3 things we learned from Steelers win against Baltimore Ravens

The Steelers offense was slow ‘out the gate’ but got it done when it mattered

The Steelers offense was ‘held in check’ through the first two-quarters of the game against the Ravens.  The offense was not able to get anything going and was held scoreless in the first half.  Had it not been for a defensive TD, the Steelers would have trailed 17-0 at the half as opposed to trailing 17-7.

The first drive of the third quarter resulted in a punt.  I don’t know about you, but I said to my 22-year old son that we needed to get points out of that drive.  As luck would have it, the defense set up the offense again after an INT.  The Steelers offense finally found the endzone after said INT.

From that point on, I think the offense realized that we could move the ball against the Ravens, albeit not on the ground.  I think when we decided to go ‘up-tempo’ and go ‘5-wide’, that was the turning point for the offense.

The fact that we were able to score 21 points on offense with essentially no running game to speak of tells me that we are not afraid to abandon the running game when it becomes clear that it is not working.  Fortunately, our passing game was efficient enough against the Ravens to get the job done.

Let’s see what we learned on defense.