Steelers crushed by Ravens
Crushed. Spanked. Stomped. Beat. Annihilated. Destroyed. Arses kicked. You pick the best description for what happened to the Steelers today. No matter how you describe it, it wasn’t pretty.
The Steelers lost to the Baltimore Ravens 35-7. But it felt more like 135-7.
The Ravens seemed to be much hungrier, and much better prepared, than the Steelers. As a result, they dominated the Steelers in every phase of the game.
On defense, the Ravens seemed to spend the entire game in the Steelers’ backfield. It was so bad that I started to wonder if Terrell Suggs was actually a running back for the Steelers. Suggs accumulated 3 sacks on Ben Roethlisberger, and seemed to be chasing him anytime he wasn’t sacking him.
Terrell Suggs pressures Ben
Meanwhile, the Steelers’ defense didn’t seem to want to tackle anybody. They certainly didn’t try to tackle Ray Rice. Rice had over 100 yards of total offense by halftime, and ended the game with 107 rushing yards, and 149 total yards.
Not only did the Steelers’ defense let Rice run amok, but they also got almost no pressure on Ravens’ quarterback Joe Flacco. Flacco seemed to have an eternity to complete pass after pass.
The Steelers’ defensive backs didn’t provide much help either. They appeared to be more than willing to allow Flacco to complete as many TD passes as he desired (Flacco only threw 3 TD passes, but it certainly seemed like more than that).
Bryant McFadden gets beat.
But the defense can’t take all of the blame for the loss. The offense certainly deserves their fair share of the blame too.
It’s generally understood that in the NFL, the team that turns over the ball most often tends to lose the game. And the Steelers turned over the ball early and often.
The Steelers ended the game with 7 turnovers. That’s right, 7! They had as many turnovers as points scored. That’s not a good thing.
I hate to say it, but I felt like the Steelers were back in Super Bowl XLV. When Big Ben wasn’t throwing interceptions (he threw 3 of them), the running backs were fumbling the ball. Isn’t that essentially how they lost the Super Bowl?
Not only did Roethlisberger throw 3 interceptions, but he was also sacked 4 times. He ended the game with a QB rating of only 52.9. With statistics like that, somebody might think that the Steelers started JaMarcus Russell at quarterback rather than Ben Roethlisberger.
The Steelers’ offense was so impotent that kicker Shaun Suisham didn’t even get to attempt a field goal. That’s right, he was 0/0. The Steelers couldn’t even generate enough offense to allow Suisham to try to put 3 points on the board. That’s almost unheard of.
Part of the problem was that the Steelers played without any offensive linemen. Well, technically they did have offensive linemen. They just didn’t try to block any of the guys in purple.
I do have to give Willie Colon credit. He tried to hold the Ravens’ defenders at every possible opportunity (and drew the flags to prove it). But believe it or not, that was actually better than what Jonathan Scott and Doug Legursky did. They both repeatedly let defenders run by them while barely getting a hand on them.
Fortunately, this was only the first game of the season. The Steelers still have 15 more games to turn things around. But hopefully, this game will serve as a wake-up call.
The other 31 NFL teams are not going to surrender just because the Steelers were in the Super Bowl last year. So the Steelers have to enter every game with intensity and solid preparation. If not, they can lose 35-7.
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They looked so, so bad. And slow. What happened to all of our speedy young receivers? The many members of the D with new pay raises? Pathetic. They better wake up, because I am no mood to tolerate yet another Super Bowl hangover season. There’s no excuse for them to pull that crap again.
1Sally,
I wish I knew where the speedy young receivers were. Mike Wallace actually ended up with over 100 yards receiving, but anyone who watched the game knows that they were mostly short drop-off passes. Ben was not completing the long, 20+ yard bombs that he usually throws to Wallace.
I’m sure the Steelers’ coaches are going to make this week’s practices long and difficult.
2The thing I don’t get, occasionally, the Steelers would start to play solid defense, example being the sort of goaline stance. Then Roethlisberger would start to get into a flow, completing passes and then BOOM! Interception. Why would this just dissapear then for 4,5 drives.
3Hey Ravens where ready , we werent ! No Off line , couldnt protect Ben. Looked like a bunch of old guys . We ll see …next game against seahawks .
4I’m not sure this group of Steelers ever played a worse game. Only Ike Taylor and Dan Sepulveda performed well. Ben will right himself but there is no reason for confidence in the O-line and there is reason to worry about the defenses’ front 7. Cutting Flozell Adams and playing the NFL’s smallest guard weakens our right side and Scott at left tackle never was a anything but average at best. As for the defensive front, starting Harrison before he is stronger and starting Smith may not be our best option. We brought no pressure the entire game and never contained, let alone controlled, the Ravens running game.
5With the exception of the offensive line, we know the Steelers can play at a high level. To me, this was primarily a mental collapse. The Steelers came in from an easy preseason and were not ready for war; the Ravens were.
I was working and didn’t get to see the game, but a couple of things stand out to me just from the box score and play by play.
1. Ben was only sacked once in the first half, fumbling. All his interceptions (the first of which was tipped), and the rest of the sacks came after the Steelers fell behind by more than 3 TD’s. In that situation of course he almost had to try to force plays and the Ravens defense knew it. I don’t think any quarterback is going to look good against the Ravens defense, down by that much late.
2. Steelers LB’s lost this game (though butter-fingered RB’s didn’t help). Boldin’s 4 catches for 74 and a TD were the only contribution by Ravens WR’s. All the Ratbirds’ offense came from TE’s and RB’s that the Steelers LB’s should’ve been able to take care of. The much maligned Steeler’s CB’s were the best unit on the field for the Steelers Sunday.
6Dan & Matthew,
You both touched on similar issues, so I’ll give a combined response.
The offensive line looked like the weakest unit on the team. The Ravens owned them. Jonathan Scott was getting manhandled. There were several plays where he looked like he was playing on roller skates. His man was pushing him backwards, and he seemed to be unable to stop him. Haloti Ngata is huge, yet he came through untouched on a few plays. How can that happen???? Rashard Mendenhall had one decent hole to run through all day.
Ben seemed to be flustered too (but I’m sure that getting sacked 4 times will do that to you). Heath Miller was wide open in the endzone, but Ben underthrew the pass, and Ed Reed ended up with an interception.
The defense didn’t look good either. Baltimore’s new left tackle did a good job on James Harrison. Gotta give him credit for that. But the rest of our defense didn’t do much either. The line got almost no push. Flacco was almost never under pressure. Did LaMarr Woodley even play?
Ike Taylor played well, but the other DB’s looked bad. Troy got beat badly for a touchdown. Bryant McFadden and William Gay both got beat multiple times.
But I do agree with Matthew that Flacco did a great job of utilizing his tight ends. They killed us. And our linebackers and safeties seemed unable to do anything about it.
I’m just glad that it’s over. Frankly, the Steelers got beat so badly that I have bruises all over my body just from watching it on TV. Ouch!
7Although we were massacred, the game was worth watching for the brawl in the 3rd quarter… it was nice to see pacifist Polamalu throw a few punches and whip some ass!
8Bravo Zulu to the Ravens. Baltimore outplayed Pittsburgh. Period. The Steeler DBs were missing in action. Go Steelers!
9The Steelers need to cover those short passes better. It seems the best teams kill us with yards after the catch. This can be solved with better tackling, but defenders have to be in the same zip code first. Really just a terrible game all around.
10One game does not make or break a season. A bad loss, no doubt. Poor play of the Steelers combined with outstanding play by the Ravens. 15 more before it’s all said and done.
11