1. A few months ago the Steelers defense was good enough to get to the Super Bowl, a few months later this defense is all of a sudden too old to keep up with the Ravens offense? Uh, no.
2. 90% of the Ravens offense is dumps and screens to
RBs and TEs. The Steelers see this 2 or 3 times per year yet seem surprised that this was the focal point of the Ravens attack. Why were they not prepared for this? Baltimore registered 13 catches for FB/RB/TE and only 4 catches for their WRs (all by Boldin). The Ravens realize that you can neutralize an aggressive/blitzing defense by getting the ball to RBs/TEs and creating mismatches against LBs. For some reason the Steelers have never been able to do this. Why can't we scheme Mendenhall 1-on-1 vs a slower Linebacker? Why does Ray Rice find himself in situations where he goes into motion and gets to run a pattern against Foote or Farrior? When was the last time Redman or Mendenhall were schemed or game-planned into a mismatch vs a safety or LB?
3. Sure the score dictated it, but rushing the ball only 16 times against Baltimore is not a recipe for success.
4. Having said that, the Ravens secondary is suspect and the Steelers passing game is supposed to be WAY above average. I'm very disappointed in the offense. Wallace, Sanders, Ward, Brown, Cotchery, Miller, Saunders, Battle, Mendenhall, Moore, Redman. There are enough weapons right there to move the ball through the air against any defense in the NFL. This offense should be putting up 28+ points per game and should be on a Patriots, Saints, Packers level. Getting to the endzone 1 time is embarrassing.
5. LT Scott is going to have to improve in a big way before week 2. Any chance Max Starks or Flozell Adams get a call at some point over the next week? In my opinion Legursky isn't a starting NFL Guard and Scott isn't a starting NFL LT. The way I see it, the Steelers have at least 2 Offensive Linemen who are fringe starters. Not good. You can have all the WRs in the world but you're not moving the ball if you don't have time to throw down field.
6. Sepulveda was the best Steeler on the field today. When your punter is the best guy in your lineup on Sunday, you're not having a great day.
7. The Ravens were blitzing, playing aggressive, and pressuring the pocket. You counter that pressure with draws and RB screens. Did you see either of those today?
8. Where was the deep ball? The camera doesn't really give us the benefit of seeing the entire field but I'm assuming the Ravens secondary was playing extremely deep and keeping the Steeler WRs in front of them. I don't recall any deep bombs to Brown, Wallace, etc…which is usually a huge part of our offense.
9. Foote is a nice backup but I don't think I like the Foote-Farrior rotation mid-game. The defense seemed confused on many occasions and Ravens were running free on short/intermediate routes all day long.
10. Polamalu lost a
foot race to TE Dickson for a TD. Timmons lost a foot race to RB Rice for a TD. Those are 2 of the best guys on our entire team, they need to win their individual battles.
11. Flacco is 1-7 against Big Ben. Over the next week you will hear so much praise heaped on Reed, Rice, Flacco, etc….that you will think the Ravens just won the Super Bowl. We have beaten the Ravens senseless over the past few seasons and have CRUSHED the hearts of their team and their fanbase in many postseasons. Think about that…we have ended their seasons and denied them trips to the Super Bowl on numerous occasions. They can win game 1 of this regular season. Congrats. I'll take the multiple trips to the Super Bowl, the playoff daggers to their hearts, and Ben's 7-1 record vs Flacco. If we win today, hey, it's just another W over Baltimore. If they win today (like they did) it's the biggest W for them in a long, long time. I think that mentality showed a bit today as well. Looked like we were prepared for an exhibition game and they came out like this was their Super Bowl.
12. Ike Taylor usually covers the other team's fastest WR. That's a great strategy most of the time but against Baltimore I don't want Willie Gay and McFadden matched up against Boldin. Ike took Evans out of the game but when team's have more than 1 good WR you're left with our subpar CBs locked up against guys they have no business covering. For this very reason, you need 3 starting CBs in the NFL. The Steelers only have one. This weakness is most exposed against elite passing attacks, obviously, but if teams with average passing games like the Ravens start exposing your secondary then you have major concerns.
13. The Ravens had 6 scoring drives. 4 of them started in Steeler territory. This is why I don't want to hear the “defense is getting old” excuse. You will hear that all week I'm sure. Is our defense to blame for coughing up the ball 7 times on offense? The Ravens scored a TD on a drive that covered 37 yards. Then another TD on a drive that covered 18 yards. Then added on a FG after going for -3 yards on 3 plays. They gained 52 yards and walked away with 17 points. Can't blame the defense for this one. They were not good, don't get me wrong, but they shouldn't shoulder the blame.
14. The Ravens move Oher to RT and all of a sudden he's good enough to shut down Woodley?
15. The Ravens sign McKinnie, put him at LT and he shuts down Harrison?
16. The Ravens sign FB Leach and in game 1 Rice runs for 100+ yards?
17. The Ravens acquire Evans from Buffalo and he instantly demands coverage from Ike Taylor, allowing Boldin to run free against our scrub Cornerbacks?
18. The Ravens release Todd Heap because he's too old/slow. His replacements (Pitta and Dickson) combine for 7 catches, 104 yards, and a TD.
19. The Ravens signed Ricky Williams in the offseason. He ran for more yardage than all of our RBs combined.
20. Did every Steeler who was given a new contract this offseason take the day off?
That's all for now…
Dagger, you as usual said it all!
I believe the attrocity of a game this was is almost all due to bad coaching. That they were better prepared in all phases is obvious (coaches fault ofc) and I think to lose the game is not the problem, the problem is being teared apart, humilliated in a way we will hardly be able to ever payback. Some players didnt play well, of course not, but why? Bad Coaching!
