Ravens OT ends 134-game streak, backup OT leaves injured, more health concerns

The offensive line of the Baltimore Ravens missed one key piece on Sunday's loss to the Pittsburgh Steeler: stalwart right tackle Morgan Moses, who by not playing in Week 5 broke a 134-game streak.

That was a sad bit of news coming out of Acrisure Stadium on top of the Ravens' defeat at the hands of their fierce AFC North rivals, which also overtook the Flock atop the division standings thanks to the head-to-head 1-0 advantage.

With Moses out, the offensive line relied on the pairing of utility man Patrick Mekari and sophomore Daniel Faalele.

That was, of course, because the Ravens seemingly can't catch a break so they ruled out Moses ahead of Week 5, went on to start and lose Mekari with a chest injury throughout the game, and then were simply forced to use Faalele on an emergency way because they hadn't anyone else ready to go and fill that gap better than the second-year man.

Mekari went from manning the left side of the center (which is his "more natural" position) to the right to cover up for the absence of Moses. With the pairing of T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith in front of them, it's not that they didn't at least perform to some reasonably good extent.

Also, Ronnie Stanley returned to the field and played for the first time since suffering a knee injury in the first game of the season, which is not a surprise anymore considering his awful track record with health issues.

Faalele, perhaps the weakest link of the whole offensive line chain, did a poor job backing up the reserve of the reserve. He only got a putrid 51.8 PFF grade, the third-worst figure among all Ravens involved in the offense last Sunday.

Mekari got himself the 12th-best (or seventh-worst, depending on how you look at it) while Ronnie Stanley finished 14th in that leaderboard. It was definitely a day to forget by the line, which allowed Watt to rack up a couple of sacks (and recover a fumble) and Highsmith to force one fumble and sack Lamar once.

No need to mention the pair of Steelers edge rushers finished with the second- and third-best PFF grades on defense for Pittsburgh with teammate CB Joey Porter Jr. (who picked Lamar's pass intended for Odell Beckham) as the absolute-best defender against the Ravens.

Let's hope for a speedy recovery by Moses and for a non-season-threatening injury suffered by Mekari as Baltimore will need all of the warm bodies they can muster to escape the season alive and well.

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