Steelers Cut Down At Home In Playoff Loss
When the Steelers take on the Ravens, it’s always an “interesting” game. It’s four quarters of unexpected and unconventional football. There’s a weird voodoo that exists. The Wild Card game Sunday night was no different.
You can dump all the Bell excuses onto the table all you want. You’re damn right that Bell’s absence backed this team into a corner. But, good teams… playoff winning teams respond and overcome those kinds of setbacks.
The funny thing is – the Steelers offense gained more yards with their RB by committee than Bell did against the Ravens when they hung 43 points on them. The running backs were doing their job, they really were.
The key, like it has been all season long, is that the offense couldn’t put significant points on the board early, the defense allowed the opposition to do just that, and the team was unable to recover. That’s been the narrative this season, all season long. Three first half trips inside the 30, three Shaun Suisham field goals.
The undisciplined team that reared its head several times this season – most notably against the Jets, Bucs, etc. – returned and was in full effect.
With Bell out, the majority of Steeler Nation felt that the team would lean on Ben Roethlisberger to win this game. That wasn’t going to be the case. It’s confusing to think that the game plan did not shift even though one of their biggest playmakers this season was out and nary a backup could fill his shoes.
The game started through the first quarter eerily familiar. The offense moved the ball slowly down the field, eating up minutes and taking hold of that time of possession stat, yet failed to take shots down the field and put pressure on the Ravens secondary. It was like Week 2 all over again when these two teams met for the first time in the season (minus the turnovers until the second half).
Then it happened. The offensive line went back to their old ways on pass blocking. Have to give credit to Ravens defensive coordinator Dean Pees. He created formations and looks on the field that confused the offensive line and left defenders untouched and pouncing on Big Ben. I imagined Todd Haley as Coach Klein from the Waterboy sobbing over his pathetic playbook as it all unfolded and he could not come up with answer. Marcus Gilbert probably would have joined him.
And how about that resurging defense? The last thing they needed was a slow start out of the gate and allow for significant movement of the football by the Ravens offense. Questionable penalties and a slow start in stopping the rush put the Steelers in a hole that they would never recover from. They couldn’t recover from a reeling Ravens offense that has been terrible the last month and barely scored enough to make it into the playoffs.
Yes, the penalties were just huge in this game – the called and the no calls. The penalty differential on the night was 114 yards against the Steelers to 14 against the Ravens. The ol’ “Flacco Chuck & Duck” – when Flacco just chucks up a deep pass and hopes for some type of penalty – was also in full effect and burned the Steelers several times throughout the evening.
The undisciplined team that reared its head several times this season – most notably against the Jets, Bucs, etc. – returned and was in full effect. I thought we put that monster to bed. I could be overheard several times in my living room yelling, “What were you guys doing all week to prepare for this game?!” Good question, right?
Especially when the Ravens hand the Steelers a 1st and Goal from the 9 and they move backwards, settling for a field goal… again.
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It’s a bitter soup this Steelers squad of 2014 has concocted. A heap of poor red zone efficiency mixed with big helpings of a porous secondary and poor pass rush doomed this team on Sunday. The most frustrating part is the solutions to these problems are complicated (or are they?) and fixing one won’t necessarily get this team “one more win.”
We so badly wanted a magical evening. Something to shake off the demons from the Steelers last playoff appearance (Tebow sound familiar?) and the last two 8-8 seasons that followed.
We all wanted to see Troy Polamalu dig deep and pull that rabbit one more time out of that hat in the form of a Flacco strip sack or interception.
We all wanted to see James Harrison put Flacco’s head on a pike and plant it at the 50 yard line.
We all wanted to see Josh Harris break one down the sidelines for a big gain or a TD.
We all wanted to see Ben and Antonio Brown hook up for a few end zone catches.
All the things they did right and went their way since Atlanta and got them the AFC North division – gone. Passes that were masterfully caught by AB in almost impossible ways were now just pushed out of bounds for incompletes. Passes that were intercepted by a hot handed Brice McCain would be dropped on the way down at one of the most pivotal points in the game.
That 11-5 team sure looked like the 8-8 teams from the last two seasons. What happened?
The players didn’t make the plays when they should have. The coaches didn’t prepare this team enough and draw up aggressive enough game plans that attacked the Ravens weaknesses on offense and defense. It was bizarre and really made me think that Haley (and DLB for that matter) caved. Just flat out caved when the chess pieces were rearranged after having losing their knight.
So where to from here? We’ll break all that down over the course of the entire off season. But, I will say this..
The problems you have in the regular season will always come back to haunt you in the postseason. Amen.
Time to just lick the wounds and hope the Lions win it all…
Other game notes:
– Troy Polamalu probably received his last start as a Steeler. He very well might not be back. I have nothing but admiration for that man – both the player and the man under the helmet. Truly a legend and first balloter. Time to move on and let Shmarko Thomas take over.
– Run defense improved, but second Ravens drive hurt – gashing by Forsett, 32 of Ravens 80 yards. He gained only four yards on the ground after that.
– Ravens hand Steelers a first & goal from 9 on back to back penalties and they go backwards, settle for FG.
– Shaun Suisham’s string of consecutive field goals from 40-49 is well into the 40s now. Pretty incredible. He had two of those on the night.