The Baltimore Ravens picked up an important win in Week 5, over their AFC North rival, the Pittsburgh Steelers. While it was far from a perfect victory, it still gets put in the win column which is all that ultimately matters in the NFL.
But with such a big game against such an important rival going into overtime, plenty of really cool stats made their way to the surface. Some of those stats even point to the Ravens’ ascending direction while others are things coach John Harbaugh will be hammering home this week to improve upon.
Let’s dig into the four oddest stats from Sunday’s Week 5 win over the Steelers.
Baltimore owns Pittsburgh in overtime
The rivalry has been so close since the Ravens joined the league in 1996 that it really seemed that there were more overtime games between the two teams. However, there have only been six, dating back to 2005, with Baltimore going 5-1 in them.
It’s even more surprising to know quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who was drafted in 2004, only played in one of those six contests.
Lamar Jackson, Robert Griffin III tied for the fastest QBs to 1,000 rushing yards
Jackson is officially the fastest quarterback to rush for 1,000 yards . . . Well, tied for it with fellow Ravens quarterback Robert Griffin III. It took Jackson and Griffin just 21 total games to reach the milestone, besting Michael Vick’s 22 game mark. However, Jackson has really only started 12 games so far in his career, making the timeline even more impressive.
Jackson has 308 yards and one touchdown on 50 rushing attempts this season. He’s on pace to nearly hit the 1,000-yard mark in 2019 alone.
A rare shutdown of the rushing attack
Baltimore has one of the top rushing offenses in the league, that much is clear. While the Ravens still had a productive day on the ground overall, rushing for 138 yards, it wasn’t nearly as impressive as the standard they’ve put up under Jackson.
Week 5 was the first time in Jackson’s 12 regular-season starts that the offense was held under 150 rushing yards. It’s also only the fourth time in 13 total games that the Ravens have been held to under 200 rushing yards in a game.
Penalties galore
The Ravens and Steelers had a total of 22 penalties called. Baltimore hasn’t been part of a game that penalty-laden since November 2016 when 23 flags were thrown in another Ravens-Steelers matchup. The kicker is, immediately after that week in 2016, the flags went down dramatically. In the following game, only nine total penalties were called.
Let’s see if discipline is tackled with more emphasis this week.
