The Baltimore Ravens have moved on from a difficult few days by recording a comfortable 26-6 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers at the MT&T Bank Stadium.
Much of the build-up to the game had been dominated by the Ray Rice scandal, but the Ravens escaped the negative attention for tonight at least with their first win of the season.
The Steelers had plenty of the ball in the opening quarter, but Ben Roethlisberger's difficulties combining effectively with his offensive players would be a sign of things to come.
Baltimore earned the lead with just a few seconds remaining in the quarter when Joe Flacco delivered a short pass to Owen Daniels, who stormed over for the first touchdown of the night.
An evenly contested second quarter was dominated by the defensive players as Justin Tucker extended Baltimore's lead with a field goal before Shaun Suisham reduced the deficit when he converted an effort of his own from 25 yards.
Despite Roethlisberger's troubles picking out his targets, the Steelers were able to edge closer to their rivals when another Suisham field goal made it 10-6 just after the half-time interval.
However, Baltimore's supporters were able to relax heading into the final period thanks to Daniels, who collected a second touchdown pass from Flacco.
Pittsburgh were unable to build any momentum in the fourth quarter, and a wider margin of defeat was confirmed as Tucker added three more field goals to secure an impressive win for the Ravens.
Callum Mulvihill
