Ravens vs steelers

[krazy kris]

Is there any better way to start off the season
Ravens by 30

[CJ-95GT]

The opening game Saints vs Packers looks pretty good too. I know the Ravens are playing at home, but I think Ben is something like 8 and 2 against them. I'll take the Steelers by a TD.

[idrivea4banger]

Saints vs Packers is going to be a better game.

[Stephen]

If i were a betting man i'd take the steelers

[momo]

i would say this is a great game but that would be wrong, it will be a good matchup but not so fun to watch.

3-6, steelers.

[Geor!]

Flacco has to win at least one time againt Ben, right? Just won't happen this time. Steelers by 10.

[mstng86]

I have to say, aside from all the Cowboys games, I enjoy watching these two teams play. I think they hate each other, and it is kind of old school football. Alot of running, never huge passing numbers, and alot of hard hitting.

[SlowLX]

Ravens win by a pick 6

[Rick Modena]

Flacco has to win at least one time againt Ben, right? Just won't happen this time. Steelers by 10.

lol, I dont think they have ever won by more than 1 or 3 points, EVAR!


Ravens win by 21...

[krazy kris]

Flacco has to win at least one time againt Ben, right? Just won't happen this time. Steelers by 10.

they just gotta get in the end zone they settled for field goals way to much last season

[krazy kris]

yeah

[Geor!]

Ravens 35, Stillers 7 ……. Sep 11, 2011 …………Game #1

Stillers-Ravens Postgame Analysis and Grades

The Stillers “vaunted defense” got riddled early and often, and then the entire team fell part in the 2nd half, with the hated Poebirds issuing a humiliating assbeating, 35-7.


Grades:

QB: Benji had a miserable day, and don’t let the stats deceive you. He was able to pad the stats with meaningless garbage yards in the 4th quarter. The 1st INT was off a bat, bu the next 2 INTs were entirely Ben’s fault on shitty passes. The 2nd INT was a lollipop lob to Miller, which was far too SHORT and was picked around the Balt 1-yard line. With another 11 yards of room, and passing the ball to 6-5” Miler, why lollipop it so short?? The 3rd picks was just a plain misfire to no one. Really awful. Ben also had a pitiful, hasty over-throw of a quick lob to Brown late in the 2Q. Ben also lost a fumble in the 4Q when he held the ball far too long. This is now 2 consecutive games, dating back to the Sup Bowl, where Ben has been an albatross with Kordell-like play. D-

RB: Socrates Mendenhall ripped off some nice gainers, including a 23-yarder. But he often ran timid and upright. He had the big fumble in the 3Q, although this was the combined fault of a botched snap that was bobbled, along with nobody blocking Hloti Ngata (if you can believe that), and Mendy got crushed a millisecond after the handoff. Mendy very nearly coughed up the ball again on a hard lick by a DB (Williams).

Redman played sparingly, but ran well. He busted a tackle and converted a key 3d & long 1 when the game was still in question. He had 3 carries for 12 yards. Moore got some PT in garbage time. He had a nice RAC on a dumpoff, but then coughed up the ball at the end of the run for yet another turnover. Mendy, Moore: C- Redman: A

FB: Johnson played some at FB. He had a good seal block of an ILB on Mendy’s 23-yard run. B

WR: Wally led the led the way with 8 grabs for 107, although a good bit of that was tacked on during garbage time. He made a superb catch of a low, behind slant in the 3Q, good for 16 yards. Ward also had a good game, grabbing 5 for 67. He was flattened, legally, by a DE on a LOS route on Ben’s lollipop INT. I’m sure Ward will look for Johnson when these teams meet again in Nov.

Sanders had 2 grabs for 20, and a TD. He made a strong grab of a tough ball on 3d & 8 in the 2Q, getting the 1D. Brown was mostly ignored, and had 2 grabs for 14 yards. Cotchery did not dress due to a ham injury. B-

TE: Miller spent a good chunk of time PASS BLOCKING, as I counted at least 6 plays where he was kept in to block. He had a good grab of a quick slant late in the 1Q, good for 15 yards. He dropped a tough, but catchable pass in the 4Q. He made a superb timing catch of a deep ball later in the 4th, but Colon’s hold negated the long gainer. B-

OL: The O-line was okay in the early going, but they turned into soggy oatmeal as the game wore on, and was ravaged and plundered by the Raven front 7.