We and everysingle DC in the AFC know our team has some serious n evident leaks, they are famous already, they shouldnt, we cannot carry those problems for years n years, thats just stupid, Dick Lebeau is great, but his D has the same fundamental problem for years n years, why cant he do something about it? Is it just impossible or what? Is it absolutely impossible to get at least ONE Cornerback to play opposite of Ike Taylor ever? How many hundreds of corners we will have to draft to find one? But I wont get into the players now, actually I shouldnt even be talking about the Defense much, what about the offense? What about the fucking O Line that is even worse than last year? How can the coaches n FO let that happen? What are they trying to prove? That all teams drafting Tackles n Guards over RBs n WRs in the very first draft positions are retarded? Bruce Arians is the retarded, that's a fact!!!
Im afraid everyone in our team was in a bizarre pedestal of grandure coming in today..
Well hopefully they fell from it hard and it is hurting pretty bad because our performance today was the most pathetic for any team today (by the expectations), we played as the worst team in the league and everyone else is virtually laughing on us!
I hope this game was not "just a game" and people will really wake up and start changing some things, because this team really really need some changes if we wanna maintain dominance in this ever more competitive n unpredictable game.
We will not keep getting trips to the SB repeating the same philosophy of the past years wich is basically relying on a must be perfect Defense that is absolutely tired of that responsability and an always inconsistent delusional offense with one of the worst O Lines in the league, forget it, its over, wont happen again!! Things change and I tell u what there are at least 30 teams hungrier for a ring then half of this already succesfull old team of ours is.
I hope Im wrong and we will win it all this year, but I dont think so, unless we see a lot more aggressiveness coming out of Tomlin in terms of changing things drastically, forgetting the glorious past and worrying about the absolutely unknown future..
I would not wait one single game to change things, I would give more snaps to Heyward n Hood right away, and never use Keisel n Smith together ever again. I would also be way way exotic with the D, I would not wait until who knows when to show the "secret packages" , I would bring it all over, because we are not the best D anymore, we dont have that luxury to hide stuff, to play vanilla here n there anymore.. I would also look desperatly to a new left tackle and another solution for RG, because I tell u, we will NOT get to the superbowl this year with this starting O line of today, forget it… and Bruce Arians, man, I would give this guy such a hard time inside a room if I were Tomlin .. oh well .. I guess some of u are ok with a transition year, Im not, I want a ring every year, sorry that's me..
all good points in this column. no need to panic or judge offseason moves by either team after a blow out game. the ravens are a team that feed off of bug-eyed emotion and yesterday was the perfect storm for that. the steelers came out flat and couldn't get it going. yesterday was the ravens superbowl and it showed. we've seen it before from the browns and cincy. good thing it's a marathon and not a sprint. the steelers will get back to work and play great football this season. the ravens will have to try to sustain a bug-eyed frenzy but it will fizzle quickly. just my opinion based on history.
All I want to know is why didn't our FO go after a guy like Mckinnie? He seemed to be a huge upgrade for bmore and he is way better than Jonathan Scott. We could have improved ourselves and hurt the Ravens.
I hate to see us getting beat by guys we could have had. It was great that we could lock up some of our guys but we had some holes that we could have filled. I also worry that we might have overpaid Woodley.
most fans i know agree that we have been successful in spite of our offense, not because of it. you're totally on about leaning on the D but when the O coughs up the ball 7 times even the best D can't win it. i still think we can't judge either team by a season opening blow out. no way the ravens can sustain that bug-eyed frenzy all year.
You hit 'em all. Impressive points Sir.
Point number 11 is what irks me the most. You couldn't have said it better though. The Ravens had had enough of getting their asses whooped and they prepared all offseason for this "Super Bowl" game. I had to turn the game off at half time. I definitely did not see this game getting any better. But you know what? I am glad the Ravens romped the Steelers, hopefully it gave the Steelers a quick glimpse of reality. This Steelers team needed a swift kick to the pants the first game of the season. And I hope it did them good. I think a lot of Steelers players took some time off with their contract extensions.
But, let's put this into perspective now. It was the first game of the season (although, in my opinion an important one). I'd rather see the Steelers lose the first game of the season against the Ravens than see them lose to the Ravens in a playoff game. Did we really think we were going to bludgeon the Ravens every game until the end of the world?
They came out treating the game as their Super Bowl. We came out like it was just another game. That was the biggest reason for the result, imo. It's not like we have been THAT much better than the Ravens. Pretty much every time we have played them over the past few seasons, the game was a total toss up that could have went either way. One team was ready to play, one wasn't. Not a chance the Steelers are that bad, nor are the Ravens that good. I think this butt kicking will do us some good. Reality check/wake up call right off the bat.
"Did every Steeler who was given a new contract this offseason take the day off?"
Ike didn't. Nobody works harder than that dude.
Sanity check…let's look at the next 3 games:
Baltimore – @ Tenn and St. Louis, home for the Jets
Steelers – Seattle, @ Colts, @ Houston
Jets will be tough, and going to Tennessee is never a cake walk…especially after such an emotional high of a game for Baltimore. Can they be bug-eyed again this week? Might be a trap game.
The Steelers should handle Seattle and the Colts. Houston is going to be interesting. Either team could wind up 2-2 or 3-1. I wonder if the sky would still be falling if the Ravens went 2-2 and the Steelers went 3-1.
The second match up @ Pitt is a Sunday night game. No better stage than that (except for the playoffs) to correct something.