There are a lot of statistics and anecdotes and trends that can be used to characterize Steelers vs. Ravens, or used to characterize the sub-set of the overall rivalry by limiting it to Mike Tomlin vs. John Harbaugh. But there is one theme that overrides all others.
Despite the records of the teams, the significance to each team, the venue, the spot on the schedule, the weather, or some combination of those, the final score will be close.
During the Tomlin vs. Harbaugh era of Steelers-Ravens, 24 of the 31 meetings have ended with the margin of victory, or the margin of defeat, being eight points or fewer. In other words, a one-score game. The 32nd would be no different.
When games are consistently this close, turnovers play an outsized role in the outcome, and while “turnovers are bad” hardly qualifies as cutting-edge next-gen analysis, sometimes it’s that simple. The Steelers lost
