BALTIMORE — Something was definitely absent from the typical viciously over-the-top, white-hot, blood n’ guts Steelers-Ravens rivalry here Sunday.

Most notably the Ravens.

Where were the Ravens?

Wait, these are the Ravens? These guys?

That was Joe Flacco? He should maybe consider transferring back to Pitt.

“I [stunk],” he said by way of explanation after the Steelers cobbled together a remarkably pain-free, 26-9 victory that was everything this storied and gloried rivalry is not. “I mean, you know, it wasn’t good.”

You can presume he was talking about the freshest four quarters in his memory, which were actually better than the previous four, the four in London against Jacksonville in which he failed to complete a pass longer than eight yards. Sunday, he failed to complete one longer than 16, but at least that one found former Steelers wide receiver Mike Wallace in the end zone in the third quarter to drag coach John Harbaugh’s team to within 10 points. Had Flacco not misfired so comically to Breshad Perriman on the previous possession, he actually might have been able to turn this into a football game.

Someone asked needlessly if the Ravens’ quarterback was kicking himself over that one.

“Of course, I mean, come on, look at it,” he said. “He was wide open, and I was just trying to put it on him. I put it too high. You don’t know how things progress from that point, but if they continue to go down and miss that field goal, and we continue to go down and score, then it’s a different game.”

This was a very different game from what we’ve come to appreciate in this series, particularly in Charm City, where eight of the previous 10 meetings were decided by seven, six, four, three, three, three, three, and two points.

“Yes, definitely,” said Wallace, when I asked if it was a weird feeling when one of the parties in this mutual-condemnation society isn’t at its best. “Because you’re so used to these games being nail-biters. Hangin’ on the edge of your seat. Today, we didn’t do a good enough job to make it that way. They got a fast start on us and kept it rolling.”

The Steelers kept the ball for more than 10 minutes on their first possession, settling for a field goal but establishing the kind of physical politics that would enable the oft-maligned offense to chew 60 percent of the game clock.

The Ravens’ defense had drawn preseason raves for its potential to represent a typically brilliant Baltimore unit, but the 2017 edition looks like a shell. The statue of Ray Lewis outside the stadium has the same approximate mobility of what’s left of Terrell Suggs, whose only fearsome moment came in the tunnel for his introduction. Suggs wore a mask like the Bane character in Batman vehicle, “The Dark Knight Rises.” Whatever inspiration that provided, Suggs, the single greatest Ben Roethlisberger sacker in NFL history, was credited with no solo tackles, no quarterback hurries, and only one assist, that on a borderline-late arrival long after the verdict was in.

Baltimore’s front seven did not trouble the Steelers quarterback in the slightest; the only Ravens sack was authored by Lardarius Webb on a safety blitz. One sack, and it was one more than Baltimore had last week in London.

“We just have to improve,” said Harbaugh 20 minutes after the Ravens most-lopsided home loss to the Steelers. “You’re not going to make a bunch of changes; you just have to improve. It’s a process. You have to go to work.”

Asked if the fact that Ravens had an outside shot at getting back into this one before Flacco’s successive late interceptions added to his frustrations, Harbaugh cracked, “I don’t know; I don’t have a frustration meter.”

I think you can get one at Target.

Even though Roethlisberger turned in a typically meh performance against the Ravens (career passer rating 84.3 before a 79.3 Sunday), the greatest disparity in the current rivalry is now at quarterback. Baltimore wasn’t mentioned among the NFL teams with the infamous “unstable quarterback situation” before this season, but the Ravens won’t be right again until Flacco is, and it’s starting to look like a dubious prospect.

He’s completed only three passes of 20 or more yards this season, worst in the league, no small reason he is piloting the league’s worst offense. The Ravens 12 possessions Sunday included four three-and-outs, two interceptions (Joe Haden dropped what would have been a third), three turnovers, a missed field goal, five punts, and a failed red-zone invasion at the end of the game.

The Ravens can expect subzero sympathy in Pittsburgh, but you know in your heart of hearts, your spleen of spleens, that there’s something wrong with a football season when the Steelers have a tougher time with the Cleveland Browns than with the Ravens.