Sunday’s loss to the Ravens is the kind that sticks with you for a while. Even though a 3-1 start is great and it is still early in the season, it was hard not to get out of bed this morning and think of Joe Flacco running around Heinz Field after tossing the winning TD pass. It wasn’t a very good day for a lot of the Steelers.
Jump it for a harsh set of grades as well as some analysis of the Steelers playcalling at the end of the game.
James Harrison – B-
Harrison is a destructive force week in and week out, but he was mostly silent on Sunday. He faced double and sometimes triple teams and didn’t register a sack. Granted, it seemed like Michael Oher was false starting almost every snap but on a good day Deebo finds his way around that. He did force a fumble but Harrison wasn’t able to pressure Flacco during much of the game and that is when he is at his best.
Rashard Mendenhall – A-
Mendy was great on Sunday. He ran hard between the tackles and almost always fell forward. He grinded out a lot of 3-yard runs that are always huge in games against Baltimore. He also flashed his underrated speed on his touchdown run. I’ve got to think he’ll be one of the players who benefits the most from Ben Roethlsiberger’s return as he won’t have to deal with 8 or 9 guys in the box on most downs anymore. He finished Sunday with 25 carries for 79 yards.
All the Pink – C
Man, tough to word this one. I have a deep, deep hatred of cancer and it has taken a few people away from me that I dearly loved, but I’m not a fan of all of the players wearing pink. It gives me a headache. There’s got to be a more effective way to spread the promote awareness of breast cancer.
The Officials – D
They were equally terrible on both sides of the ball. They called 18 penalties throughout the game, a large amount of which were shaky at best. Derrick Mason bought a cheap defensive holding call by falling down and doing his best Ronaldo impression. Even the holding call against Keyaron Fox at the end of the game that cost the Steelers 10 precious yards was questionable. I’ll never blame a loss on officiating, but the zebras should never become a focal point of the game either like they did on Sunday.
Joe Flacco – B+
He wasn’t great, but he was good enough to win the game. He got time to throw the ball most of the game and made smart decisions most of the time.
Lawrence Timmons – A+
He was all over the place again and his 15 tackles helped to propel him to the NFL lead. It certainly looks like he could be on his way to a Pro Bowl season.
Charlie Batch – B
Chuck protected the ball well until the very end of the game and didn’t cost the Steelers this one. That is about all you can expect from a 4th string QB. He missed a few open receivers that Big Ben probably connects with, but that is probably to be expected. I don’t mean to bash Batch at all. I just think there are only a couple of QBs as good as Roethlisberger. Batch was completely serviceable during his two starts.
Jeff Reed – F
As brutal as missing the two field goals was, Reed’s shank of a kickoff late in the 4th quarter was what sealed his failing grade. 45-yard field goals are tough to make in Heinz Field and I’d have been happy if Reed just got one of the two through. It is as much the offenses fault for failing to move the ball after the Baltimore turnovers as it is Reed’s. But the short, low kickoff in a crucial moment in the game just made everything that much worse.
Steelers Coaching Staff – C
As I just mentioned above, the play calling was too conservative following Baltimore turnovers. A first down in either of those situations increases the chance of Reed making either one of those field goals exponentially. It seemed like the Steelers were taking the Joe Paterno approach all game long and were trying to win this one 6-4. On the Steelers 93-yard TD drive, Arians did a good job of throwing the ball on early downs and mixing up the run and the pass. He needed to do that throughout the rest of the contest as well. Unlike a lot of people, I had no problem with the Steelers calling three straight runs from inside their own 10-yard line late in the 4th quarter. It was the penalties down there that hurt them, not the play calling. Typically, you could at least expect to gain five or six yards and make the Ravens start around their own 40 or 45 yard line.
William Gay – A+
‘Big Play’ made two of them on what was, at the time, the two biggest plays of the season. I’ve always been high on Gay even after he struggled some last year. He is an excellent nickelback.
