BALTIMORE -- A week ago, the Steelers snuck out of Tennessee with a win over the Titans despite losing the turnover battle, 3-1.
Sunday at M&T Bank Stadium they flipped the script on the Ravens, turning Lamar Jackson over a career-high four times on two interceptions and two lost fumbles and beating Baltimore, 28-24, to improve to 7-0.
But it was hardly pretty.
The Ravens held the ball for 35:22. They ran 79 offensive plays to just 50 for the Steelers. They had a 457-221 advantage in total yards.
The Steelers led in the only thing that mattered, however. The scoreboard.
"I am going to tell you what I told my team. We did not play well today. We lacked detail in a lot of areas," Mike Tomlin said. "When you play good people, you are going to be up against it when you don’t play good. We can’t allow the emotions of the moment for us to miss that fact. I am proud of these guys. I am proud of the fight. I am proud of how they supported one another. But it is important that we don’t lie to ourselves. We did not function well in a lot of ways today. Baltimore had a lot to do with that. I give them credit, particularly in the early stages of the game. They utilized their bye week well. They threw some things at us that we had to adjust to."
And adjust -- at least somewhat -- they did.
How ugly was it? The Ravens gained 265 yards on the ground. Baltimore (5-2) had nearly as many rushing plays, 47, as the Steelers had rushing yards (48) or offensive plays themselves (50).
To say the Ravens did what they wanted to do in the running game would be something of an understatement.
While Jackson and company were having plenty of success against the Steelers with their rushing attack, the reigning NFL MVP's giveaways played a major role in the outcome. They turned the tide in favor of the Steelers, who matched the best start in franchise history from 1978 with their seventh consecutive win to open the season.
"The turnovers, I feel, are the reason we lost the game," said Jackson, who completed just 13 of 28 passes for 208 yards and was sacked four times. "I put that on me. The start of the game, the first drive -- a pick-six. And then we drive to the red zone -- I fumbled. I've got to get the ball out quicker, because we know they're dominant up front.
"I've got to clean those up, and I feel like we (would've) won that game. That's all to it."
The victory is a big one. First, the Steelers had been swept by the Ravens a year ago, when they were playing without Ben Roethlisberger. Secondly, they now own a two-game lead on Baltimore, which went 14-2 a year ago, for the AFC North lead, with the rematch coming in Pittsburgh Thanksgiving night.
That's why the Steelers weren't apologizing for winning a game that, quite frankly, they deserved to lose, based on being out-gained two-to-one.
"You know, they are a really good football team," Roethlisberger said. "They're ranked really high on defense for a reason. They got after us, and it wasn't pretty. I don't think at any point in this game, offensively, it was a pretty game. First half wasn't pretty. Second half wasn't pretty. Nothing about this game was pretty from our perspective until the game was over, and we looked at the scoreboard and saw that we won. At the end of the day, that's all that matters."
The game was largely a mirror image of the Steelers' 27-24 win against the Titans last week. Except this time, it was the Steelers who started slowly, then roared back in the second half.
The Steelers managed just 66 yards of total offense in the first half, scoring the game's first touchdown when linebacker Robert Spillane jumped a pass over the middle intended for wide receiver James Proche, intercepting it and returning it 33 yards for a touchdown on Baltimore's first offensive series.
"We were in a zone coverage, and we had great pressure on the quarterback from our front four," said Spillane, who had a game-high 11 tackles, two pass defenses and a fumble recovery. "We had great zone distribution, and we made him read three reads to check down. I was able to steal one."
Did we mention Spillane also had a fumble recovery?
That came on Baltimore's penultimate possession, with the Steelers leading, 28-24. The Ravens drove to the Pittsburgh 8 at the two-minute warning and faced fourth-and-3.
Cam Heyward, who had left the game with cramps in his left leg earlier in the fourth quarter, came back in. He called his defensive line mates into a huddle at the eight and they went over their plan of attack.
"It was a type of down which we needed to make sure we were all on the same page, especially with the person who had the ball in his hands in Lamar Jackson," defensive end Stephon Tuitt said of the meeting. "We just wanted to talk as a group and be like, 'What type of rush do we all want to do collectively to make sure he stays in the pocket?' "
As it turned out, Jackson ran a keeper up the middle, where he was met at the 6 by Isaiah Buggs, who entered the game in the first quarter when nose tackle Tyson Alualu left with a knee injury and did not return, linebacker Vince Williams and safety Minkah Fitzpatrick.
The ball was jarred loose and Spillane pounced on it for the recovery:
"We knew what it was going to take to win the game, and we couldn't let them score a touchdown," Spillane said. "That's what we ended up doing, stopping them from scoring seven points and winning the game. It was not about style points, but we got it done."
The Steelers would need yet another big play at the end to hold off Baltimore.
The Ravens stopped the Steelers from gaining a first down, with Calais Campbell denying James Conner on third-and-2 to force a punt. But Baltimore had used all of its timeouts to stop the clock.
Taking over at his own 37 with 52 seconds remaining, Jackson converted a fourth-and-2 with a 32-yard pass down the seam to Willie Snead. But Heyward went down again behind the play and the Steelers had to use their third timeout to help their defensive captain off the field.
With eight seconds remaining, the Ravens essentially had two shots to get into the end zone from the 23.
Jackson was pressured on first down, throwing the ball short of Duvernay. Then, on second down with five seconds remaining, he fired a pass over the middle and into the end zone intended for Snead. That's where Fitzpatrick was lurking:
That touched off the celebrations for a win in a game the Steelers trailed 17-7 at halftime.
It wasn't quite an instant classic in this series, but the NFL-record 25th meeting between Tomlin and John Harbaugh -- no other coaches have faced each other as many times in modern history -- was certainly filled with noteworthy plays.
The Ravens were unhappy with the last pass, feeling Fitzpatrick had contacted Snead in the helmet with his shoulder, but he was clearly playing the ball, not the receiver.
"As far as the last play -- the shoulder to the helmet -- no," said Harbaugh when asked if he got an explanation from game officials. "They didn't say a word about it. They just ran off the field."
The Steelers were nearly run off the field early in this game.
Already playing without nickel corner Mike Hilton, a main cog in their efficient run stopping coming into this game, and inside linebacker Devin Bush, the Steelers lost Alualu early in the game, as well.
The Ravens ran the ball 28 times for 179 yards in the first half, building a 17-7 lead, dicing up the Steelers defense, which entered the game having allowed 68.8 rushing yards per game. Jackson had 10 carries for 54 yards. Rookie JK Dobbins had 69 yards on eight carries. He finished with 113 yards on 15 attempts. Gus Edwards had 10 carries for 56 yards and a touchdown as the Ravens averaged 6.4 yards per carry.
"We were challenged early," said Tomlin. "We adjusted, they adjusted, and we moved with more fluidity in the second half. I am thankful for that, because it was needed."
So was a big play from Bud Dupree.
After the Steelers' lone turnover, a fumble by rookie wide receiver Chase Claypool that was recovered at the Pittsburgh 44, the Ravens got a 28-yard run by Dobbins to the Pittsburgh 9. But on second down from the 8, Dupree looped around behind Jackson, who had stepped up in the pocket, and stripped him of the ball as he attempted to throw. Williams recovered at the 4, turning the Ravens away without points:
That would loom large in a game decided by four points.
The Steelers finally found their offense in the second half, and it was aided by (what else?) another Jackson turnover.
This time, it was rookie linebacker Alex Highsmith doing the honors.
Highsmith was playing in a five-linebacker package the Steelers used throughout the game to try to slow the Ravens' rushing attack. But on this play, he dropped into the flat and went up to catch a pass intended for Mark Andrews, returning it two yards to the Baltimore 21:
Two plays later, Roethlisberger connected with a wide-open Eric Ebron on a crossing pattern and the tight end went into the end zone untouched for an 18-yard TD catch that trimmed Baltimore's lead to 17-14.
That seemed to spark the Steelers. After forcing a three-and-out, they got the ball back at their own 23 and drove 77 yards to score on a 1-yard plunge by Conner to take a 21-17 lead.
Jackson put the Ravens back on top with 12 minutes to play, finding Marquise Brown for a 3-yard touchdown pass that gave Baltimore a 24-21 lead. But the Steelers answered right back.
This time, they drove 80 yards with the help of a face-mask penalty on safety Chuck Clark and a 20-yard pass interference penalty on Marlon Humphrey to score the go-ahead touchdown on an 8-yard pass from Roethlisberger to Claypool.
The Steelers moved the ball when they needed to do so, getting just enough out of Roethlisberger and the passing game. Roethlisberger completed 21 of 32 passes on the rainy, windy day for 182 yards and two touchdowns. More importantly, he didn't turn the ball over.
"That was one of the big things coming in, I didn't want to throw the ball to them, obviously," said Roethlisberger, who had a season-worst three interceptions against the Titans. "We always want to protect it and possess it. Other than that one, I'm really proud of the way we did that, especially with the adverse conditions and the weather we had early."
It all added up to a win, albeit one that won't go down as one of the more dominating performances from this team.
But 7-0 is 7-0. And that's all the Steelers were concerned about.
They've now beaten the Browns (then 4-1), the Titans (then 5-0) and now the Ravens (then 5-1) in succession.
"A lof of people say you beat the Ravens, you all really are legit," said Ebron, who had four catches for 48 yards. "I'm like, 'But we went 6-0, how are we not a legit unit?' So, now that we beat the Ravens ... We look adversity in the face, and we attack it, and that's why we came out victorious."
