Halicke: Turnovers play pivotal role in limiting Ravens' No.1 offense

Patrick Queen woke up Sunday without anger in his heart. He's moved on from the Ravens not giving him a contract offer to stay in Baltimore. He just wanted to make plays for his team that led to a win.

"You dream about plays, and some days they don't happen," Queen said after Sunday's game. "Everybody today was like you're going to get one. This was my dad's birthday too, he was like you've got to get me one. It's just crazy how things work out, though. Knowing I had to come out here and support my team and play as hard as I can for them and just do my job."

The Steelers outlasted the Ravens Sunday afternoon at Acrisure Stadium, walking away with an 18-16 victory to secure a one-and-a-half game lead in the AFC North. Queen did make a play, one of three huge takeaways that played a critical role in why the Steelers are now an 8-2 football team and just one game back from being the No. 1 seed in the AFC.

After the offense squandered an opportunity to drive down the field late in the first half and get points before the break, the Ravens took the field to try to build on a 7-6 lead they had just taken one series prior. But on the first play, Lamar Jackson hit Isaiah Likely on a short screen pass and Queen both ripped the ball out and recovered his own forced fumble to give the Steelers the ball back inside the red zone:

The Steelers would capitalize on the fumble, as Chris Boswell made one of his six field goals to give Pittsburgh a 9-7 lead at halftime.

Queen had every reason to be petty after that play. He was by the Ravens' sideline. And, a scuffle broke out after the play, in which Minkah Fitzpatrick earned an unsportsmanlike penalty. He could've joined it and flexed everything he had. But Queen went off in a different direction and celebrated with his team. It was all about him and each guy on his team. Everything was internal.

That, no matter what anyone wants to say about how ugly this game got at times, is why the Steelers won this game. They didn't overthink things. They didn't get lost in the spectacle of the rivalry and the history behind it. They had a task at hand, and it was all about giving 100% effort toward one common goal.

"The defense came out and did our job and played team defense," Queen said. "Everybody understood their assignments and just played a great team defense. Every single guy, like I said, just did our job. Nobody wanted to be Superman. Nobody wanted to try to do too much."

Not trying to do too much doesn't mean not trying to make plays. That means each guy playing within their respective role each and every down. That also means sticking with team philosophies and executing them.

That's not only Xs and Os, but also in little things like ball searching while making a tackle. Filling in for an injured Alex Highsmith and returning from an injury of his own, Nick Herbig did exactly that while making a tackle of Derrick Henry on the second play of the game:

That's a huge play. Even though the Steelers only settled for a field goal off the turnover, it put the Ravens on their heels right away. This is a Baltimore team that's not used to playing from behind.

"They're a run-happy team. They're the No. 1 run team in the NFL," DeShon Elliott said after the game. "If we got out there and started fast and the offense scored more points and put them in one-dimensional situations, you really don't want one-dimensional situations against the Pittsburgh Steelers."

That meant putting the ball in Jackson's hands more often. And while he still made a few spectacular plays, the same old results continued. Jackson completed just 16 of 33 passes for 207 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Now, Jackson's played in seven total games against the Steelers, and the Ravens have won just two of them. In addition, Jackson now has a 57.0 completion percentage, five touchdowns, eight interceptions and a 66.7 passer rating in those games.

And the one interception Jackson threw, just his third of this season, was something sensational from rookie Payton Wilson:

As amazing as that play is, the work that went into it is even more impressive, and really exemplifies why this defense played the way it did.

"We were talking all week, he and I, about his matchup with (Justice Hill)," Tomlin said. "He is a pass-situation linebacker. (Hill) is a pass-situation runner. He is a young guy, 'he' being Payton. So we knew that they were going to go at him. He needed to be prepared. We worked him all week in terms of that matchup. That rail route that he picked off, the screen game that's associated with it, Payton did a nice job preparing himself and not blinking and communicating in game and understanding the urgency of that matchup. I think that's why he was successful. I think you create your fortune sometimes when you are locked in, and he was locked in, very cognizant of the challenge, and rose up to meet it."

That's coaching. That's players heeding coaching. That's players playing within their roles and executing them to the highest of their ability, which Queen gave the ultimate complement to Wilson for that interception.

"That's an All-Pro play. Plays like that, that's not normal," Queen said. "To focus, to be able to know Justice, run with him step for step and make a play like that, that's All-Pro stuff. That's a Pro Bowl play. For a rookie to make a play like that, that's insane."

The defense undoubtedly won this game. Boswell obviously deserves his flowers, too. But, the Steelers held the league's No. 1 offense to just 16 points and 329 total yards, both numbers far below their season averages. For that effort, Queen was given the game ball by Tomlin.

And while Queen wasn't petty about anything regarding his former team, he didn't really have to. Tomlin did it all for him. Not only did he have Queen join the team captains for the coin toss, he had the ultimate mic drop in his postgame press conference.

"One man's trash is another man's treasure," he said. "I'm glad he is on our team."