Willie The Colon, who is constantly and incessantly referred to as “the best O-lineman on the team” had 2 penalties....a dumbassed false start, and a blatant hold that negated the long gainer on the bomb to Miller. His blocking was mediocre the entire day. It’s a good thing he was lavished with that big contract, what with how dominant he is and how high in demand he would be. (sic)

The rest of the OL wasn’t much better. Legursky, for no apparent reason, failed to block Ngata on the fateful 3Q fumble. Piss Kemo moved to his left and blocked NO ONE, allowing Suggs a FREE PATH up the gut to the QB for the forced fumble in the 1Q. Pouncey apparently spent the offseason reading his press clippings, because he did jack shit today and was often handled as easy as pie. Scott allowed a fair amount of pressure from his side. The 2008 season saw the OL get savagely ravaged in Sept by Philly, and they used that to bounce back to have a solid season and win the Sup Bowl. Clearly, this group needs to regroup as well. To their credit, I will add this,....your defense gets shredded and you get forced to play catch-up football against a blood-thirsty defense like the Ravens, and your O-line doesn’t have much of a chance. D+

DL: This is the one unit that got totally manhandled today. Manhandled and brutally ass-whipped. On the game first play, Keisel was steamrolled, allowing a massive 12-foot wide hole for the 36-yard gainer. On the next drive, Keisel was again manhandled, getting driven back a full 5 yards on a plunge that gained 5 yards up LG. Soon later, Aaron Smith was pancaked on a 3d & G plunge that went in for a TD. Fat Casey Hampton waddled about to and fro and did little “clogging the middle”. What, praytell, did these sorry-asses do the past 5 weeks??

The D-line stiffened a little bit in the 2H, but still was giving up chunks of yards and getting physically dominated. A wretched, embarrassing effort. F

LB: Supposedly the strength of this defense, but today, they were the stench of this defense.

Timmons led the D with 10 solos and 2 As, and played his usual sideline to sideline hustle and gusto. But he often was off balance, bamboozled, or just a step short of making a better play. Probably his worst play was the TD pass to Rice, in which Timmy was lined up on Rice as Rice was split wide. Tony Dungy, the idiot, called this a huge mismatch. Dungy is wrong. Timmons is just as fast and quick as Rice, and bigger. Timmons simply took too aggressive of an inside angle, and when Rice cut to the outside, Timmy was helplessly out of position. Of course, it didn’t help that the FS, Ryan Clark, offered no more help on this play than an anvil tossed to a drowning man.

Harrison was negated by McKinnie all game long. Harrison drew a ticky-tack holding flag on Mount McKinnie in the 1Q, but that was about it in terms of blocked pressure, as the huge McKinnie, with a massive frame-length advantage, easily staved off Harrison.

Harry was sealed off on the opening play, which gained 36 yards on the ground. He did have a key stuff on 4th & 1 in the 3Q when the game was still in balance. He got nicked up in the 4Q and walked off under his own power. In the 2Q and also in the 2H, Worilds subbed in here and there for Harrison, who was either tuckered out or being rested on select plays.

Taunto Farrior, “the ageless wonder”, looked, oh, about 48 years old. If he’s ageless, then I’m a leprechaun. He was slow, clumsy, and decrepit the entire game. On the 1st play of the game, Farrior allowed an O-lineman to scrape off the D-lineman and then wall off Taunto, enabling Rice to jog through a massive hole large enough to accommodate a Lincoln Navigator. On the long run by Dickie Williams, Taunto had a feeble-assed whiff, allowing Dickie to gain 26 yards on the play. One of the rare half- decent plays Taunto made was the 3d & 6 early in the 3Q, where he miraculously stopped the receiver 1 yard short of the sticks. Foote subbed in quite a bit for The Ageless Wonder. Foote flailed and whiffed badly on Rice with a dumb-assed high shoulder-grab attempt on a key 3d & 1, allowing Rice to scamper for a long 20+ yard gainer.

The $61M Man, Big LaMarr Woodley, spent the entire day titty-jousting with opposing blockers, and jogging and LOAFING like a complete turd. He finished with 3 solos and 0 A’s. Here were the 3 solos by the $61M Man –

- On a 2d & 10 in the 2Q, Flacco hit Dennis Pitta, a backup TE, on a short crosser. Big LaMarr had dropped in short zone coverage, and moved like Doug Legursky as he waddled his fat ass after Pitta, who easily dashed right by and gained 16 yards and the 1st down. Big LaMarr got the cheesy shove OOB for a solo stop. Pitta, a 2nd year man, had 1 NFL catch coming into this game....for ONE yard.

