REARVIEW MIRROR

BALTIMORE RAVENS 23, PITTSBURGH STEELERS 20

November 6, 2011

Second chances.  This game was littered with them.

And in the last seconds the Baltimore Ravens capitalized on one final chance, as Torrey Smith hauled in a 26-yard touchdown from Joe Flacco to cap off a 92-yard, two-minute drill and finally pull away from their Pittsburgh Steelers with a 23-20 win.

It redeemed Smith, who struggled to hold on to Flacco passes throughout the game, including a would-be winning touchdown catch five plays earlier. 

For Flacco, it was a second to show he could go into Pittsburgh and calmly and quickly guide his offense the length of the field for a come-from-behind win. He had done it in the fourth game of last season, hitting TJ Houshmandzadeh on a touchdown strike after the Steelers had appeared to have secured a home win and a commanding AFC North lead. And now he’s done it again in Pittsburgh this time with Ben Roethlisberger at the helm.

For the Ravens, it was a second chance this season to beat their division rivals and preserve a clear path to a much-needed home field advantage in the AFC Playoffs.

Capitalizing on these second chances, Flacco forced detractors to rethink how they see the fourth-year quarterback. 

But it was also a chance for the Ravens offensive line—finally intact again with the much-missed Ben Grubbs back in the lineup at left guard—to regain their form and protect Flacco as well as they had in their initial victory against the relentless Steelers defense. Mission accomplished.

In the broadest sense, this victory showed that the resilient Ravens could shake-off missed opportunities and still fight back for the win. 

And the missed chances were numerous, starting with a 76-yard Ray Rice touchdown run on the first snap of the game that was nullified by a questionable Torrey Smith holding call.  Or on the same drive, driving down to the one-yard line after a William Gay interference penalty and only coming away with a field goal. 

Or consider a missed 40-yard field goal by Billy Cundiff midway through the first quarter, vindicated later when he connected on a more difficult 51 yard attempt as time expired in the first half. The field goal was only the fourth 50+ yard conversion in the history of Heinz Field.

It was an all field-goal first half, with the Ravens on top 9-6, but the Ravens looked like the better team. But they squandered chances to stretch the lead out even further, and sure enough, even after scoring first in the second half to take a 16-6 lead, you could sense it was far from over.

Second chances abounded for the Steelers in the fourth quarter, as play-after play Ben Roethlisberger slipped away from pressure to connect on long strikes down the middle of the field.  Roethlisberger was able to use his eyes to steer Ravens safeties and linebackers to one side of the field only to look back to a second receiver isolated on the other.  And even then, he was getting second-chance completions on tipped passes that fell into his receivers’ arms.

But down the stretch it was Flacco who engineered the game winning comeback.  It started with a one-minute drive at the end of the first half to put his team in position to kick the field goal that ultimately served as the margin of victory.  And it was Flacco who again was the difference maker when given a second chance to lead a two-minute drive at the end of a dramatic game befitting the Steelers-Ravens rivalry.

Quarterback: A

When Flacco was pin-balled around in the pocket in the fourth quarter and allowed the ball to be slapped from his hands for the third game in a row, it looked like it might be the decisive momentum-shifting play that had characterized so many heartbreaking losses to the Steelers in the past.  That James Harrison sack and forced fumble led to a Steelers touchdown and 20-16 lead.   But credit Flacco with superbly calm nerves in engineering the comeback.  Overall he was 28 of 47 for 300 yards and the game winning touchdown – edging Roethlisberger in passer rating 85 to 82.  Despite numerous drops by receivers to set up numerous third and long situations, Flacco was steely good in converting on two-thirds of his 21 third-down attempts.  That was a clear difference maker in the game.  He moved well in the pocket, but did struggle with accuracy early in the game on long throws.

Running Backs: C

Ray Rice and Vonta Leach struggled to pick up the blitz, particularly Rice on James Harrison.  After having his 76-yard opening run reversed by penalty, Rice managed just 2.3 yards per carry on 18 attempts.  Ricky Williams saw a lot of early action, and although he only average 2.7 yards per carry he looked sharper than Rice as a downhill runner. 

Rice did get in for an important four-yard TD run off left tackle to grab a 16-6 lead after the Ravens had earlier stalled in the red zone.  Rice was moderately successful as a pass catcher, grabbing five of the seven balls directed to him for 43 yards.  His most important catch was a 14 yard completion over the middle, diving to get ever bit of the yardage Cundiff would need to make his 51 yarder.  Leach set the tone with a five-yard catch where he ran over hard-hitting safety Ryan Clark.

Wide Receivers: C+

In the end, Torrey Smith caught the game winner and that’s all that should matter. Without that catch he’s easily the game’s goat after not only dropping a TD five plays earlier, but also a few earlier attempts, including a hard slant and an out-pattern where he allowed the ball to get to his pads.  And let’s not forget the holding call on Rice’s game opening 76 yard TD scamper. On the night Smith did manage to snare five of nine balls for 71 yards. He didn’t do much with the ball on a couple wide receiver screens.

Fellow rookie LaQuan Williams made a couple of nice first-down catches in traffic rising above defenders to pluck the ball out of the air.

Like Smith, Anquan Boldin also committed a bad drop at the eleven with :16 left, that could have made the win easier on Flacco and the offense.   Still, Boldin led the team with 7 receptions for 88 yards.  His catch on fourth and one with sixty-six seconds left may have been second only to Smith’s touchdown as a key to the win. David Reed also saw action in the final minutes and struggled to get off of press coverage.

