Would you expect any different?

Ravens-Steelers, Round 3, the rubber game

I've been reading your board a little to get a feel for how Steelers fans are feeling. Here are my thoughts from a Ravens fan, if anyone is interested:

If it wasn't for the Bell injury, I would definitively take the Steelers in a 35-21 type of win. With Bell and our depleted secondary, it is too difficult to keep track of Bell out of the backfield while covering Bryant and Brown downfield. Bell abused Mosley in the passing game, shaking free on nearly every third down as a safety blanket for Ben. Granted, the rookie Pro Bowl MLB has improved as the season has gone on. Without Bell, or even if he plays and is gimpy, the defensive game-plan changes as the Ravens have more options on third down without having to worry about Bell killing them out of the backfield. If Bell can return from a hyper-extended knee in less than a week, and still have his quickness, then I will be very impressed. It's hard to think that is likely.

Regardless, I still see the Steelers as favored. Our secondary is too beat up plain and simply. Webb has played a lot better down the stretch as he's gotten healthy, however, the caliber of QB we've played has been extremely poor so I can't put much stock into his performance just yet.

From the Ravens side of things: Flacco has had success the past couple of years against the Steelers secondary. Torrey Smith seems to have Ike Taylor's number and has caused trouble for the Steeers secondary. Whether it is long catches or big pass interference calls downfield.

The key is to pick-up the Steelers blitzes. Our offensive line is beat up. However, the line is extremely smart. Assuming Monroe is out, Yanda will be our RT. Gary Kubiak today said Yanda's football intelligence (FBI) is so high he joked Yanda could play QB. John Urschel will fill in at right guard. Urschel is a rookie from Penn State who has been described as a genius and the smartest player coming out of the 2014 draft.

The weakness: undrafted rookie James Hurst out of UNC will be at LT. Hurst is as physically talented as any OT. Injury problems caused him to go undrafted. Hurst actually graded out higher than Monroe by PFF, in a few starts. However, Hurst is a liability against the blitz. I am very worried about James Harrison vs. Hurst. You can also bet Lebeau is going to throw stunts, delayed blitzes, and overload blitzes at Hurst.

We talk about the Steelers going empty backfield against the Ravens and passing the ball without Bell playing. I could seethe Ravens employing a similar strategy. 11 personnel, keep the OLBs honest and split wide, having to account for RBs and TEs in motion. Get the ball out quick to negate the blitz. If the Ravens can pass block, this will be a close game. If not, expect another Steelers blow-out.

 

just one thing before I read your post
butt
after looking at your avatar


go back to where you came from and tell that

OL' FOGEY ASS CRAVN


It's 2 super bowls for the Ravens

not 5 and his magic math of 5 rings for the city

 

There's a reason I didn't post this in the smack talk section. Just looking for some civil conversation. If you want to claim championships for a city, Baltimore has won three NFL Championships and three Super Bowls. However, most of that, as were the Steelers Super Bowls, long before my lifetime. As far as I'm concerned, I have seen the Steelers win two Super Bowls and the Ravens win two Super Bowls. I'm more concerned about the present than the past.

I like taking football with other fans. Steelhurtin comes over to our board and adds a lot to our conversations. We also have a couple of resident Bengal fans. Breaks up the homerism

I have tremendous respect for the Steelers organization. Absolutely despise the Steelers, but definitely respect them.

 

very good post...... I do believe bell will play, and I do believe we can exploit your secondary
my fear is that our own secondary has been just as, if not more suspect...... I strongly believe that ike taylor will not start, or at least, should not..... father time has caught up with him, and he can no longer be counted on to lock down one side of the defensive backfield..
I do believe that flacco can be rattled with enough pressure and a few hits, and i'll be looking for lebeau to bring the heat......
in any case, just as in past matchups, I expect the typical knock down drag out prize fight that we've all become used to seeing

 

Hey Thunder what are your fans saying about Dri Archer? Do they feel a little nervous that he could be an x factor coming out of the backfield on 3rd downs? I really think this is how he's gonna be used and if he can get in space on a couple of plays I could see that keeping their pass rush honest. I would have thought we would take this game hands down if not for Bell getting hurt but I think his absence raises your odds immensely. Also I'm looking forward to watching McCain match up against Smith because you're right about Ike being a liability for us. Don't feel bad about a depleted secondary because ours certainly isn't what it used to be either. Neither is our front 7 for that matter. It's amazing how our teams have basically been built the same over the years and now neither of our defenses are what they used to be but the games are still extremely entertaining to watch. I HATE your team though! I mean really HATE the Ravens but enjoy football talk.

 

I don't think many fans know about Dri Archer outside of his 4.2 40 at the combine. Sure, with that elite speed he could produce a big play or two this Saturday. However, most Ravens fans see Archer as a liability in pass blocking. If he is in on third down, there is little doubt he is going out on a route. Makes him a little easier to defend when there is predictability. Whereas Bell could pass block, chip a guy, peel out on a route, then shake off a backer and be there for Ben as a safety blanket. On third down, IMO, we are more likely to see a tight-end in the backfield to help with pass protections than Archer. We'll see though.

On defense, the Ravens are a complete 180 of our 2012 Super Bowl team. That year we had an aging front seven that wore down versus the run. However, we had a deep secondary with talent we let go via free agency and didn't replace through the draft. This year we were fourth against the run, and replenished the front seven with young talent. Now the secondary is run down and needs to be rebuilt. Jimmy Smith was arguably our best defensive player, but is out for the season. He is probably one of the few guys in the league that could match up one-on-one with Antonio Brown, but that is irrelevant for Saturday. Outside of Smith, and maybe Will Hill, everyone else in the secondary has been a disappointment. Matt Elam, our 2013 first round pick who was compared to Troy Polamalu coming out of Florida, has been a major bust so far.

