RAVENS HISTORY: September 11

Five games on the anniversary, four wins, and the single most cathartic regular season game this franchise has ever played.

September 11, 2005 — Colts 24, Ravens 7 (M&T Bank Stadium)

Sunday night, and a miserable start to a miserable year. Peyton Manning went 21-of-36 for 254 yards with two second-half touchdowns and no interceptions while Indianapolis nearly pitched its first shutout since 1997. Kyle Boller went down early — Billick said the injury “is more severe than it sounds” — and Anthony Wright finished 19-of-31 for 214 yards with two picks in his first game since 2003. Wright’s 17-yard touchdown to Daniel Wilcox with 13 seconds left spoiled the shutout. Cato June returned a pick 30 yards for a score, and the Colts held Jamal Lewis to 48 yards.

The Ravens went 6-10.

September 11, 2011 — Ravens 35, Steelers 7 (M&T Bank Stadium)

The tenth anniversary of 9/11, and the most complete beating Baltimore has ever administered to Pittsburgh.

Seven turnovers. Three Roethlisberger interceptions, four forced fumbles. Twenty-one points off giveaways, a 21-7 lead at the half, and three more takeaways in the third quarter — the exact inverse of the previous January’s Divisional collapse. Ray Rice ran for 107 and a touchdown and caught four passes for 47 more. Flacco went 17-of-29 for 224 with three touchdowns to Boldin, Dickson and Rice, beating Roethlisberger for the first time in seven tries.Sam Koch took the extra-point snap and ran in the two-pointer himself.

Suggs, who became the franchise’s all-time sacks leader that day: “It isn’t going to get more physical than that. It was domination. It was a great day for the city of Baltimore.”

Harbaugh: “The whole thing about ghosts, demons, monkeys on your back — that’s not real to us.”

Tomlin, more concisely: “We got handled in all three phases of the game.”

Baltimore’s 35 points were the most it had ever scored against Pittsburgh in 34 meetings.

September 11, 2014 — Ravens 26, Steelers 6 (M&T Bank Stadium)

Three days after one of the darkest afternoons in team history involving Ray Rice, the Ravens played the first game of the NFL’s new CBS Thursday night package — and beat Pittsburgh again. Flacco threw two touchdowns to Owen Daniels and Justin Tucker kicked four field goals.

Given the week that preceded it, it was the strangest 20-point division win you’ll ever watch.

September 11, 2016 — Ravens 13, Bills 7 (M&T Bank Stadium)

A throwback defensive performance and not much else: a Flacco touchdown pass, two field goals, and a 13-7 grinder to open the year.Nobody’s putting it in a highlight reel. It counted the same.

September 11, 2022 — Ravens 24, Jets 9 (MetLife Stadium)

Lamar’s contract year opened with a comfortable road win in New Jersey, 24-9. That season went sideways in ways nobody saw coming in Week 1, but the start was clean.

The ledger: Ravens are 4-1 on September 11 — and 2-0 against Pittsburgh on that date.

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