Tight Ends: B

Dennis Pitta was Flacco’s go-to receiver through much of the game, getting two early grabs and then consistently converting on third downs, making the most of his five catches.  His blocking was also improved.  Ed Dickson had a more quiet evening, but made two important late catches, including a nice diving catch running away from the defender and a sideline grab with :42 left to keep the drive alive.

Tackles: B

As he was in game one against the Steelers, Bryant McKinnnie was a solid performer.   And Michael Oher was vastly better anchoring the right side than in any other game this year.   It helped Oher that he was facing Worilds, and not Woodley.  Although the Steelers managed three sacks, the tackles were solid, and the sacks were of the coverage variety, or outmanned running backs.  While the running game was not a strong point, the tackles were effective in a couple of key instances. That includes McKinney controlling the left side on Rice’s TD run and Michael Oher on a couple of Ricky Williams runs to the right.

Interior Line:  B-

On the goal line, this unit was not burly enough to beat the Steelers interior defense.  Matt Birk could not stop Casey Hampton in running situations, but was solid enough in pass protection.  The return of Ben Grubbs made the line appear much more cohesive. Grubbs did get flagged with false start at the end of the first half that nearly prevented the go-ahead field goal.  Marshall Yanda was solid, and looked quick on his feet when asked to pull to the left.

Cornerbacks:  B-

Despite completions threaded just beyond his reach, Cary Williams was good in coverage. Even when Mike Wallace got a step on him, Williams was able to get a hand in to force incompletions.  He did bite badly on a rollout to the opposite side of the field, leaving Antonio Brown open down the left side for a long completion. Most of the completions however were due to Roethlisberger extending plays with his feet and allowing receivers to break open. 

Lardarius Webb did struggle some running with the speedy Antonio Brown and it forced him to yield a lot of cushion.  Webb excelled in coming up in run support.  Chris Carr was also excellent in run support from the nickel spot. 

Safeties:  C

A lot of the Steelers success in the passing game came between the hashes.  Ed Reed and Bernard Pollard were too often baited into leaving their spots when Roethlisberger looked them off only to come back to their area of the field.  It was most obvious when Heath Miller grabbed a 25-yard catch in the spot vacated by Reed.   Pollard made a nice leaping play on a ball but could not come down with the catch.  He also failed to tackle Miller to allow yards after the catch.  Although he led the team with 7 tackles, several came after the catch.

Linebackers:  C+

Ray Lewis and Jameel McClain were also victimized by play fakes and failed to drop into coverage far or fast enough.  McClain nearly got his second pick of the year, but tipped the ball into Jerricho Cotchery’s hands instead.  He was delivering heavy hits on Mendenhall in the hole, and got a big hit on Brown over the middle to force a drop.  Jarret Johnson and Brendan Ayanbadejo were both very good in coverage taking away the short flat.  When Ayanbadejo left after getting dinged, seldom used Albert McClellan was very serviceable in his place.

Defensive Line:  C+

While this unit stopped the run, and got a number of hits on Roethlisberger, they seemed a step too slow, and could not get any penetration up the middle against the pass. It allowed Roethlisberger too much time to step up and connect on throws as the game wore on. Paul Kruger got another sack, sharing it with Pernell McPhee.  Terrell Suggs had a quiet game, but also made the defensive play of the game when he diagnosed a wide receiver screen and stepped out for a pick. While he fell down trying to return the interception, it was a key turnover that halted a Steelers drive.   Cory Redding, Haloti Ngata, Terrence Cody and Brandon McKinney were all very effective against the run, holding Mendenhall to 52 yards.

Special Teams:  A-

Billy Cundiff’s three field goals in the first half were a real key to the win, despite missing a fourth.  Not many kickers have come into the treacherous Heinz Field to connect from 50+ yards out.   He also booted four of five keeps deep enough to yield touchbacks.

David Reed really picked up his energy on his four kick returns, running north-south again, and it helped give the Ravens excellent field position.  Although Reed, in fighting for extra yards, allowed McFadden to get his helmet on the ball and pop it out, which Leach recovered.  Jimmy Smith and Ayanbadejo were both very good in limited kick coverage situations for the Ravens.  The unit allowed Antonio Brown just 21 yards on two punt returns and 25 on his lone kick return.

Coaching: B-

Defensive coordinator Chuck Pagano respected the speed of the Pittsburgh receivers and played a more conservative off coverage. It meant getting less exotic pressure on the quarterback and it nearly backfired.  While offensive coordinator Cam Cameron stuck to a heavy rotation of play action, he did allow Joe Flacco to drop into the shotgun in key situations and it paid dividends. We also saw honest to goodness check-outs by Flacco at the line of scrimmage.   Flacco matured and Cameron allowed him to by ceding some much-needed control of the play calling.

Officiating: D

Walt Coleman’s crew had a rough, inconsistent night. It started on the opening snap that reversed Rice’s 76 yard run on a holding call against Torrey Smith that was undetectable no matter how many times it was replayed.   If that gets called, then why not a more obvious hold by Mike Wallace grabbing Lardarius Webb’s jersey between the 2 and the 1, which Webb slipped to tackle Mendenhall for a loss?

There was a quick whistle on Ray Rice on the goal line, where they indicated his forward progress was stopped. Perhaps that was the right call, but then why is Mendenhall stopped and then allowed to roll over the top of the pile for three more yards and the first down?