All on the defense, really!!

All I'm hearing is how the defense stunk it up on the last drive, which is true. Actually the defense played pretty damn good most of the game, sorry guy's I have to say Bens INT took points from us (even if it was 3) and the turds scored, 10-14 point swing. Also the game was in Bens hands to win at the end and he choked, plain and simple! He himself even said in an interview the defense has been carrying this team for years and it was his and the offense's turn to return the favor and they failed! Hard to swallow this one, I thought for sure we were going to win this one only to see him choke at the last minute and give Sacco the ball back.

Bottom line: The defense shouldn't have to stop a team every game to get the win, Ben should have put these guys to bed way earlier and didn't. Same story every week, can't we just close a game out when we have a chance! I have no fingernails left again!LOL..

BRING ON THE BUNGHOLES!!!!!!!

 

I was thinking about the special teams kickoff unit, they were giving up big returns.

 

The defense were inconsistent.

I'm really annoyed about this game, but I'm trying to think about it like this: if we had won, the Ravens fans would be saying pretty much exactly the same things about the game. Both teams were inconsistent, the refereeing was inconsistent, and there were some fractional plays/decisions that ended up being big. The upshot is: either team could have won it. Yes, we wanted to beat them hard because of week 1. But even with some weak red zone offense, general lack of groove all game long, and really, really irritating PI calls - we were effectively beaten on the last play of the game.

 

The defense played like crap!!! The Ravens where 14 out of 21 on 3rd down conversions. THATS ALL ON THE DEFENSE!!! Ben got the lead at the end and then relied on the defense to do there job. THE DEFENSE CHOKED!! The defense gave up three 3rd down conversions and one 4th down conversion on the 92 yard drive.

 

The choke comments are out of line. They were beaten by good execution by NFL players. Calm down.

 

on the defense?....meaning Lebeau and the coaches.........same personel shut brady down last week....the scheme changed which allowed for them to convert 3rd downs all night........no Woodley was huge too, maybe as big as not having Troy, if Woodley plays we win that game

no worries, we will see them again in the playoffs at full strength and do what we do

 

I have a hard time believing Woodley would have made the difference in this game. He is better than Worilds or Timmons rushing the passer no doubt, but you can't tell me that he would have come up with a sack on a high percentage of those 3rd down conversions. The pressure was there w/out him and Flacco stood his ground and delivered. Many of those were 3rd and long after stopping running plays.
Woodley would have made some plays, but I just don't see one guy changing the outcome of the game given the way they beat us.

 

I agree with you! Not sure if they choked as this is a pretty common problem they have had for about the past year or so....The offense did their job and the DL and LBs stopped Rice so..... :?

 

I believe it was a loss as a whole. How “big play” willie gay still has a job is beyond me. Our defense did stink it up. If it wasn't for dropped passes by raven receivers and a missed field goal the score would be different. First play of the game for the ravens was a touchdown that was called back. Which I believe was a ticky tack flag. The fact that they couldn't stop them on 3rd down was ridiculous. I do agree that even though our defense stunk it up the offense did not help. The pick ben threw was huge definitely took points off the board. Also just like last week against the patriots I just couldn't believe we were throwing the ball when we were trying to run out the clock. We stopped the clock for the ravens which in return gave them more time and saved them timeouts. At the end of the day this was a game we should of had and let it go. But it's not the end of the world we are 6-3 with the easier part of our schedule coming up.

SO LETS GO STEELERS!!!!

 

Again, is it fair that the defense always has to stop a team at the end to win the game? Ben threw a stupid pick when we should have gotten points and also had the ball in his hands to close the game out and didn't. Think about it, Ben keeps that last drive going and the defense doesn't have to stop anything. Bottom line he had the game in his hands and once again put it back on the defense, which they are usually successful at but law of averages say's you're gonna get burned once in awhile and they did. We can agree to disagree but I am sticking with my opinion and that is Ben should have closed the game out, instead he gave stupid Flacco the ball back and it bit him in the arse. Nuff said!!

 

The INT was not Ben's fault. the RT did not block Suggs to prevent him from making that play.

The defense should have stopped the Ravens from going 92 yards and they didn't.

 

I was at the game last night. I can barely talk this morning from screaming for 3 hours. I've never heard so much noise on every single play when the Ravens had the ball...it was amazing. The fans really showed up...just wish the secondary would have done the same.

