No touchdown, no problem: Steelers beat Super Bowl contender by solving one of NFL's toughest problems

Ravens QB Lamar Jackson completed a season-low 48.4% of his passes for 207 yards, with one touchdown and one interception.

With his team needing a two-point conversion to tie and only one minute remaining in Baltimore’s Week 11 matchup in Pittsburgh, Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson ran to his left Sunday, looking for either a receiver or a running lane.

Neither immediately opened, yet the play was anything but over; Jackson, one of the league’s most elusive playmakers, has slipped a defense’s apparent straitjacket many times before on the way to becoming the NFL’s two-time Most Valuable Player.

But Sunday, all Jackson could do before he ran out of room toward the sideline was throw a desperate heave to no one in particular, which hit the ground. The play was a designed quarterback run, Jackson told reporters.

It wasn’t a one-play exception. By containing Jackson and his teammates all game, Pittsburgh pulled off in its 18-16 win what might be the hardest act in football — shutting down a Ravens offense so efficient in both the pass and the run that advanced statistics ranked as a statistical outlier.

Jackson, who entered Sunday among the betting favorites to win a third MVP award of his career, completed a season-low 48.4% of his passes for 207 yards, with one touchdown and one interception. His passer rating also was a season low. Pressured into four sacks, the most Baltimore has allowed since last season’s playoff loss to Kansas City, Jackson ran for only 46 yards.

https://www.nbcnews.com/sports/nfl/steelers-ravens-lamar-jackson-rcna180560

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