Ravens vs. Steelers: Score and Twitter Reaction from Sunday Night Football

On a night when the Steelers retired "Mean" Joe Greene's No. 75 at Heinz Field, Pittsburgh and Baltimore added another contentious entry to their heated rivalry.

The Steelers (6-3) moved into sole possession of second place in the AFC North with a 43-23 win over the Ravens (5-4) Sunday night.

Pittsburgh held the Ravens offense to 17 points and 332 total yards. Joe Flacco finished 30-of-45 for 303 yards, two touchdowns and an interception. The Steelers pass rush constantly harassed Flacco, sacking him four times.

Baltimore had little presence on the ground. Justin Forsett led the team with 38 yards on nine carries.

The Steelers had even less success with the running game. Le'Veon Bell only carried the ball 10 times, going for 20 yards.

But when Ben Roethlisberger throws for 340 yards and six touchdowns, a steady running game isn't a necessity. Roethlisberger became the first quarterback to throw for six TDs in consecutive weeks, per ESPN Stats and Info:

Nobody's thrown for six TDs twice in the same season since 1962, per Grantland's Bill Barnwell:

One of the standout performers on the defensive side was James Harrison.

It's been quite a whirlwind season for the veteran linebacker. He retired in August, only to un-retire and sign with the Steelers, the team for which he enjoyed the lion's share of his success, in September.

Harrison rolled back the clock on Sunday night, showing shades of the 2008 Defensive Player of the Year:

He finished with seven total tackles, two sacks and four quarterback hits. The five-time Pro Bowler was a nuisance for Flacco all night. Harrison talked to NBC's Michele Tafoya after the game, via Sports Illustrated's Chris Burke:

With the Steelers defense playing as tough and physically as it did on Sunday, Pittsburgh looks like the best team in the division at the moment. The biggest question is whether the unit can hold up for the rest of the season.

Baltimore's 23 points belie how much the Steelers defense controlled the game in the second half.

Given the teams' history on the field together and mutual dislike, many expected points to come at a premium in this game, and the first quarter played to type.

The sole difference between the two was a 35-yard touchdown pass from Flacco to Torrey Smith. Perhaps more impressive than the TD itself was that Smith somehow managed to find two Ravens fans in Heinz Field, as noted by the Sunday Night Football Instagram account:

ESPN.com's Jamison Hensley pointed out that nearly half of Smith's last nine receptions to that point went for touchdowns:

After falling silent for almost the first 22 minutes of the game, the Steelers offense exploded for 22 points in the final seven minutes and 18 seconds of the first half.

Bell tied the game at 7-7 with a five-yard touchdown reception. Pittsburgh only needed to travel 27 yards for the score, capitalizing on a fumble during the previous drive by Ravens running back Lorenzo Taliaferro.

Jeff Zrebiec of The Baltimore Sun wondered what kind of fate would befall Taliaferro after the turnover. Ravens head coach John Harbaugh kept Bernard Pierce in the doghouse for a similar mistake:

If Harbaugh was upset after the fumble, he was likely seething after Steelers linebacker Jason Worilds intercepted Flacco at the Pittsburgh 40-yard line and returned the ball all the way down to the Baltimore 30-yard line.

Pittsburgh needed three plays to take a 14-7 lead, wrapping up the drive with a 19-yard touchdown pass to wideout Martavis Bryant. The 22-year-old has had an immediate impact since joining the active roster ahead of Week 7, per NFL on ESPN:

Justin Tucker stopped the bleeding for Baltimore with a 46-yard field goal to make it a 14-10 game with 1:44 until halftime.

The Steelers responded a little over 80 seconds later, with wide receiver Markus Wheaton hauling in a 47-yard touchdown pass from Roethlisberger to pad Pittsburgh's lead. The team carried a 22-10 advantage into its locker room.

During halftime, the Steelers honored Greene, who's one of the best defensive performers in the history of the game and was arguably the most important player on Pittsburgh's vaunted "Steel Curtain" defense in the 1970s.

He's only the second Steelers player to have his number retired, per SportsCenter:

"I thought my knees got weak when Dan and Art told me they wanted to retire my number," Greene said, per Ray Fittipaldo of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "This is completely overwhelming. I can't say how happy I am to be placed in this awesome category with Ernie [Stautner]."

The Steelers posted an Instagram photo of Greene's No. 75 hanging in the stadium:

Both teams were scoreless in the third quarter, but that doesn't mean the period didn't produce some great theater.

Few rivalries are as physical as Steelers-Ravens, so it doesn't take much for emotions to run over. In the third quarter, the Ravens defense stuffed LeGarrette Blount (10 carries, 23 yards), and his forward progress was stopped. That didn't prevent Terrell Suggs from diving into Blount's hip, dangerously close to Blount's knee.

Suggs earned a personal foul, and Sports Illustrated's Doug Farrar thought he should've had a harsher punishment:

That moment only heightened the animosity between the two teams.

The Steelers got their revenge in the form of a 54-yard touchdown pass from Roethlisberger to Antonio Brown, putting Pittsburgh up 19 points, 29-10, with 14:01 to play:

That 19-point lead was short-lived, as Ravens return man Jacoby Jones took the ensuing kickoff back 108 yards for a touchdown. The return immediately called to mind the controversy last year caused by Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin's interference on a potential kick-return touchdown for Jones.

NFL.com's Aditi Kinkhabwala joked that Tomlin didn't even have a chance to try to impede Jones this time around because Jones moved so quickly down the field:

The touchdown helped get Baltimore back into the game, but another TD reception from Bryant with 9:31 remaining iced the game for Pittsburgh.

Baltimore added another score late in the fourth, but the final result was all but decided by that point.

With the defeat, the Ravens fall to last place in the division. Of course, they're only a half-game back of the Cleveland Browns, so being fourth at this stage of the season isn't a large concern. Baltimore plays the Tennessee Titans in Week 10 before its bye the following week.

The Steelers will hope to catch the Cincinnati Bengals and take the AFC North lead next week when they take on the New York Jets.