Pittsburgh Steelers safety Minkah Fitzpatrick was hit with a hefty fine for a facemask penalty against the Baltimore Ravens. On the play, Fitzpatrick dragged Zay Flowers down by his facemask, and for it, he will pay a fine over $11,000.

This is not the first time that Fitzpatrick has been fined this season. He was fined during the last Steelers-Ravens game for a late hit. Fitzpatrick has been fined three times this season.

The Steelers were among the most-fined teams in the NFL in 2023, but have cut down on that significantly this year. Fitzpatrick is one of the more heavily fined Steelers this season as a result, but he is not even close to the league leaders in that metric.

He has struggled at times this season, though, and the Steelers have been looking for solutions on the back end. Can Fitzpatrick be part of that, or is he falling short uncharacteristically? If Pittsburgh is going to win a playoff game, Fitzpatrick will have to be a critical part of the turnaround.

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The Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens, alongside the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans, just finished off a taxing stretch of three games in 11 days that concluded on Christmas Day.

The results among that group of teams varied quite a bit, as Baltimore and Kansas City went a perfect 3-0 while Houston and Pittsburgh went 1-2 and 0-3, respectively.

While meeting with reporters after defeating the Texans on Wednesday, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh first offered effusive praise for how his team handled their recent schedule with little time for rest.

“[I’m] proud of our guys,” Harbaugh said via Baltimore’s official website. “These guys took these three games in 11 days and smashed it, obliterated it, tore it up and made into a bunch of smithereens laying around everywhere. I’m proud of the guys [and] how they did it.”

What Harbaugh said later on was what caught the attention of many, however. Remaining on the topic of his team’s performance over their last three contests, he stated that he believed the Ravens handled things better than any of the other three squads who were subject to the same sort of schedule, though he did credit Kansas City while omitting Pittsburgh and Houston.

“The fact that they did it – they did it in this short stretch – I think our team probably handled it the best, arguably. I guess the Chiefs did a good job too, so there you go.”

Some have taken his comments as a veiled shot at the Steelers, though he’s not totally incorrect in his assessment. Pittsburgh, who owned a two-game lead over Baltimore in the AFC North entering Week 15, has dropped three contests in a row while the Ravens took full advantage of their opportunity with a trio of consecutive wins and are well on their way to clinching the division.

The Steelers will look to bounce back against the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 18.

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