The inaugural Harbaugh Bowl is in the books as the San Francisco 49ers lost 16-6 to the Baltimore Ravens in the third and final Thanksgiving game Thursday night in Baltimore. Because of the loss by the 49ers, the Steelers can't gain any ground in the AFC North Sunday night against the Kansas City Chiefs, and must win just to stay a game out of first. The Ravens moved to 8-3 on the season with the win and own the head-to-head tiebreakers over the Steelers because of their season sweep. The Ravens tied a franchise record with nine sacks of 49ers quarterback Alex Smith Thursday night and held Read more [...]

It was announced earlier today that Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco was fined $7,500 for his horse-collar tackle of Seahawks linebacker David Hawthorne in the third quarter of the Ravens 22-17 loss to Seattle last Sunday. The tackle happened after Flacco threw a pass that ended up being intercepted by Hawthorne. While I am glad to see Flacco was fined, it is curious as to why he was fined half what Steelers safety Troy Polamalu was fined for his horse-collar tackle on Ravens running back Ricky Williams back in week 1. Polamalu was fined $15,000 for his tackle. The minimum for such fine is $15,000 Read more [...]

The Steelers are still stinging from their Sunday night loss in the finals seconds to the Ravens, but must regroup quickly for another division game on the road against the AFC North leading Cincinnati Bengals. This is a must game if the Steelers still want to have any shot at winning the division as a loss would make them 0-3 in division play. The Bengals are the surprise team in the division and should not be faulted for playing an easy schedule to start the season. As I do each and every week, here are my 7 things to watch for this week against the Bengals as the Steelers look to move to Read more [...]

Below are the Steelers coverage stats for the week 9 Sunday night game against the Baltimore Ravens. They are broken down by play and include down and distance, line of scrimmage, direction, yards gained, yards after catch, personnel the offense used, defensive package, number of pass rushers and whether or not the defense blitzed on the play. The thing that is not reflected in the stats, that I will likely start including going forward, is the amount of drops by the wide receivers as Torrey Smith dropped 4 balls and Anquan Boldin dropped 2. Also both William Gay and Ike Taylor each had accepted Read more [...]

ESPN NFL Insider Adam Schefter reported tonight during halftime of the Eagles Bears Monday night football game that Steelers linebacker James Harrison will likely join teammate Ryan Clark and Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis as players that might be fined for hits during the Steelers Ravens Sunday night game. I detailed the hits by both Clark and Lewis last night, but it was not until tonight that I decided to go back and look at the tape again to see the hit that Schefter was referencing in his report. The hit in question happened with 8:36 left in the third quarter after Ravens running back Ray Read more [...]

In my 7 things to watch article this past Saturday I noted that the Steelers would be best served to keep Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco in as many 3rd down and long situations as possible, preferably 3rd and 6 or more based on the numbers he has put up this year. Entering the game last night, Flacco had just a 43.1% completion ratio on 3rd downs this season and an even lower 40.0% completion ratio on 3rd down and 6 or more. As it turned out last night, Flacco was put in 3rd and 6 or more 10 times and he completed 8 of 10 passes with all 8 completions producing first downs. The last completion Read more [...]

As I do every week, here are more of my observations from the Steelers loss to the Baltimore Ravens last night after going back through the game now. I will have much, more content from this game later on today. I mentioned it before and certainly understand the reasoning why Mike Tomlin defers when he wins the toss, but I still do not like it. It is not like the defense needs a boost of confidence. I would rather see the offense get lathered up first to start the game. The game looked like it was going to get off to a similar start as week 1, only worse, as Ray Rice went 76 yards for a touchdown. Read more [...]

The Steelers suffered a regular season sweep to the Baltimore Ravens Sunday night at Heinz Field as quarterback Joe Flacco hit wide receiver Torrey Smith in the deep right corner of the endzone for a game winning 26-yard touchdown with 8 seconds left in the game to give the Ravens a 23-20 win. Smith got behind cornerback William Gay for the touchdown and Ryan Clark was late getting over to provide help. The Steelers took a 20-16 lead with just under 5 minutes left in the game as quarterback Ben Roethlisberger scrambled and hit Mike Wallace for a 25-yard touchdown on 3rd down. The Steelers defense Read more [...]

Here we go again! Steelers Ravens re-match and I do not think this game will let down the prime-time viewership. The Ravens really took it to the Steelers back in week as they ran away with a 35-7 win. The Steelers did not help their own cause in the game by turning the ball over 7 times. So many things have changed since week 1 as the defensive line has a different starter and the offensive line has 3 different pieces. The Steelers have key linebacker injuries, but also get back a few linebackers that have been out a while. Should the Steelers win this game, it will give them a firm 1 game lead Read more [...]

Season 2, Episode 39 of The Terrible Podcast is up and with David Todd caught in travel, I am joined by Steelers beat writers Dejan Kovacevic and Mark Kaboly from the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review to talk Steelers Ravens 2. In my first interview with Dejan we go over the Friday injury and report and focus the first part on the defensive side of the ball and what the Steelers may and may not do scheme wise this week against the Ravens. Dejan does not think it is a slam dunk that the Steelers use all man coverage like they did last week against the Patriots, but does think that Ike Taylor could be Read more [...]

Season 2, Episode 38 of The Terrible Podcast is up and David Todd and I jump right into the show by going over the Mike Tomlin press conference from yesterday and talk about who we think is in and out this week. We both do not have have any reason to believe LaMarr Woodley, James Farrior or James Harrison will go Sunday night, but still hope that Jason Worilds decides this is the week he returns. We discuss the Steelers defense as it relates to the injuries and talk about the options that Tomlin threw out yesterday. I also break down why rookie Chris Carter should not be an option this week unless Read more [...]

As the Steelers head into their two biggest games of the season, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is warming up at just the right time. Through the first 4 games of the season it was obvious that his accuracy was a bit off and his week 1 performance against the Ravens was one to forget. After the week 4 loss to the Texans, Roethlisberger had an 80.2 passer rating with a 62% completion rating. He still had a very respectable yards per pass average though of 8.3, thanks to Mike Wallace, but he also had thrown 5 interceptions compared to just 3 touchdown passes. He was pretty banged up as we all know Read more [...]

Don't look now but the Steelers are on top of the AFC North division after the Ravens lost on the road in Jacksonville tonight 12-7 to the Jaguars. Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco had a horrible night as was 21 of 38 for 137 yards. His night included a late touchdown pass to Anquan Boldin and a final drive interception with 1:38 left in the game. The Ravens offense did not register a first down in the first half and their first one came with 5:29 left in the third quarter. The Steelers own a half game lead over both the Ravens and the Bengals as both have already had their bye weeks. The Read more [...]

Season 2, Episode 15 of The Terrible Podcast is up and David Todd and go over the 35-7 butt kicking the Steelers took at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens yesterday and explain how the Ravens were able to get it done. It is an early morning podcast, but we both agree that the Steelers pass rush was not good and that Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco was given plenty of time to hit Ray Rice and his young tight ends most of the game at will. Also Rice killed us on the ground. We take a look at the few players who were bright spots in the loss like Ike Taylor and talk about those that had bad showings. Read more [...]

I did not get too many of my observations in the game recap yesterday as I wanted to go back through the game a few times to pick it apart more. I watched it again a few times last night while doing some charting and here are a few notable observations and not many of them are earth shattering as to what my eyes saw live. The pass rush on the edge was just not there and the Ravens did a great job picking up the blitz with all everything fullback Vonta Leach and the young Ravens tight ends also blocked much better than I thought they would have. You can not give any quarterback that much time Read more [...]