 

While giving up the go ahead score on a 92 yard drive is all on the defense, you can not lay all the blame completely at their feet. Much like last year and the year before, there were times that the defense did their job and held giving the ball back to the offense only to see that possession squandered away on some dubious play calling. In this game they forced a three and out to give the ball back to the offense with under five to play and a four point lead. that doesn't mean hey go out and try any old play you want. The offense doesn't get off scott free in this. If Ben wants to Ben the man and have the ball in his hands at the end of the game then when it happens you have to make the plays, you just have to no excuses. Both sides failed in this game as well as coaching .

 

Pittsburgh fans are very relucant to blame the D or St Richard for anything ever.

But I ask you this. Suppose needing a TD to win, the Steelers found themselves 1st and 10 on the Ravens 20, with 1 min left and ended up turning it over on downs. This board would be flooding w/ comments blasting that bozo Bruce Ariens and his back-asswards offense. You know this is true.

But the equivalent? A great D with the greatest Defensive Co-ordinator who drew a breath, at home, vs a QB within whose head the master's mind games have been played for years, is stuck at his own 8 and has to move 92 yds for the win? And he does. Oh, it's not the D's fault. No way.

 

Bump...

 

A lot of people are to blame, although it's mostly the coaching staff. William Gay is a horrible CB. He got beat repeatedly by a rookie. Sure, that rookie is going to be a really good WR, but he's still a rookie. Gay shouldn't be on the field anymore. I don't know or care how they do it, but this problem should have been fixed by now. It's been years since we had good pass defence. It's inexcusable that it hasn't been fixed yet.

On top of that, we haven't had a running game since Arians came to town. If Tomlin was a real coach he would have realized that and got rid of Arians. Instead, everyone seems blinded by the fact that we won 2 superbowls. We won despite our bad coaching, not because of.

If we had a reliable running game, not only would we not struggle in the red zone like we do, but we could also close out games. Instead, the coaches all seem content with the fact that we can't run the damn ball when we badly need to. What's worse is we were actually running the ball really well yesterday, yet when we had to close the game out, Arians called numerous passing plays. Ridiculous!!!

The defence bent a lot yesterday, but they still didn't give up a ton of points. The fact is, with the rules the way they are, it really hurts defences. It's expected that when you get to the red zone, you will score TD's. We don't do that.

Coaches are mostly to blame, and offence and defence split the rest of the blame.

 

Naw, we got beat by a quarterback who is better than Brady according to this Raven's fan.
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Excerpt

Unbelievable. They are whining about the refs after this game worse than we did after the playoff game last year.

Let's recap. The playoff game we had a punt return touchdown called back because of an absolutely bogus holding call. The player literally just flopped on the ground and BAM! we have to score the touchdown twice. Meanwhile we stop the Steelers 3 times at the goal line but then the Steelers got a fresh set of downs because of a defensive holding call on the NOSEGUARD on a RUNNING PLAY on THIRD DOWN at the GOAL LINE. Seriously. What a joke.

Oh and yeah, Pouncey literally picked up the ball and moved it half a yard forward on 4th and 1. Harbaugh was screaming about it to the refs but they just ignored it. Absolutely ludicrous that something like that happened. The Steelers should have been forced to give us their 3rd rounder or something. Unacceptable.

Well let us recap the calls from this game.

We had a 77 yard touchdown completely taken away because Gay just completely flopped. That was not holding. What a joke.

Same drive, Ike Taylor molested Boldin for the entirety of the route. He never once turned around to look for the flag.

Rice had a touchdown taken away again. The refs blew the whistle way to early. Must be fun for a defense to not even have to tackle a running back.

The second drive there was an obvious pass interference that wasn't called.


Now they did miss a personal foul on Ray Lewis, and a pass interference on Webb.

All of the other pass interferences were legit, and the Clark hit was an obvious lunge and helmet to helmet hit.


Joe Flacco would have brought us down the field to win the game last year in the playoffs if his wide receivers were up to the challenge.

Joe Flacco is clutch. He is more clutch than Tom Brady.

I don't care if Brady can drive his team 30 yards with 2 minutes and a tied game for a long field goal while cheating. Flacco handles pressure much better than Brady. Brady folds up if the rush gets to him at all.