- On the 1st play of the 4Q, Big LaMarr was SOLO blocked by a TE, Ed Dickson. Dickson scooted aside and LaMarr bowled by a RB, and after a good 4 seconds, Flacco took a coverage sack. For $61M, that kind of money can get a coverage sack while being blocked by a TE.

- On a 3rd & 17 late in the blowout (2:26 4Q), Dickie carried the ball up LG. Big LaMarr was left UNBLOCKED on the play, and he jogged over and made a slop stop after a 5-yard gain.

That was it from Big LaMarr. He loafed and lollygagged the entire game, none more than on the Rice cutback run at 7:04 2Q, where he just gave up on the play and allowed Rice a hefty 9-yard gain.

Apparently, this is all ya get for $61M. Lesson learned -- ya can’t polish a turd, no matter how much money you might lavish him with. See Gildon, Jason.

A shit-laden, sorry effort all around from this crew. Harrison: C+ Farrior/Foote: D Timmons: B- Woodley: F+ Worilds: Inc

[Geor!]

DB: The secondary picked up where it left off in the Sup Bowl...getting picked on like the smallish dweeb on the school playground.

Fadden got abused quite early, giving up a 27-yard TD on a deep lob to the EZ. The coverage actually wasn’t bad, but true to the nature of EVERY player in this unit, he played the ball poorly, with no timing, no anticipation, no high-pointing, and no attempt to simply BUST UP the pass.

Ryan Clark, as sorry a starting FS as exists in the NFL, had his typical woeful day. On the game 1st play, he came up with a clear, EASY shot at Rice to limit the gain to about 6 yards. Clark, who is always so full of bravado and tough-guy talk, and loves to hit totally defenseless receivers, did nothing more than meekly paw at Rice, getting shrugged off like a toddler. Just like that, Rice was off to the races for a 36-yard scamper. Raven TEs and receivers roamed as free and wild as a lion in the Sahara prairies, with Clark doing absolutely nothing. As noted above, Clark offered no help to Timmons whatsoever on the Rice TD reception.

Troy Pola, who just signed a 3-year, $30M extension yesterday, did next to nothing the entire game. Presumably 100% healthy, he was a complete non-factor. He did little in run support and less in defending the pass. The worst was his weak-assed, half-assed coverage of Dickson early in the 3Q, resulting in an 18-yard TD pass. Pola never gained ground, and the only thing he did was an ass-awkward tumble after Dickson hauled in the TD. Why a brittle player like Pola is doing meaningless, awkward tumbles after a TD catch is beyond me. Pola was also correctly flagged for a blatant horsecollar tackle in the 3Q.

Ike Taylor, coming off the broken finger, led the way with the best coverage of all of these slackards. Tasked to cover Lee Evans, Ike did just that, holding Evans to zero catches. Among all 11 starters, Ike far and away performed the best. On the down side, he was flagged for an unsp. conduct in the 3Q, and late in the game during garbage time, he had the gaul to preen after a rare 3D stop. Very sophomoric.

Gay and Mundy saw PT, and neither did dick. Overall, the secondary was poor, but the front 7 applied no pressure and got gouged badly in the running game. Ike: A- Rest: C-

Spec teams: Oddly enough, no coverage disasters, shanked punts, or botched FGs.

There were some smaller boners. Sanders, the dumbass, was offsides on the opening KO. Gay was in good position to down a pooch punt in the 1Q inside the 2, but lazily failed to look for the ball, and it rolled into the EZ just a few scant yards from where he was camped out. Piss poor. The worst blunder was the PAT after the 3Q TD, in which the holder (Koch, a punter) simply kept the ball and jogged up LG through a hole large enough to accommodate 3 Casey Hamptons, thereby scoring 2 points. We can only imagine why the ill-prepared Tomlin team allowed just an easy, gargantuan fissure on a PAT.

Sepul had a booming 57-yard punt, and some other solid punts as well. Brown had a nice KO return, from 8 yards deep in the EZ, for 41 yards. C+

OC: Arians quickly reverted to the Grab Bag Offense, which established nothing, set up noting, and never once put the Ravens on their heels or off balance. The offense was really nothing more than Ben ad-libbing amidst a Chinese fire drill.

True to his nature, Arians’ indecisiveness forced a TO at 11:18 2Q, deep in Balt territory. After the TO, what did Arians call on 1st & G at the 7? Why, a whaleshit draw play.....which was engulfed for a 4-yard loss. Brilliant !!

