November 6, 2011: Joe Flacco and rookie Torrey Smith beat the Steelers with 8 seconds left, 23-20

On November 6, 2011, the Baltimore Ravens went to Pittsburgh on a Sunday night with first place in the AFC North on the line. The Ravens were 5-2. The Steelers were 6-2 and had won four games in a row. With 2:24 left, Baltimore trailed by four points and had the ball at its own 8-yard line with no timeouts. Joe Flacco took the Ravens 92 yards, and rookie Torrey Smith caught a 26-yard touchdown pass with 8 seconds left to win it, 23-20.

A rough start for a rookie

Smith’s night began badly. On Baltimore’s first snap, Ray Rice ran 76 yards for a touchdown, but Smith was flagged for holding and the score came off the board. The Ravens settled for an 18-yard Billy Cundiff field goal on that drive.

The first half became a kicking contest. Shaun Suisham made two field goals for Pittsburgh, and Cundiff made two more for Baltimore, the last from 51 yards as the half ended for a 9-6 lead. Early in the third quarter, Terrell Suggs intercepted Ben Roethlisberger at the Baltimore 20, and Rice later ran in from 4 yards out to make it 16-6.

Pittsburgh takes the lead

The Steelers came back in the fourth quarter. Rashard Mendenhall scored from a yard out early in the quarter to make it 16-13. James Harrison, playing his first game after missing a month with a broken bone near his right eye, sacked Flacco three times. The third sack, with 7:48 left, knocked the ball loose, and William Gay recovered for Pittsburgh.

A few plays later, Roethlisberger scrambled to his right and found Mike Wallace for a 25-yard touchdown. Pittsburgh led 20-16 with just under five minutes to play.

The Steelers had a chance to make it a seven-point game. They reached the Baltimore 29 and lined up for a field goal on fourth-and-5, but a delay-of-game penalty pushed them back 5 yards, and they punted instead. The punt went 26 yards, and Lardarius Webb fair-caught it at the Baltimore 8. “I accept responsibility for that,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. “There was some hesitation on my part.”

92 yards in 2:16

Baltimore had used all three of its timeouts on the Steelers’ previous possession. Flacco kept throwing anyway, and Anquan Boldin kept getting open.

Time left	Down and distance	Play
2:16	2nd-and-10 at BAL 8	Flacco to Anquan Boldin, 21 yards
2:00	1st-and-10 at BAL 29	Flacco to LaQuan Williams, 13 yards
1:30	2nd-and-10 at BAL 42	Flacco to Boldin, 9 yards to the Pittsburgh 49
1:06	4th-and-1 at PIT 49	Flacco to Boldin, 10 yards
0:35	3rd-and-8 at PIT 37	Flacco to Boldin, 11 yards, out of bounds at the 26
0:14	3rd-and-10 at PIT 26	Flacco to Torrey Smith, 26-yard touchdown

Key plays on Baltimore’s winning drive, from the official play-by-play. The drive started at the Ravens’ 8 with 2:24 left.

Smith had nearly won it already. With 42 seconds left, a deep pass went off his fingertips. Four plays later, on third-and-10 from the Pittsburgh 26, he was supposed to run a quick out. He saw one-on-one coverage and switched to a straight run down the right sideline instead. Smith got past Gay, who was grabbing at him, and caught the ball as he slid to the ground. Gay was flagged for pass interference, and Baltimore declined it.

Flacco saw the flag first and started jogging toward the 1-yard line before he realized Smith had the ball. “For him to keep coming back to me, that meant a lot,” Smith said.

Pittsburgh got the ball back with 8 seconds left. Its last play, a catch by Wallace followed by a lateral attempt, ended in a fumble as time ran out.

	Ravens	Steelers
Passing	Flacco 28 of 47, 300 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT	Roethlisberger 20 of 37, 330 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
Leading receiver	Boldin 7 catches, 88 yards	Antonio Brown 5 catches, 109 yards
Total yards	356	392
Third downs	14 of 21	7 of 12
Sacks allowed	3	1
Penalties	3 for 20 yards	6 for 69 yards
Time of possession	33:59	26:01

Team and individual totals from the official box score. Smith finished with 5 catches for 71 yards.

What they said

Flacco had been criticized for much of the season, and his teammates made a point of defending him. “Maybe people will stop putting him down now,” Boldin said. Flacco described the final drive simply: “You don’t have anything to lose. You either score or you don’t score.”

Coach John Harbaugh said, “This is a game for men. Nobody shined brighter than Joe Flacco,” and then quoted Theodore Roosevelt’s speech about “the man who is in the arena.”

What came next

The win moved the Ravens to 6-2, tied with Cincinnati for first place. It also completed a season sweep of the Steelers, which Baltimore had beaten 35-7 in the opener. It was only the second time the Ravens had swept Pittsburgh, after 2006. Two of their previous three seasons had ended in playoff losses at the same stadium.

“Don’t be fooled, we’ll see them again in January,” Suggs said. That rematch never happened. Both teams finished 12-4, and the sweep gave Baltimore the division title and a first-round bye. Pittsburgh lost its wild-card game 29-23 in overtime at Denver. The Ravens beat Houston 20-13, then lost the AFC Championship Game 23-20 at New England. A year later, Flacco and Smith won Super Bowl XLVII together.

The rivalry’s two 2026 games both come late in the season, on December 20 in Pittsburgh and in Week 18 in Baltimore. The Steelers are 5-2 after their win in Paris, and the Ravens are 4-3 after losing to the Bengals.

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