Ravens are going to kick our A@@ this year

I think the Ravens and the Bengals are closing the gap if not already.

It seems like we have the same issues every year.

Oline, corner, pass rush. How long have we been trying to fix the oline? Since 05?

And in that time the Ravens and Bengals oline is much better than ours. If we don't watch it the Brownies are going to be above us in the division.

 

The same can be said about us beating the Cardinals in the SB. They were a miraculous drive by Ben away from winning, but the fact remains, we won that Superbowl because we played better. They beat us last year because they played better. Nothing miraculous about it.

I do think Baltimore is the better team this year unfortunately. I just haven't seen anything from our defence or our Oline to suggest that we are better than them. I hope I'm wrong and will gladly have this talk again in 6 weeks.[/quote:37s18y16]

If I may weigh in on this conversation while like others I did not like what I saw in our first game. We have alot of work to do and I believe we will come around. Its very hard to make any kind of assessment about the overall effectiveness of a team after 1 game. Baltimore looked like Superbowl champs in the first game and we looked like a cross between the brown and the bengals lol.... Jk

I believe in the peaking too early and if Baltimore continues this kind of intensity it may just back fire on them. Then there is injuries. We have been plagued with multiple injuries. Suppose we get healthy which I fully expect and the Ravens start to decline. It's very possible..

It's way too early to make predictions on AFC North. We have 15 more regular season games to go..

Bman

 

The OP's original post states that the Ravens are getting better while the Steelers have taken a step back. So no, I don't see that, how can that be when we have been to 2 SB's to Baltimore's none in the last 3 years, won the division in 2010 and were a play away from winning the division last year. So what are you guys basing this on? From what point? From game 1 of this year? Oh ok, well yeah, based on 1 game this season it sure looks like the Ravens have improved while the Steelers have taken a step back. You guys are funny. You couldn't get anymore neck and neck then these two teams, been that way for years.[/quote:56fsq93g]

We were not neck and neck with the Ravens last year. Look at the garbage QB's we faced all year. We were very overrated last year and had no place even competing for the division. Baltimore was a much better team last year and I think were the best team in the AFC (perhaps Houston if Schaub stayed healthy). I also think they have a better pass rush and much better DB's than us. Their offence has passed us by too I think. They're moving the ball up and down the field with ease and there's no denying they can run the ball whenever they feel like it.

So yeah, when taking into account last year and the way the teams appear so far this year, I'd say Baltimore has pulled out ahead of us and it is no longer neck and neck.

 

Does anybody here remember the ravens looking unstoppable against us last year in week one? Then they lost to Tenn the next week. Then they lost on the road to Jags, Seattle, and got absolutely destroyed by the chargers. It's a marathon not a sprint. Let's see how things play out.

 

Relax, we dont play the rat birds untill week 11, by then the rats could be injury riddled or in a slump, or they could be unstoppable, but with the old guys they have on that team they could be using band aids by week 11. We could hopefully either be getting on a roll, or out of it by then, we do get them out of the way quickly this year because we play them again in week 13. But the team to watch out for in the AFC this year are the Texans, and they play the ravens in week 7, we will see then if the rats can stack up against a real team, dont forget the bengals had two picks in their hands and dropped them, the texans wont be dropping any flacco picks in week 7.....

 

I want to chime in on part of this discussion.

We all know the "best team" doesn't always win the super bowl. Just because went and the Ravens didn't doesn't mean we are the better team.

Do you think the Giants are the better team then the Packers?

 

NEVER!!!!!!!!!!!! :swordsman:

 

They we're better than the packers in the playoff game where it counts. We're they better than the 49ers, they we're in the NFCC game, you dont have to be the consitantly better regular season team to win the ring, you just have to be good enough to get to the playoffs and win those games. We went 15-1 in 04, but it meant nothing when we lost the AFCC game....

 

Agree totally. When we won the super bowl in 05 i don't think there where better teams. Even against the Cardinals we wasn't the better team that year. But like you said it only matters in the playoffs.

 

Actually teams within a divison face the same QBs since all 4 teams have the same schedule with the exception of just 2 games.........

 

Some fans seem to forget, that teams in a division play the same schedule just on different weeks, every year division teams play 6 games in their Division, 4 games against an NFC Division, and 4 games against an AFC division, then two games against a random opponent, so there are only 2 games that division teams dont have in common, but 14 games are against the same in common opponents only on different weeks....

 

*Its only game one. But to answer your question, yes the hungry Ravens will beat the sh*t out of our lethargic Steelers.

 

does anyone remember week one last year.. we got beat by what? 30 points by the ravens .. then played pretty close to them most of the year... i dont think they have anymore talent than us.. maybe less.. but i think they have more of a will to win and they have a killer instinct that the steelers have have not had for yearsssssssssssss.... we never blow anyone out..

HINES

 

Just skimmed thru the responses... and didn`t see many of them address what I thought was key..
The Cravens switched to a no-huddle over the off-season, and seem to be running it pretty well.
Is there any doubt they did this with us in mind?
Also, we finally seem to be going that route, as Ben has clamored for for, well.. since he has been here...
Peyton`s doing it in Denver...
Anyone see a trend?
I only watched part of the first half of Balt vs. Cincy, before they were blowing them out, and I thought they looked pretty good at their shiny new no-huddle offense.
Gee.. What gives a defense trouble? Gee... which side of the ball do the new rules favor?...
What I am wondering, is, if it is really gonna make much difference, when "these two trains collide"?
We are tuff.. They are tuff..
Will both of our new "no-huddle" offenses turn this game into less of a bloodbath?
I doubt it.
Still gonna be a hard fought, whoever has the ball last, and makes the least mistakes throughout the game, wins it, kinda game, IMHO....
GO STEELERS!!!

 

The no huddle can kill your own D if your drives are done within 5mins vs the team that uses the clock, Denver's D was gasping for air in the 3rd too bad we couldn't take advantage of that. Ben kept changing the plays inside the red, wonder if Haley's original plays would've been more productive.

 

I dunno, but I think the no huddle that Ben ran in the 3d qtr against the Ponies, gave Peyton all of about 2 plays to scorch our defense..
I could be remembering wrong, I`m not sure that we did all that in the no huddle, but I think we did...
Our Defense should have been VERY well rested...
Whether I`m right or wrong...
The point is, the no huddle does NOT have to be a "quick score" offense.. That`s all up to the man in charge...
Ben can still call running plays, and from what I`ve seen, he DOES.. you CAN control the clock, AND keep the defense from substituting, it`s a wicked sword! :gasp:
Edit, Sorry Jim, I didn`t notice your point about Ben changing plays in the Redzone, from what Haley called...
Maybe he did... I don`t know...
But, I thought you were saying we couldn`t chew up the clock with it, my bad. :?

 

Who is it that says NOT SO fast my friends? Lee Corso,
Well lets not get to excited about the Ravens just yet, Maybe I am
an old antique, but I never knew any game won in the papers or the stat sheets.
Lets line em up and see what happens.

 

This. The Raisins D is the same. Raisins offense has improved. The two teams are comparable. Our games with them will continue to be 50/50 nailbiters.

 

Ben ran a no huddle offense during the Denver game, he can run it as good as Flacco anytime:


By Ed Bouchette / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The most significant change in the new Steelers offense displayed Sunday night in Denver did not come in a more effective running game, better pass protection, more use of the short passing game or the advent of a rookie scatback who can break one at any moment.

The biggest change came in the huddle, or the lack of one. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger's use of the no-huddle offense in the second quarter and throughout the second half in the opener signaled what might be the advent of a significant change in the way the Steelers play football on offense.

They have used it previously, most famously to win Super Bowl XLIII, but rarely for an entire half in the opening game in a noisy place on the road the way they did Sunday night. It was mostly effective right up until Roethlisberger threw that pick-6 to Tracy Porter with two minutes left.

"I was comfortable with the no-huddle attack and what we were doing in it," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. "Just not enough significant plays made, particularly down the stretch."

At times, Roethlisberger looked more like Peyton Manning than did Manning, running up and down the line, shouting instructions to his teammates, looking at the play clock. If he can do that in the noise and high altitude, it should only be easier to run before the more friendly atmosphere at Heinz Field.

"I thought we did pretty well in a hostile environment," Roethlisberger said. "They were loud, we played a lot of no-huddle. We mixed some things in. We hurt ourselves sometimes on penalties and certain things. Overall, I felt we were happy with the line and the way the guys handled it."

Roethlisberger has pushed for more use of the no-huddle since he landed in Pittsburgh after using it as his primary offense at Miami University. Former coordinator Bruce Arians let him run it on occasion and often talked about using it more, but never quite let Roethlisberger call his own plays for long stretches in games.

 

I'll settle for healthy.