The Steelers gave up a lengthy return and were offsides on the opening kickoff of the 2011 season. Ray Rice ran for 36 yards on the first play from scrimmage. Two plays later, Joe Flacco threw a beautiful TD pass to Anquan Boldin. The rest of this opening game went pretty much the same way and the Steeler suffered their most humbling defeat since New England beat them last year. The Steelers turned the ball over a mind-blowing 7 times, their most in a regular since September 24, 1995.
Baltimore’s new-look offensive line dominated the game and the Steelers were never able to put consistent pressure on Flacco. The Steelers didn’t even knock him down until there was 3:42 left in the 3rd quarter and the game was well out of reach. The Ravens big offseason addition Lee Evans was mostly quiet due to a great game by Ike Taylor, but Rice, Ed Nickson and Dennis Pitta killed the Steelers. Short passes and yards-after-catch by the tight ends and running backs were Baltimore’s bread and butter all game long.
The Steelers offensive line, on the other hand, was putrid. Terrell Sugs and Haloti Ngata were in Roethlisberger’s face all game long pressuring the QB, deflecting balls and dictating the game. Maurkice Pouncey and Doug Legursky whiffed on blocks that resulted in fumbles. The skill players like Mike Wallace and Antonio Brown had no chance to get down the field to make plays because of the Steelers’ play in the trenches. On the rare ocassions Roethlisberger did have time to throw, he wasn’t great. 2 of his passes hit Ed Reed in the chest and aside from a TD toss to Emmanuel Sanders, Roethlisberger was awful in the redzone.
The game also got ugly after the whistle. There were several skirmishes and fights, which is never good to see. Even mostly tame players like Troy Polamalu and Ray Rice were involved. Roger Goodell was in the building for this one, so it’ll be interesting to see if any fines or discipline come down.
For the Steelers, they need to forget this one as soon as possible and get back to work. A season isn’t made in one game and they have 15 more games to prove that they are an elite team. Still, a loss like this is not the best way to start the season and the blocking, tackling and coverage that we saw today was simply not good enough to win games at the NFL level.
