Troy Polamalu sits on the sideline in the fourth quarter of what might have been his final NFL game. — GETTY

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

One football team kicked the other team’s collective fanny.

The Nation can cry out and complain and call for firings, releases and mass exorcisms, and no doubt a vocal percentage will do precisely that. But the underlying principle of all that occurred in the Steelers’ 30-17 loss to the Ravens in the AFC wild-card playoff Saturday night at Heinz Field could be summed up with this single thought spoken by Kelvin Beachum: “Kudos to them. They did a good job. They came in here and won in a hostile environment.”

Or, maybe better yet, this one from Joe Flacco in the visitors’ room: “You have to play these games to win. You can’t play not to lose. You have to go out there and let everything go. These games are all extra. You can’t worry about the outcome. Play aggressive football. Don’t have a conscience.”

That’s kind of how it looked, too, didn’t it?

Both ends of it, I mean.

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Kelvin Beachum lines up with the Ravens’ Pernell McPhee in the Nov. 2 meeting at Heinz Field. — GETTY

BY DEJAN KOVACEVIC

The number of individuals instrumental to the Steelers beating the Ravens in their AFC wild card playoff Saturday night is exactly 53, so I’ll save you some counting. Add to that the coaches, all others with the team and maybe even the 65,500 expected to hang off the Heinz Field rotundas for kickoff, and the picture is that much clearer.

“All hands, man,” Maurkice Pouncey was saying. “All hands on deck.”

That’s the nature of this rivalry, the gold standard in professional sports for the past decade and change, and that’s in a mundane setting, never mind a one-and-done. Toss into the equation that these teams stack up so closely that each has blown the other out of a stadium once already this season — 26-6 Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium Sept. 11, 43-23 Steelers at Heinz Field Nov. 2 — and it’s not impossible to envision, say, long snapper Greg Warren gripping the game in his right hand.

Even so, I’ll isolate on these three individuals tonight:

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