The Ride is Over
The Steelers overwhelm the Ravens 23 to 14
The season is officially over. Overall there are many reasons to be pleased and even more reasons to look forward to next year. But this should not be called a success. Only one team is successful each year in the NFL. The winner of the Super Bowl.
Now of course there are relative variables to consider. But we will save that for later. First let us consider the AFC Championship loss 
Playing Pittsburgh is never easy. In fact for as long as the Ravens have been a franchise they build there team with the Steelers in mind. Of the 3 games they played the Steelers this season, this was the worst of them all. Joe Flacco finally looked like a rookie. John Harbaugh and his staff was out of answers. The Steelers amped up there play from the regular season and the Ravens did not.
The Ravens were a tired bunch also. Part of that stems from the fact that the Hurricane postponed game against Houston put a wrench into the bye week. Also the Steelers had a first round bye in the playoffs.
Aside from Flacco being under duress, the Steelers also put the clamps on the rushing game. Overall the Ravens were held to around 4 yards per offensive play. Sadly this was a bit of a regression to the previous Ravens who relied heavily on their defense. Quite frankly the Steelers being flagged for pass interference were the best offensive plays for Baltimore. It was just not a good day for the offense,period. 3 INT's (one for 6) and horrendous 3 rd down conversions will tend to do that.
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The defense actually played as good as usual. They got stung on a couple big plays and one ridiculous bonehead unnecessary roughness penalty, and that is what killed them. The Steelers are not exactly explosive on offense, but they can score at times if left unchecked. So in that regard the Ravens held their own. The Steelers couldn't run at all against them. Kudos to Ngata for a great game against the run! The turnovers were missing however. And that is what Ed Reed, Ray Lewis and the boys feed off of.
Again although I firmly believe in the only one team is truly successful concept, no one would have picked the Ravens to make the AFC Championship game. So the fans can be reasonably satisfied with that, all things considered. And honestly tip your hat to our fellow division rivals for navigating a hellish schedule and beating the Ravens 3 times to get to the big dance!
Next year revenge can be ours!
By Andy Natalie
ProFootball-fans.com Staff Writer