Steelers Sputter but Steal a Win

Pittsburgh tops Baltimore 23-20 in overtime on MNF

If you walk in the rain you can't be surprised when you get wet. Playing divisional rival Baltimore is usually that predictable. Rarely does a Pittsburgh vs Baltimore game end up as a walk in the park for the winner.

Coming into the week I was confident of a Pittsburgh victory. However I was certain that it would be like pulling teeth from a rhinoceros. Adding insult to the injury was the fact that the Steelers offense was exposed in Philadelphia the previous Sunday. This also resulted in losing another Defensive lineman and losing Willie Parker, their All-Pro running back. So the Baltimore game was shaping up to be another Steelers vs Ravens bar fight. After all it was a game pitting the #1 ranked Ravens defense against the #2 ranked Steelers defense.

On the plus side you were playing the game in your house. Also to the Steelers advantage was, as is usually the case, the Ravens are often anemic on offense. They have traditionally been a one dimensional team since they have moved to Baltimore from Cleveland. The fact that they are breaking in a rookie QB should have also given Pittsburgh a reason to salivate on defense.

So it was no shock that the game began with punishing hits. In fact the Steelers back up Linebacker Andre Frazier was carted off the field after getting demolished covering the opening kick off to the Ravens. (Thankfully he was later seen after the game walking around) The first quarter was an exchange of jabs and blows by each team culminating in a 3 to 3 score after the first 15 minutes.

The second quarter though brought deja vu to Steelers fans. Just like in Philadelphia, the offense imploded against an attacking defense. I admit that last week I was quick to point the finger at a negligent and incompetent offensive line. But after further review of last weeks effort and watching tonight I believe there is more to the story. In many of the cases last week and in some of the protection this week it looked like the Steelers offensive coaches were being out-coached by the opposing teams defensive coaches. There were ample amount of blockers only they were not prepared for the direction the blitz was coming from. You had guys looking for a blitz up the middle while guys come unabated from the outside. To make matters worse, Ben Roethlisberger often times misses the hot read when he is blitzed. There were at least 3 occasions tonight that there was a receiver clearly open in a slant route designed to be a hot read or a safety valve for Ben and he missed him entirely, held onto the ball and got hammered. The Ravens on the other hand kept their hands to the grindstone and put up 10 unanswered points in the second quarter to take a 13 to 3 lead. Joe Flacco, the rookie Ravens QB showed a lot of composure and his arm strength was once again apparent. While he didn't put up Dan Marino like stats, he is proving each week that he can play in this league.

In the second quarter however, the Steelers scratched and clawed their way into the end zone finishing a drive with a great throw from Ben to Santonio Holmes. Holmes for his part made an outstanding catch and an even better run after the catch for a touchdown to cut the Ravens lead to three. It was now 13-10.

Suddenly then the Steelers forced Flacco to make a mistake. Under duress from the Steelers defense he was caught not tucking the ball in while getting sacked. LaMarr Woodley jumped on the fumbled ball and rolled back up onto his feet and ran the ball in for another Pittsburgh TD. Now it was Pittsburgh 17 and Baltimore 13 in the blink of an eye.

Thankfully the Steelers coaching staff and Ben countered the protection problems by picking up the pace in the second half. Even mixing in some no huddle plays at times. After the game Roethlisberger said he was allowed to call some of the second half plays. He didn't go into any detail of how long or how many plays he called.

The fourth quarter started looking much like the first quarter. Nonetheless the Steelers were able to eek out another field goal by Jeff Reed from 19 yards out. Getting them down deep into Baltimore territory was the result of a nice scramble from Roethlisberger and then finding a wide open Hines Ward down-field. If Ward had not slipped trying to cut inside to avoid a Ravens defender, he probably would have scored a TD. Instead the Steelers ran into an angry Ravens defense and could not capitalize and seize the moment to score a TD and thus settled for the field goal.

Then a gutsy Flacco and his offense put together a quality drive to tie the game by scoring a TD highlighted by a Le'Ron McClain 2 yard run. The game ended in regulation tied at 20.

In over time the Steelers defense stepped up and stopped the Ravens in their path and forced them to punt. Then the Steelers offense took their cue from the defense and they for their part rose to the occasion and did what they had to do to get within field goal range for Jeff Reed to win the game with a 46 yard field goal in overtime.

All in all the Steelers defense had yet another strong game. On offense the Steelers struggled again however. Rashard Mendenhall filling in for the injured Willie Parker had a couple nice runs but all in all the Steelers did not rush the ball very well. Which I saw that coming from a mile a way seeing that Baltimore rarely allows any team to run the ball. The exclamation point though was Mendenhallwas injured and not only left the game but he left the rest of the season with a broken shoulder. Also Carey Davis the 3rd back went down with an ankle injury. So it looks like the 4th option Mewelde Moore is going to be the workhorse for now depending on the status of Parker. And to Moore's credit he was a key contributor to the Steelers win when it was all said and done. He had a couple nice receptions out of the backfield. He does have some NFL starts on his resume' also while in Minnesota.

Ben had a pedestrian like game again statistically. He was a steady 14 of 24 for 191 yards. Which turned out to be a nice 8 yards per attempt. Erratic yes but efficient to some extent also.

They were pretty abysmal on third down again also. Better than last week against the Eagles but that is like saying that losing one leg is better than losing two in this case. Considering it was against Baltimore is some what of a perspective to be examined. But I have never believed in moral victories.

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Another item to be worried about is losing offensive right guard Kendall Simmons. They already have enough work to do on the O-Line as it is.

3 wins and 1 loss is what I expected at this juncture. Now the Steelers travel to Jacksonville. We will save the preview of that game for later this week. For today we can breath a sigh of relief and hope the Coaching staff and the team takes a long hard look at the game film and rolls up their sleeves and gets their house in better order. At halftime Head Coach Mike Tomlin was concerned that their struggle was more of a mental nature than physical. If that is the case I hope these guys pull their head out of their proverbial tight end and focus on execution.

Because I honestly feel this team can make a run at Super Bowl Championship #6!

By Andy Natalie
ProFootball-fans.com Pittsburgh Steelers Correspondent