Derrick Henry dominates and 4 more takeaways from Wildcard win over Steelers

Some questions were answered while others came into focus in the first round of the playoffs.

The Baltimore Ravens opened the 2024 postseason with an overwhelming 28-14 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers in the Wild Card round. With the win, they not only advanced to next week’s Divisional round but won consecutive games against their archrivals for the first time since 2019.

“I believe the guys have earned a chance to play in a big game like this against our archrival, and to play the way they did, [I’m] just so proud of them,” Head coach John Harbaugh said. “[I’m] so proud of what they did. They came out and they understood how to win a football game like this, and they knew how to win it. It’s one thing to know it, [but] it’s another thing to execute it and do it, and they did it, and I’m proud of those guys for that.”

Offensively, the Ravens steamrolled a vaunted Steelers defense that was healthier this time around, for a franchise playoff record 299 rushing yards. Defensively, Baltimore pitched a first-half shutout while the offense put up 21 points on the board. After giving up a pair of undisciplined scoring drives in the third quarter, they were lights out the rest of the way.

The win propels the Ravens to the next round of the playoffs, where they’ll take on an opponent they’ve already handily beaten this season: the Buffalo Bills. Several encouraging performances by players and units in all three phases were vital in securing a fifth straight win in lopsided fashion, getting the Ravens one step closer to their goal of reaching and winning the Super Bowl.

Here are five takeaways from Saturday’s statement victory at M&T Bank Stadium.

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King Henry had several crowning moments

Leading the way for the Ravens’ record-breaking rushing attack all season was five-time Pro Bowl running back Derrick Henry and that continued on Saturday when plowed his way through the Steelers’ defense for another monster game for the second time in less than a month. He was brought to Baltimore to carry the load in January and that’s exactly what he did by racking up a franchise-record 186 rushing yards on 26 carries. Henry averaged a whopping 7.2 yards per carry and powered his way into the end zone twice.

After the game, quarterback Lamar Jackson likened him to the fictional character Lightning McQueen from the Pixar box office hit children’s film ‘Cars.’ However, the way Henry was bulldozing his way through and over Steelers defenders, he resembled a monster truck or runaway freight train. His physicality was on full display on the Ravens’ first drive of the game where sparked it on a play where he received a direct snap and proceeded to rip off a 34-yard rush during which he stiff-armed his former Alabama teammate and Steelers free safety Minkah Fitzpatrick to the ground.

On the next drive, Henry rumbled up the middle on a traditional handoff for the first of his two scores on an eight-yard run where he dragged both of the Steelers’ starting safeties into the end zone, the other being former Raven DeShon Elliott.

“I’m just focused on doing my job each and every play,” Henry said. “Give credit to the offensive line doing a great job, tight ends, receivers and fullbacks blocking for me and ‘L’ [Lamar Jackson] and us to have success as an offense.”

Lamar Jackson’s stats don’t tell the full story

As is the case most of the time when the reigning league MVP has a sensational performance, the box score doesn’t truly encapsulate how impressive his play was overall from both passing and running standpoints despite being responsible for 246 yards of offense on his own. In the first half alone, Jackson had as many touchdown passes as incompletions and the only reason the second pass wasn’t caught was because he had to spike it to stop the clock during a two-minute drive that ended in a touchdown off an incredible scramble drill broken play. He finished 16-of-21 for 175 passing yards and passer rating of 132 and an average of 8.3 yards an attempt.

Even though he admitted to not taking many of his mom’s calls leading up to this game, Jackson is clearly still taking the strong words she had for him following the Ravens Week 13 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles about running more to heart. He continued to not hesitate to take off when rushing lanes became available and he didn’t have an open target to target. Jackson reached double-digit carries for the first time since Week 6 and finished second on the team in rushing with 81 yards on 15 attempts for an average of 5.4 including a kneeldown on the final play of the game.

The three-time First Team All Pro isn’t holding anything back during this postseason run and that should scare every team on both sides of the bracket including whoever hopes to be the NFC representative in the Super Bowl come February.

Todd Monken and offensive line deserve their flowers

Anytime an offense makes history by taking the air out of the ball and primarily keeping it on the ground, the big boys in the trenches were the ones who helped pave the way and that was certainly the case on Saturday. A Ravens blocking unit that was much-maligned at the onset of the season has done a lot more than round into shape, they’ve become a strength and proved as much by mauling one of the best defensive front sevens in the league. They worked well together when it came to opening holes for Henry to run through, creases for Jackson to hit and kept their quarterback upright behind the line of scrimmage on all but one play.

“Shout out to the offensive line,” Jackson said. “Shout out to ‘Trav’ [run game coordinator Travis Switzer] with the gameplan, and Derrick. You can’t take anything away from Derrick. He’s just that guy. The offensive line got great penetration, kept blocking those guys. [They have a] great defensive front, great linebackers, but our guys were just hungry. We know what’s at stake for us, and they got it done. They got the job done.”

The Ravens’ second-year offensive coordinator is well-deserving of his flowers because he was the one who had to devise and call a game plan without Pro Bowl wide receiver Zay Flowers in the lineup with a knee injury. Monken had his finger on the pulse of the game throughout and knew just what to call and when to call it more often than not including the direct snap play to Henry that was installed during the week leading up to this game. The Ravens ran the ball a staggering 50 times, averaged six yards a carry and dominated time of possession by a landslide 39:33-20:27. Monken was in his bag and it was filled with sledge hammers that he unleashed relentlessly with elite efficiency.

“The thing about Todd I appreciate – and it’s really all of our coaches – I believe those guys are a great unit together, but whatever it takes,” Harbaugh said. “We don’t have to do it one certain kind of way. We don’t have a particular back system that we’re in. We’re not like the West Coast system or something like that. We’re just the Ravens system. What’s the best offense that we can put together for our players at this time, and they do a great job of that.”

Defense showed championship caliber

Through the first two quarters of the game, first-year defensive coordinator Zach Orr’s unit was doing their best 2000 Ravens defense impression with how lights out they played as the offense got rolling early. They were not only generating consistent pressure up front in the trenches but were flying around and playing fast and physically downhill to prevent first downs on third down and force punts.

No player personified that more than fourth-year safety Ar’Darius Washington who was delivering crushing blows all game. He finished as the team’s leading tackler with seven total including five solos and broke up a pass in the end zone in the fourth quarter that would’ve been an interception but resulted in a turnover on downs and gave the offense the ball back in better field position as a result.

The Ravens gave up a few chunk plays on some undisciplined plays in coverage by cornerbacks that led to and sparked the Steelers’ two touchdown drives in the third quarter but they locked back in as a unit and finished strong. Leading the way for the pass rush was two-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Nnamdi Madubuike who recorded a pair of sacks followed by outside linebacker Odafe who recorded a sack for the third week in a row and nose tackle Michael Pierce who brought down Wilson for the first sack of the game after a failed flea-flicker attempt.

Fourth-year cornerback back Brandon Stephens continued to be a popular target that opposing quarterbacks look to exploit. He gave up two of the Ravens handful of chunk plays allowed including the Steelers’ first touchdown of the game on a 30-yarder where he let the receiver blow right past him. Who they end up facing in the next round will certainly take note and look to test him earlier in the game than the Steelers did so they reduce the likelihood of falling into a double-digit deficit.

Discipline was on point all phases

Coming into this game between heated archrivals who know each other so well where tempers often flare and play sometimes doesn’t end even after the whistle blows, the more disciplined team would likely prevail and that’s what happened. While both teams avoided turning the ball over on offense, the Ravens didn’t give up any unearned yardage on defense or special teams while the same couldn’t be said for the Steelers.

After getting flagged 10 times for 83 yards in the regular season finale, Baltimore was only penalized three times for 15 on Saturday and all three were on false starts by the starting offensive tackles, Ronnie Stanley twice and Roger Rosengarten once. Pittsburgh on the other hand, was flagged in all three phases multiple times and finished with seven penalties for 41 yards.