Immediately following Sunday's embarrassing 30-6 loss at Houston, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin stated that changes would be made this week. After watching the game film on Monday, Tomlin came to a quick conclusion.
"Houston -- we thought (they) were more physical than us and played harder than us...and that's something that's gotta change immediately," Tomlin said in his opening statement during Tuesday's weekly press conference.
Tomlin later indicated that the Steelers would be practicing in full pads and at full speed, for at least part of the week. That's something the team wasn't able to do the last couple of weeks, due to short weeks after a Monday Night Football against Cleveland and airplane issues that resulted in a long delay in Kansas City while returning home from Las Vegas.
Thus, those changes he referred to after the dismal showing in Houston amount to changes in practice preparation, and not so much player/coach participation. The latter was what every Steelers fan had hoped to hear, but Tomlin crushed those dreams when he said that there would be no changes to the offensive coordinator position.
Therefore, we enter another week full of questions as to whether or not Matt Canada can effectively put the Steelers in the right position to win a football game. Thus far, it looks like Canada can't do that on a regular basis. If not for a pair of defensive touchdowns against Cleveland, the Steelers would be 1-3. The offense has been absolutely painful to watch, scoring just four offensive touchdowns in four games.
The running game, which the Steelers were supposedly going to lean on after having some success against some bad teams late last season, hasn't scored at all -- one of just two teams in the league (Minnesota is the other) that has yet to produce a rushing touchdown.
Things don't get any easier this week, with the division-leading Baltimore Ravens (3-1) coming to town for a key early-season showdown. I say it's a "showdown" only because mathematically, the Steelers would move into a tie for first place in the AFC North with a victory.
However, this game doesn't look like a showdown…it looks like a “beatdown” on paper.
The Ravens again have proven to be one of the best defenses in the NFL, ranking third in the league in total points allowed (58) and total yards allowed (1043). Baltimore is also tied with Cleveland for first in yards allowed per play (3.8), and leads the league after allowing just three offensive touchdowns in four games.
With an offense like this, going against a defense like that, the Steelers had better change more than the physicality of their practices. We’ll see if that happens, but with that in mind, here are three things you need to know about Pittsburgh's Week 5 matchup: