By Joe Rutter
September 30, 2018
James Conner is tackled by Tony Jefferson in Sunday night's 26-14 loss to Baltimore (Fred Vuich/AP)
Heinz Field no longer is providing the Pittsburgh Steelers with a home-field advantage.
For just the second time in the venue’s 18-year history, the Steelers have lost back-to-back home games to start a season, the latest a 26-14 setback to the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday night in an AFC North showdown broadcast to a national television audience.
Counting the AFC divisional playoff game to Jacksonville in January, the Steelers have lost three consecutive games at Heinz Field.
And just like those other two losses, the Steelers fell behind by two touchdowns in the first quarter. They’ve been outscored 49-0 in the first quarter in that three-game span at home.
“It’s tough not having the crowd in it and hearing some boo birds,” said All-Pro guard David DeCastro. “You just hate to see it. There was a lack of energy, and it’s definitely our fault.”
Unable to sustain drives on offense – and stop them on defense – the Steelers were shut out in the second half for the second game in a row and dropped to 1-2-1 on the season. They remain tied with the Cleveland Browns for last place in the AFC North.
The only other time the Steelers dropped their first two home games at Heinz Field was in 2013 when they started 0-4 en route to an 8-8 season.
“We’ve got to own that,” coach Mike Tomlin said. “We don’t like where we are, but we accept it. We understand that this is our doing. We’ve just got to keep working. We will do that, we won’t make excuses.”
The Ravens, meanwhile, possessed the ball for more than 21 minutes in the second half when they got four field goals from Justin Tucker. At 3-1, they are tied with the Cincinnati Bengals atop the division race.
Joe Flacco passed for 363 yards and two touchdowns while outdueling Ben Roethlisberger.
The Steelers had just 47 yards of offense after they rallied from a 14-0 deficit to tie the score at halftime. Roethlisberger was 8 of 18 for 50 yards in the second half, and the running game was stagnant, generating six yards on four carries after intermission. James Conner led the Steelers with 19 yards rushing on nine carries.
Antonio Brown had a 26-yard touchdown catch that set up the tying 2-point conversion late in the first half, but he had just one reception in the second half. Vance McDonald, whose fumble set up the Ravens’ first touchdown, was held without a catch in the second half.
“I don’t think I’m on the same page with anybody right now,” said Roethlisberger, who completed 27 of 47 passes for 274 yards and a 72.5 passer rating. “I’m not playing well enough. I need to play better. Today was just a bad day at the office. We’ve all had them. I had one today. I promise I’ll be back to play better.”
The Steelers were 2 of 12 on third-down conversions and 0 of 6 in the second half. Their final six drives ended this way: punt, punt, punt, punt, interception, turnover on downs.
“There wasn’t really a frustration. It was kind of blah,” DeCastro said. “It was one of those games when not much really was working. We couldn’t get anything rolling, no rhythm.”
The Ravens had no such difficulties moving the ball in the second half and repeatedly got the ball in position for Tucker to do his thing. He put the Ravens ahead with a 47-yard field goal with 3:58 left in the third quarter and followed with field goals of 49, 28 and 31 yards.
The back-breaker was the third field goal, which came following a drive that began at the Ravens 8. Baltimore exhausted 6 minutes, 40 seconds off the clock on the 14-play, 82-yard march.
On the previous drive, the Ravens converted a fourth-and-2 from the Steelers 42.
“That’s unacceptable,” defensive tackle Cameron Heyward said. “We’ve got to get off the field. … We’ve all got to look at ourselves in the mirror. It’s not me pointing one guy out. The whole defense is responsible. We’ve just got to play better.”
The Ravens took a 7-0 lead just 4:15 into the game when Flacco threw a 33-yard touchdown pass to John Brown, who got behind Joe Haden and Cameron Sutton in coverage.
McDonald’s fumble at the Pittsburgh 31 on the Steelers’ opening series set up Flacco’s 3-yard touchdown pass to running back Alex Collins that put the Ravens up 14-0 less than six minutes into the game.
Chris Boswell, who was 1 of 4 in field-goal attempts, converted from 34 and 39 yards, the second one coming after Sean Davis forced a fumble at the Steelers’ 2 and Terrell Edmonds recovered.
The Steelers got the ball back with 4:48 left in the half. Roethlisberger and McDonald hooked up for completions of 11 and 33 yards. Two plays later, Roethlisberger threw a laser to the left corner of the end zone, and Brown made a twisting catch for a 26-yard score. A 2-point conversion pass to Conner tied the score, 14-14.
The momentum, however, didn’t last past halftime.
“We can’t be a team that thinks teams are going to lay down for us,” guard Ramon Foster said. “We have to be a team that is on top of everything moving forward. We’ve got the tools to do it. We’re a team that historically has been able to pull out wins.”
Not this year. And especially not at home.
Joe Rutter is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Joe at jrutter@tribweb.com or via Twitter @tribjoerutter.
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