PITTSBURGH -- The line between physical and dirty football gets blurred when the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens lock up in what is the NFL’s most contentious rivalry.
It happened again on Sunday night when the AFC North rivals combined for four penalties that were for unnecessary roughness or roughing the passer and two more that were for a personal foul and a horse-collar tackle.
The Ravens drew five of those penalties, all of which were called after the first quarter, and outside linebacker Terrell Suggs is among those who can expect a FedEx envelope containing a fine notification from the NFL.
Suggs made a dangerous tackle in the third quarter when he dived at the lower body of Steelers running back LeGarrette Blount at the end of a 6-yard run, causing Blount’s body to get bent back at an awkward angle.
Suggs was penalized for unnecessary roughness, and his hit touched off pushing and shoving in a game that had plenty of both.
Suggs said after the Ravens’ 43-23 loss that he was only trying to get the 6-foot, 250-pound Blount on the ground. Even if the NFL doesn’t agree with Steelers outside linebacker James Harrison that it looked like Suggs was trying to injure Blount on the play, it has little choice but to fine the 12-year veteran.
The NFL has gone to considerable lengths to protect players it deems defenseless. Blount was the definition of that when Suggs took aim at his lower body from behind with several Ravens tacklers already driving him back.
Suggs has long epitomized what makes the Ravens-Steelers rivalry such a special one. The six-time Pro Bowler seems to play his best against the Steelers, and his 16.5 career sacks of Ben Roethlisberger are the most any player has sacked the Steelers quarterback.
Few players have moved the needle in the rivalry more than the player known as “T Sizzle.”
Brash and opinionated, Suggs embraces the villain role when the Ravens visit the Steelers, and he loves it when Pittsburgh fans shower him with boos.
He cemented his status as a Ravens player whom Steelers love to hate on Sunday night, but he went about it the wrong way with his hit on Blount. Suggs could have hurt Blount and himself on the play.
He figures to pay for it after the NFL reviews what was not one of Suggs' finer moments in the ongoing Ravens-Steelers border feud.