The Baltimore Ravens were the more desperate team on Thursday night, and they were clearly the better team too.
Baltimore didn't want to take a second loss to start the season, after losing at home to Cincinnati last week. Going 0-2 at home against two division rivals would have been a tough hole to get out of. And, as you may have heard, they cut their starting running back this week.
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Baltimore's defense made sure the Ravens got the win they needed, as they beat the Steelers 26-6. A good pass rush helped, led by outside linebacker Elvis Dumervil's great effort, and even when Ben Roethlisberger had time, nobody was open. A huge first-quarter hit by Courtney Upshaw of the Ravens on Roethlisberger, which lifted Roethlisberger off his feet,*was penalized because Upshaw led with the crown of his helmet --* but Roethlisberger never looked the same.
Roethlisberger had a team record 30 straight games with a passing touchdown, but the Ravens kept Pittsburgh out of the end zone. The Steelers' third turnover came late in the fourth quarter when massive defensive tackle Haloti Ngata tipped a pass in the air to himself and made a diving interception. It was that kind of night.
The Steelers started the game with a long drive into Ravens territory. It chewed up more than eight minutes. And it ended with a fumble. That was basically it for the Steelers offense. It couldn't sustain drives long enough to even give the defense a rest.
For Pittsburgh it's six straight miserable quarters, going back to last week when it almost blew a huge halftime lead to Cleveland.

The Ravens' offense did enough. Owen Daniels scored two touchdowns, both of which he was wide open on. Joe Flacco didn't put up big numbers, rarely pushing the ball downfield, but with the ' defense playing so well he didn't need to take many chances. Flacco was 21-of-29 for 166 yards.

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Baltimore didn't necessarily need to win in Week 2. But 1-1 with a win over the Steelers gives it a lot better outlook than 0-2 would have. Especially with how sharp the defense looked.
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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab