According to Las Vegas oddsmakers, the 20-17 Baltimore Ravens victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers was the biggest upset in franchise history.
Last Sunday marked the first time that Baltimore won a game when they were considered double-digit underdogs. The point spread going into Sunday’s game against Pittsburgh had the Steelers favored by 11.5 points.
So far in the history of the franchise, the Ravens have been the underdogs by 10 points or more in 10 other games and have lost each time. Though, due to a stinky performance by the Steelers, the Ryan Mallett-led Ravens gained the upper hand and Pittsburgh simply didn’t do enough to change the course of the game.
Considering the Ravens had lost their two last games to the Seattle Seahawks and Kansas City Chiefs by a total of 49 points, and the Steelers had beat their last three opponents by an average of 18 points, most would have pegged Pittsburgh to reign victorious.
Speaking on the outcome of the game, cornerback Jimmy Smith said he faith all along that the Ravens would outscore Pittsburgh, via Jamison Hensley of ESPN.
“This is not even to sound brash, but we believed the whole time that we were going to beat them. It’s Pittsburgh. So records, scoring, it doesn’t matter how good they were playing coming in. Nothing matters when you play Pittsburgh.”
Smith even had an “I told you so” shout out for a pessimistic pre-game Michael Irvin.
“I watched analysts all morning talk bad about us. [NFL Network analyst] Michael Irvin, especially, talking that we weren’t going to come within 15 points of them. There you go, Michael Irvin.”
Irvin was obviously not alone in his analysis. Only one expert from Fox Sports, CBS Sports, ESPN, NFL Media and The Baltimore Sun predicted a win for the Ravens.
In Week 17 the Ravens face their divisional AFC North rival Bengals when they’ll be looking to pull off another major upset against the heavily favored Cincinnati team.