Ravens owner accidentally admits Texans would have crushed them again

The Week 18 Sunday Night Football matchup between the Baltimore Ravens and the Pittsburgh Steelers was a battle for the AFC North title, and it was a battle for the right to host the Houston Texans in the Wild Card round of the playoffs, with the loser eliminated from playoff contention entirely.

The Ravens had an opportunity to win the game on a 44-yard Tyler Loop field goal as time expired, but the kick never had a chance, sailing wide right and allowing the Steelers to prevail by a score of 26-24.

Pittsburgh subsequently got crushed at home by the Texans by a score of 30-6 this past Monday night, giving the Texans their first road playoff win in franchise history.

At first, it was thought that that kick might have been the deciding factor between which longtime head coach, the Ravens' John Harbaugh or the Steelers' Mike Tomlin, remained with his respective organization for at least another year. With the Steelers moving on from Tomlin after the Texans game, that turned out not to be entirely accurate.

And according to the Ravens owner, not accurate at all.

Speaking to the media on Tuesday, shortly after the Steelers and Tomlin parted ways, Baltimore Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti was asked if the recently fired Harbaugh would still be the Ravens' head coach had Loop not missed the field goal.

His response? "For a week."

Ravens owner knows they'd have gotten clobbered again by Houston

While Bisciotti was undoubtedly trying to both minimize the impact of the missed kick from a big-picture standpoint and protect his kicker from further criticism, the fact that he said "for a week" and not "for the playoffs" or "it depends" or even something with any sort of a vague undertone whatsoever is telling.

First of all, just like with the Steelers and Tomlin, it's not hard to imagine that this decision was made well before it was actually made official. A Wild Card round appearance as a 9-8 team wasn't going to change the entire outlook of the relationship between an 18-year head coach and a franchise with just three playoff wins in the past 11 seasons.

But most importantly, it implies that Bisciotti knew exactly what would have awaited Baltimore had they actually beaten Pittsburgh.

Let's just say they dodged a bullet.

Sure, when the Texans went into Baltimore and beat them in October by a score of 44-10, the Ravens were without two-time NFL MVP quarterback Lamar Jackson, who still owns a 5-0 record against Houston.

Prior to their October matchup, the Ravens had won six in a row against the Texans, with the Texans' most recent victory coming back in December 2014. Houston's October win was their first in nine tries in Baltimore.

But Lamar has not been at his best this season. He has dealt with multiple injuries, and even in weeks he's supposedly been healthy, he hasn't been the Lamar Jackson the Texans have grown accustomed to being torched by over the past few years.

Just ask Pittsburgh; though they've now swept the regular season series with Baltimore four times in the past six seasons, they had never beaten Jackson twice in the same season until this one, his eighth in the league.

With the Texans' No. 1-ranked defense playing the way they've been playing, the Loop field goal being good would have literally extended Harbaugh's Ravens tenure by eight days, no more, no less. Bisciotti knows they weren't going anywhere even if they had beaten Pittsburgh 27-26.

Certainly not with another matchup against Houston looming.

As for the Texans, they are set to go for their first Divisional Round matchup victory in seven tries this Sunday afternoon against the New England Patriots. ABC and ESPN are set to provide live coverage from Gillette Stadium beginning at 2:00 p.m. CT.