the game changed when......

The only one I question is taking him out on the second series after he ran it well on the first two plays. You can't argue with the last three drives because they were so damn effective.

 

Agreed. As much as riding Henry makes sense normally the way our secondary was playing why not throw downfield guys were WIDE open!!

 

Dude that was not even remotely directed at You because You do talk about injuries on all teams.
That was directed at people that only make excuses for other teams because of injuries.

 

I know. My bad. That was a joke that didn't land.

 

LoL. Sometimes I'm slow on the uptake.

 

They were also playing to the circumstances and taking what the defense gave them. The people criticizing Harbaugh for it are engaging in some lazy analysis of the game, looking at just the overall numbers and not why they happened. The only decision I had a problem with in that second half was the one I mentioned, taking Henry out on their second possession of the second half. The way he was playing, you don't take him out at all unless absolutely necessary.

 

Happens to all of us. I do think Hamilton's injury had a huge impact on the game. When I saw they had taken him off on a cart, I was happy for two reasons. One was the human concern. The way he went down, it was clear he had a concussion. The league can talk about its independent doctors all it wants. I still see guys staying in games that shouldn't, so I was glad they weren't putting Hamilton's health at risk. I hate to admit the other reason because I don't root for injuries, but I knew the Steelers chances of winning went up dramatically with him out of the game.

 

oh yes, I lived in MD most of my life, I told RATS fans that Loop would cost them 1 or 2 games

HE DID

he also sucked a lot on kick off this year.

yes, they missed Tucker

 

yes - it was DPI, that is for sure

 

You just gave all the reasons why it wasn't Hamilton's injury that changed the game. It was the Steelers defense. Before Hamilton went out in the 2nd qtr the Steelers were starting to get chunk yards including 12, 17, 15, 20, 11, 13 yards.

 

That was one drive before the half. They did the same thing against Cleveland, then went right back to being inept on offense in the second half. The offense was far better once Hamilton left the game. Also, it wasn't the defense that kept the Ravens off the field in the third quarter. It was an offense that moved the ball more consistently when the Ravens lost their best defensive player.

 

With their best defensive player still on the field they were able to get a bunch of chunks yards on a drive. BAL defense had no semblance to the CLE defense this year so trying to predict a different outcome is a fool's errand.

Did it help that Hamilton went out? Sure, he was their second leading tackler. But I won't say the Steelers couldn't beat them with him on the field. Already did it in game 1.