Also true to his nature, Arians once again continued his rabid use of Miller as a pass blocker. I counted 6 plays where this occurred, and there could have been a few more (but disinterest will probably preclude me from checking):

1. 1st series of game, 3d & 6. Inc pass.

2. 1:48 2Q, 1st & 10. 8 yard scramble.

3. 3d & 2, 2 plays later. Inc pass to Ward, who was drilled immediately. (Imagine, passing to Miller on 3d & 2.)

4. 1st down in 3Q, long RAC by Ward.

5. 1D after penalty, 10:55 4Q. INT by Reed.

6. 4:00 4Q. Strip and fumble.

No matter how much an imbecile will defend this practice, it’s inexcusable, it’s asinine, and it’s completely dumb-assed. Added to that, the complete refusal to account for Ngata, who is the most dominant interior lineman in the entire NFL. C-

DC: Dick picked up right where he left off left off in the Super Bowl....getting SHREDDED and ravaged. The Ravens had an O-line that had NEVER played as a UNIT even one game, yet The Supreme Almighty Lord of Defensive Football was been as helpless and ossified as a French general in either World War. The Ravens simply toyed with Dick the entire 1st half, and Dick was completely hapless and helpless.

The 84-yard TD march in the 2Q, with the game very close (14-7 score) and the defense WELL rested, was the nail in the coffin and the epitome of how sorry and feeble Dick has become. The Ravens faced four (4) 3rd downs on this long march, and easily converted ALL FOUR of them, as follows:

3d & 1 - 13-yard run

3d & 6 - easy 14-yard pass

3d & 6 – mid-dump to Rice, 25-yards

3d & 6 – TD pass to Rice, 11 yards.

But remember -- LeBeau is such a “CLEVER MASTERMIND” of defensive football !! With such “diabolical schemes” and “clever disguises” !! What a complete farce.

Dick was so badly tooled and fooled, that despite facing a piece-meal OL that had never played together, the first pressure & hit his D applied on Flacco was when Harrison forced a TA at 3:36 3Q. In other words, it only took Dick 41 minutes into this game to create the first harassment on Joe Jacco.

Harassment? None. Disruption? None. Confusion created? None. Forced turnovers? None. Tempo dictated? None.

If you look at the last two quarters of the AFC Title game against the Jets; the 4 quarters of the Super Bowl; and the game today, that's 10 (ten) consecutive quarters of not just bad, but abysmal defense. That's a pattern.

LeBeau is running a flaccid, stale defense that is as easy to pick apart as a senior engineering student from MIT taking an 8th grade math class. But again, he is THE supreme lord and deity of defensive football, more omnipotent and more infallible than ANY man on the entire face of the earth. None other than Casey Hampton said it best after this blowout: "They obviously had a better game plan than we had." F-

HC: Tomlin talked all kinds of bullshit rhetoric and babble during the lead-up to this game, and then has his team no more prepared to play this game than the French were for WW-2. Tomlin’s team was badly schooled and badly out-schemed on BOTH sides of the ball, and worse, had no intensity, no tenacity, and no malice. The icing on this shit sandwich was the Raven PAT that went for 2 points, where the Ravens saw in stark simplicity how Tomlin’s PAT defense opened up like the Red Sea. That’s poor preparation at its worst.

I still cannot fathom exactly WHY Tomlin kept Ben and the starters in the game, late in the 4Q of a 28-point blowout. WHY ??? It’s 35-7, late in the game, and Tommy still has Ben in the game. Stone stupid. Ya don’t risk a needless injury with Suggs and company pinning their ears back and teeing off on every play. Further, any coach with half a brain gets the backup QB some work, because the backup is just 1 play away from becoming the starter. This was not only assaholic, but entirely irresponsible by Momlin. F.

Synopsis: A total team stink of epic proportions. This game was actually eerily similar to the opening day loss to Jax on Sep. 9, 2001.....just 2 days before the 9-11 attacks. If you remember that game (here’s the link to the post-game report of that asswhipping), the Jags manhandled the Stillers in the trenches, so much so that Tom Couglin was smirking and snickering with snide joy and glee after the beatdown. That fateful day, just like today, saw the opponent 2 steps faster and far more hungrier against a flaccid, timid Stiller team. Of course, just as in 2001, the season is not over. There are 15 games left. 7 days from now, this assbeating will be mostly forgotten, especially if the Stillers roll over the hapless Seahawks. The 2001 Stillers went on to the conference title game, and so could this team, too...so long as they extract head from buttocks with much more competent blocking schemes, coverage schemes, and simple tackling and block shedding.