I have to admit, I do not know much about McCain. One thing about Torrey, don't let his stats deceive you. His catches are down this season, but he was near tops in the league in pass interference calls and yards drawn. If you look at the breakdown of Flacco's total QBR stat, it is very heavily weighted toward penalty yards. Flacco had a QBR of 67.3 (8th in the league, Ben was 5th at 72.5), and was first in the league in Penalty EPA with 12.9. Matthew Stafford was second in the league with a Penalty EPA of 9.2 (Ben was a 5.1, FYI). In short, a big part of the Ravens offense is Flacco chucking downfield and our receivers either catching it or drawing a PI penalty. The overall stats show we have been successful with this.

 

Yeah when I was thinking of Archer I was thinking of having like Will Johnson in the backfield to pass protect. I've been down on the Archer pick since it happened and now that Bell is turning out to be a stud I just don't see what role Archer is even gonna fill. I mean he can't pass protect. He's not a short yardage guy. He goes down on first contact and I think that's ultimately why he was benched from special teams. I just don't see where he fits in. Yeah he has speed but I feel like you and think that he basically shows our hand when he's on the field. I don't even know if he's big enough to run a pick play in the passing game. It just seems like he would get lit up. Out of curiosity, do Ravens fans dog on Flacco as much as SOME Steelers fans dog on Ben? Like do some consider him "elite" while others think he isn't? Or do very few consider him "elite"? I consider Ben elite but some don't. I just think that Ben has so many intangibles from an athletic perspective that make him special and now with Haley's system he seems more comfortable in a more conventional qb role. But how would you say the majority of your fans see Flacco? Also as far as the player I would MOST like to see AB match up against it is Revis. However, that would match our secondary up with Brady and I would NOT like that. LOL.

 

Flacco is Flacco. Most Ravens fans agree he is not elite, but he is better than most QBs. He gets dogged by Ravens fans for his poor consistency (although this year has been much better with Kubiak), but he has showed up in big games and, obviously, has won the big one. It is typical for Ravens fans to call for his head one week (take the Texans game two weeks ago), then Flacco wins us a game and everything is OK. In short, Ravens fans understand with Flacco we get what we see. We'll likely never see 5,000 yards and 35 TDs, but he wins games.

Ravens fans unanimously agree that Ben is an elite QB. Maybe that is because of his great success against us. IMO Ben was an elite QB with Bruce Arians as OC. It looks like he's finally back to that elite level now with Haley, but the Steelers as a whole lost two years of Ben's prime making that adjustment.

 

i totally agree that dri archer's presence tips our hand a bit...... I keep hoping that haley takes advantage of that and calls a middle screen or something similar when teams try to take advantage of archer's lack of blocking, but it just never happens.... maybe this game i'll see it

 

The truth is, who ever wins this division this year will certainly earn it since all 4 teams will play against the same 14 teams we have on our schedule, so we are all pretty even in strength of schedule, this could be the year where 8 or 9 wins will win this division, but who ever wins it will be battle tested going into the playoffs, yeah we rank 1 in strength of schedule but the bengals rank 2 and the rats and browns rank in the top 5, so this will be a battle to remember, losing any games in this divison will be pivotal in deciding who gets to wear the crown this year......

 

Had to bump this thread being that I'm the new kid on the block.

Seems like the Ravens have had the Steelers number as of late winning our last few meetings in a row. Loved our win over your boys last Sunday and then over the Browns on Thursday night. I believe that we'll split with the Steelers though. I was very surprised by your loss to the Cowboys though. Ya'll came out on fire but chasing those 2 pt conversions and giving up those big runs to Zeke for TD's ultimately did ya'll end. That was strange. Not the Steelers I'm use to seeing.

 

We are on a downfall my friend. Seems the Ben era is closing fast

 

I absolutely love how Big Ben plays the game. Sure, he holds that rock too long at times but man....when that dude gets outside the pocket, he can make plays downfield that put daggers in you.

 

yup so much this. what is frustrating is all the 1st and 2nd rounders on D... and there is no health excuse. this is it boys

 

Well, we definitely know about the defense giving up leads late in games. The Ravens have done that a few times but for me, it was mostly due to our poor offense not being able to generate enough points to extend leads "when" the defense is playing red hot. To see ya'll give up those 2 big runs to Zeke was stunning! Hopefully, our defense can remain stout against that O-line and young buck on Sunday. IF, the Ravens lose, the Cowboys will have "swept" every AFC North team. We can't allow that to happen!

 

I want you guys to beat them then lose the remaining games. Is that so much to ask?

 

Well, thanks for wanting us to beat them. But, to lose our remaining games? That's just wishful thinking. Beating the Cowboys on Sunday will give us a 3 game win-streak (after dropping 4 in a row) and HUGE momentum and confidence. We'll beat both the Bengals and Dolphins at home, lose to the Patriots in Foxborough, beat the Eagles at home. We'll lose to you guys and the Bengals on the road though to finish up our season at 9-7...enough to win the division.

But before all of that....you guys could lose to the Browns this week, then what?

 

watch you guys be one and done? I dont know lol

 

One and done? Now you know better than that!

 

Well raisins defense couldn't do **** lol