Steeler Offense tonight

Had the ball 6 times tonight either tied or within 1 possession of tying/taking the lead.

They scored a total of 9 points (3 FGs)

Their only TD was set up by the defense.

The defense wasn't good, but this loss was squarely on the offense.

 

It feels like the steelers from week 3 showed up.

 

This loss was on lack of execution by the offensive line and MOSTLY THE D who have up 2 critical 3rd and longs

 

And the stupid penalties

 

To me, this is why Ben is not an elite quarterback. He's a top shelf, franchise quarterback who should be re-signed but not elite. An elite quarterback would have put the team on his shoulders and willed it to win. Ben did not play well. I know he was under significant pressure but I'm not sure what he was looking at on some of his passes tonight, including the INT in the end zone.

 

For me the thing I will remember are the 3or4. 3rd and 13 we couldn't stop

 

Agree, Ben is a great QB but not Elite. He has to develop more field awareness and repoire with ALL of his receivers. Too many times this season he and Wheaton were out of sync for example. On the last interception he missed a wide open Dri Archer underneath, in fact he missed Dri on 2 other occasions tonight

 

I was saying to myself that they should have kept Grad in there for the entire series. He did appear to have some chemistry going. Ben looked weak after he came back in.

 

That's just it - no one expected this defense to win the game for them (although if any of us were paying attention - the offense wasn't that good vs KC or Cincy the last few weeks) but we expected the offense to carry them tonight and they didn't.

The defense allowed 17 vs Cincy and 12 vs KC. Tonight they allowed 30 (7 were set up by the INT - so 23).

Everyone and anyone expected the offense to put up at least 24 - they had NO long drives for TDs (their TD was set up by the D and the ST got a safety). The offense got 3 FGs. That's not nearly enough.

 

What Offense?

 

Indeed. Anyone who thought the DEFENSE was going to step up and win this game was kidding themselves.

 

Why?
They have been playing better as of late.
It was a Home game.
The Ravens have struggled all year on O.

 

They defense held them scoreless in the 1st quarter. They gave the offense two chances to get up early and they got 1 FG. They held the Ravens to FGs when it was 7-6 and 10-9 giving the offense two chances to take the lead with a TD. They forced a turnover when it was 20-9 to get them back in the game.

I wish at 20-15 they would have held on that 3rd and 14, but even still it was 23-15 (still a 1 score game) and the offense put the final nail in the coffin with the INT.

So while the defense was average for them, had the offense showed up at any point for the first 50 minutes of the game, they still have a shot to win.

 

They're decent. But it's not a D that is going to step up and shut an opponent down.

 

And dare I say:the loss of Bell was bigger than any of us thought. Bell is the reincarnation of Marshall Faulk (for the Rams). he's that much of a game changer. The Steelers lost tonight. But it'll have an asterisk in my opinion.

 

They struggled on O all year? I believe I read that the Ravens set a franchise record for points scored.

You know where they struggled this year - pass defense. Unfortunately, the Steelers didn't take advantage of that.

 

its hard to do when your one dimensional

 

I didn't take Bell loss lightly - as I said last week - there is a reason he was the team MVP.

 

The Ravens were one dimensional. Steelers outrushed them and averaged more ypc. That's why it was so critical for the offense to get more than a 3-0 lead when given the chances.

 

correct,, I'm getting my years all mixed up!

 

I thought they could still beat the Ravens without him. I was wrong.