On Saturday night, the Baltimore Ravens came into Pittsburgh and stepped onto Heinz Field and dominated the Pittsburgh Steelers. The statistics at a quick glance would not point to dominance but when you peel the numbers back and watch as the game unfolded, the dominance was written in stone.
Here are the stats from the teams and key players:
Total Offense: Steelers – 387 yards – Ravens – 295 yards
Joe Flacco of the Ravens was 18 of 29 (62%) for 259 yards. He had 2 TDs and 0 INTs and a QB Rating of 114
Ben Roethlisberger of the Steelers was 31 of 45 for 334 yards. He had 1 TD and 2INTs with a QB rating of 79
Flacco was the winner of the QB competition on Saturday.
After the game, Flacco also had a statement that could be screamed from the mountaintop:
You have to play these games to win. You can’t play not to lose. You have to go out there and let everything go. These games are all extra. You can’t worry about the outcome. Play aggressive football. Don’t have a conscience.”
The Steelers, on the other hand, played passively. Many individuals were pointing to the injury of Le’Veon Bell. However, they came in with a very conservative play calling scheme that has become extremely predictable. Their game consisted of short passes all night long, refusing to go deep to open the field up. They lived in fear that the Ravens might try to shut down Antonio Brown, so decided to almost entirely stay away from him. In the first three quarters, Brown only had four touches. With the Steelers being behind and trying to play catch up; they finally became aggressive and threw the ball long, leaving Brown to finish with nine catches for 114 yards, including a beautiful 44-yard bomb.
For their running attack, they had SIX individuals running the ball for 19 times for a total of 68 yards (3.6 yards a carry). their leading carrier in attempts and yards was Josh Harris with 9 rushes for 25 yards.
The other component of the game that Pittsburgh got their butts handed to them was in the secondary. Between age, injuries, and lack of mental focus, they got torched.
How about coaching? John Harbaugh and the Ravens coaches outsmarted and outcoached Mike Tomlin and the Steeler coaches all night long. Tomlin’s playoff win percentage has dipped.
Mike Tomlin on the Bottom
Coach Tomlin was a coach that was once feared. Over the years, the Steelers have not made it to the playoffs and when they have reached the playoffs, they have not enjoyed much success. When you compare Tomlin to the other coaches in the league that have winning (yes, he does have a winning) records, he is on the bottom.
The Steelers will need to regroup. They will have multiple players who should be retiring, many more who may be shown the door for financial reasons, and finally, they will have to look at the coaching staff and determine if it is finally time to move into a new direction.
As mentioned earlier, a statistical look at this game would lead one to believe that it was a fairly even game, but that was far from the truth. The Steelers had to settle for field goals while the Ravens jumped out to build a lead after falling behind 3-0 early. It wasn’t until the 4th quarter that the home fans finally had a touchdown to celebrate, when rookie Martavis Bryant snagged a pass in the end zone to cut the Ravens’ lead from 20-9 to 20-15 following a failed 2-point conversion attempt:
Lesser teams bidding for an upset might have crumbled in the face of the attempted Steelers rally, but it can be easy to forget that this is a Ravens team that is not far removed from having won a Super Bowl. They responded with a Justin Tucker field goal to push the lead to 8, and following a Roethlisberger interception, Flacco threw a 21-yard TD pass to tight end Crockett Gilmore to seal the win.
Game, set, and match Harbaugh and the Ravens, who now move on to face New England to renew their recent playoff rivalry.
(Feature image: Geoff Burke/USA TODAY Sports)