 

No it's not fair to think that the the defense always has to stop a team at the end - BUT - the defense could not get off the field on 3rd down all night. It wasn't just the last drive - it was all night long. Moreover, even though it's not fair to think the defense has to stop a team at the end all the time - the STEELERS - both OFFENSE AND DEFENSE - need to close games - and neither did in this one. There was poor clock management on the part of the offense and the inability to get off the field on defense. There were SINGLE plays in the last offensive debacle and the last defensive debacle that led to this loss. It wasn't even just the overall inconsistency - it was SINGLE plays! David Johnson makes an easy catch on 1st down and the Ravens would not have had the time to make that last drive. Ben throws a completion on 3rd down, even for no gain - again, the Rats do not have enough time to score. On the last drive - ONE stop - that's all they needed - ONE - and they couldn't get it. It was a team loss in the last 4 minutes - on both sides of the ball.

 

Here's what I don't understand. 4 point lead, 20 seconds, ball on 20 something. They are not going over the middle. So why not have Ryan Clark start the play on the endzone? His one job should have been to not allow a pass to be caught there. He was late getting over to help. Rush 3, and put 8 in coverage. The 4 and 5 man rushes didn't produce any pressure. If they had stayed with their man, Flacco would have burned time off the clock waiting for someone to get open. Wasn't any surprise to me that they went after Gay. Why the heck is he still in uniform?

 

You guys are forgetting exactly how many starters we had out on D.

Our D was also on the field for nearly 36 minutes of the game. This happens when your offense tends to abandon the run at times during games, especially at the end of them with a lead.

Did the D falter at the end? Absolutely. So did the O. It's a team loss.

 

The sole purpose of a defense is to defend, i.e. to not allow the other team to score.

Last night, the defense was once again shown its true light. Same story over the years. Third and long, third and short, third and medium, and we still cannot get off the field. This had nothing to do with the offense.

Last night, when we get pressure on Flacco, he folds like a lawn chair. On the last drive and a couple of other drives, he was whistling dixie back there. A couple of times I thought Brady had somehow returned and clubbed Flacco in the dressing room and taken over his uniform.

Come on, this was/is Flacco. With Sunday Ticket, I get to watch the Ravens whenever I want and I have seen them play plenty this year and believe me, we gave Flacco an early Christmas present last night.

This game is ALL on the defense. The Ravens for 3 quarters of the game were able to move the ball pretty much at will. Only their nitwit coach went for a FG at the one millimeter line. Don't forget the missed FG either. The defense was pretty awful for much of the game.

Again and again and again, the questions remain. If Gay is such a horse's butt, why do they continue to play him. McFadden was available. Why oh why with 30 seconds or somesuch why not call a TO to get the troops together instead of hoping (how's that hope and change thing working out for ya?) the Ravens will self destruct. Tomlin could have called a TO to get these guys together, but NFL infinite wisdom says no way call a TO while your opposition is driving the ball and your defense has no clue as to how to stop them. Duhhhh?

Which brings me to sir Enstein, aka Tomlin. Did he actually have a clue on that last drive? As the camera panned his emotionless face, he looked like a 8 point buck frozen in the Ravens headlights. He was clueless and his cluelessness is getting old. I wonder if he even asked LeBeau if he knew what was going on out there? But hey, at least he has cool soundbits and the players think he is cool.

So now the Bengals come to town. Oooooh, I bet they are shaking in there boots at facing Gay and Ike...

We just don't stike the fear of God in any team any more. Our defense is simply milk toast that is unless it has to play a cupcake team disguised as an NFL franchise. Even then it is a struggle.

rutan

 

If ANYONE would have wanted to bet me that the Steelers, up 4 points with the Ravens on their own 8 yards line, with 2:?? (I can't even bring myself to see exactly how much time they had) left in the game would LOSE, I would have bet every penny I have and then some. I keep replaying the drive in my mind and I still can't believe that it actually happened.

 

It is not that the Defense gave up the last drive. They allowed Ravens to go down the field 5 times and score. If the offensive can put up 20pts then we should win.

 

This defense would be amazing if it was on the field for 26 minutes or less. That's not going to happen with our play-calling on offense.

Yeah, the defense broke at the end, everyone saw that. No denying that. But, the offense could have helped the defense out. We stopped the clock 2 times at the end of the game, on offense. We then took a delay of game penalty, costing us a FG attempt.

That game-winning TD was with 8 seconds left on the clock. 8 seconds. What happens if our offense didn't stop the clock twice at the end there?