren Sharp. Without Hamilton, Aaron Rodgers’ offense picked Baltimore apart for 6.9 yards per play on 35 plays at a 60% success clip. Even Harbaugh had a tough time quantifying Hamilton’s impact. “It was definitely not a good thing,” he said. Baltimore’s quintessential Swiss Army knife has fit into every corner of Zach Orr’’s defensive scheme and masked issues at every level. “He is not a guy that you could just plug and play somebody and play the same way,” cornerback Marlon Humphrey said. “It made us adjust how we were calling our defense, and we, obviously, tried to fill the gaps, but we just weren’t able to get it done down the stretch.” The same defense that bowed up before halftime, keeping Pittsburgh from scoring six feet from the end zone, floundered late. In the fourth quarter, Rodgers connected with tight end Pat Freiermuth on a critical third-and-8 that set Pittsburgh up inside the 5-yard line. Kenneth Gainwell scored two plays later. On the next Steelers drive, Rodgers, who didn’t have his top receiver, DK Metcalf, had no issues operating a two-minute drill that ended in a long toss up the left sideline to Calvin Austin. Austin stutter-stepped Chidobe Awuzie and found green grass. Rodgers finished the night with 294 yards passing. He completed 31 of 47 passes and a touchdown. Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said after the game, as he has in recent weeks, this was Pittsburgh’s vision when they recruited Rodgers in the spring. “They made some really good plays, and we didn’t do as well as we needed to do,” Harbaugh said. “We really didn’t get enough sacks. I think we had one sack, maybe, two sacks. You want to get there, and you want to get to [Rodgers] a little more. “It’s the chunk plays that have gotten us, and they came up again in this game, and yes, it’s really disappointing. It’s not something that should happen as much as it did. They gave up some chunk plays, too, in the back end, so it’s football, and it happens, but we don’t want that to happen.” John Harbaugh and the Ravens will watch this year's NFL postseason from home. (Matt Durisko/AP) Decisions will need to be made It’s natural when a season ends this way — far short of expectations in such gut-wrenching fashion — that questions arise about personnel and leadership roles. This was the third season in Harbaugh’s 18-year tenure the Ravens finished with a losing record. As there have been all year, there will be calls for a coaching change. Only owner Steve Bisciotti can make that decision. But players in the locker room backed their coach as Sunday night turned into Monday. “I love Coach Harbaugh. I would love to see him at this organization,” Henry said. “As far as those decisions, that’s out of my pay grade. I don’t make those decisions, but yes, I love everybody in this organization. I tried my best this year, but just didn’t do enough to get it done.” Added Andrews: “I love Coach Harbaugh and Lamar. The type of men that they are and the type of leaders that they are. I couldn’t ask for a better organization and better people to be able to come to work every day and just try to compete and win with.” And Smith: “I hear, ‘Coach this. Coach that.’ But at the end of the day, yes, Coach can be here and there, but it’s the players that make the plays on the field, and [it’s] the players who go out there on the field. When I turn on the film, even play in and play out, I felt like we were in really good calls, and it was about the players actually executing the call and not getting lackadaisical [or] complacent. I feel like that’s something that we have to work on. I don’t know what it is, personally, but it’s something.” However, the Ravens stumbled in the AFC championship game two years ago, lost to the Bills in the AFC divisional round a season ago and failed to make the playoffs this year. So something is bound to change — whatever that is. Have a news tip? Contact Sam Cohn at scohn@baltsun.com, 410-332-6200 and x.com/samdcohn.x.com. 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