On Saturday, the Baltimore Ravens defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 28-14 to advance to the Divisional Round of the playoffs.
Derrick Henry and the Ravens played smash-mouth football, and the Steelers were no match for their physical style of play.
Derrick Henry Reaches Out To Minkah Fitzpatrick After Huge Stiff Arm
Henry rushed 26 times for 186 yards and two touchdowns, as the Steelers had no answer for him or Lamar Jackson in the running game. Baltimore has the second-best offense in the NFL, according to PFN’s Offense+ metric, with only the Detroit Lions ranking higher.
Henry has been a big part of that all season long, and that did not change at all in the first round of the playoffs. One play, in particular, stood out and quickly went viral.
On a 34-yard run that set the tone for the physical style of play the Ravens imposed on the Steelers, Henry sent Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick flying. Fitzpatrick isn’t just any safety — he’s a three-time First-Team All-Pro, proving nobody is safe from Henry.
The royal stiff arm 👑 pic.twitter.com/OTakYdvxXV
— NFL (@NFL) January 12, 2025
It’s also worth noting that Henry and Fitzpatrick were college teammates at Alabama in 2015, winning the CFP National Championship together.
This isn’t the first time a household name has felt the wrath of Henry’s stiff-arm, as Josh Norman is very familiar with, and it probably won’t be the last time either.
DERRICK HENRY JUST RAGDOLLED JOSH NORMAN 😳
(via @NFL)pic.twitter.com/OaVuWNiXKi
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) October 14, 2020
The play was just one of many highlight reel plays that Henry has made this season, and if the Ravens make an extended run in the postseason, they will likely get several more jaw-dropping plays out of their bell-cow running back.
After the game, Henry spoke on the stiff arm against his former teammate.
“My boy Minkah… you know it’s all love,” Henry said. “On the field, it’s business.”
While this may be the case, this play summed up the game as a whole, as it was a total beatdown of one division rival over another.
Steelers’ Defense Gets Embarrassed by Ravens’ Run-Game
The Steelers have the highest-paid defense in the NFL, yet they had no answers for Henry or Jackson in the Wild Card Game.
While these are two of the top players at their respective positions, and it could be argued that many teams struggle to stop them, the Steelers’ defense has not lived up to the lofty expectations they had placed on them entering the season.
The Steelers’ defense was No. 12 in PFN’s Defense+ rankings this season. However, they had their lowest-graded performance of the season (64.3, a D) at the absolute worst time.
PFN’s defense rankings combine statistics such as yards per play, points per drive, sack percentage, turnover percentage, success rate against the run and pass, third-down conversion rate, red-zone efficiency, pressure percentage when not blitzing, and various expected points added (EPA) measures against both the run and pass.
The Steelers expect more out of a unit with so many highly-paid players, especially in the postseason.
They have two All-Pros in Cameron Heyward (First Team) and T.J. Watt (Second Team), while Fitzpatrick and former Ravens linebacker Patrick Queen are among the highest-paid players at their respective positions.
With so many stars on the defensive side of the ball and a defensive-minded head coach in Mike Tomlin, getting bullied on the side of the ball that is their identity is eye-opening and a big reason why many fans change of some kind in Pittsburgh.