I’m worried about their running game personally. They rushed 90 times in their two games, damn. I mean, clearly they’re worried about the rookie QB, but they have been very successful with the run. With our D-line hurting I hope we can keep it together. I think even with our backups though our run D is better than cleveland/cincy.

…on third and long carries when the Ravens were focused on stopping Derek Anderson (22.9 QB rating). We knew Lewis couldn’t beat us and saw what Anderson along with Winslow and Edwards did to us last year, so the Ravens’ goal was to stop them, which I think they did a pretty good job.

If the Steelers can limit the Ravens harrassment of Roethlisberger and give him time, he’ll find Ward, Holmes and Miller and put the Ravens in a hole. If they can’t protect him, then it will be a long night for Ben and the Pittsburgh faithful.

You Steeler fans post great insight and make reasonable comments, as opposed to the nasty foul-mouthed and personal attacks made by the Browns fans. Good luck (uh,…sort of)!

we couldn’t run: FWP had 42 yards on 23 carries, so 1.8 ypc. If both corners are healthy, I don’t like our matchup on offense. This game could end up 6-3 or something, depending on how well the Ravens can run with Hampton out. Honestly, I doubt Mendy will get more than 50 yards on the ground, and lord knows we won’t use him in the passing game.

You mean you want to see if Arians will remove his head from sphincter?

that with a rookie RB Arians will have an excuse to abandon the running game again. I hope I’m dead wrong, but the early success or non-success of the run game will probably tell the tale of the game and how Arians approaches it.

Good thoughts man. I think I agree about both, though I woudlnt be surprised if we wait another week before realizing we need to get someone like Paxon in there as some added muscle.

It will be more on the coaching staff to prepare the players and gameplan accordingly.
And the ravens or any team, should blitz on the steelers until the steelers show they can stop the blitz and ride it for big offensive plays.
If the steelers are able to “fix” themselves and can play the blitz, I think this could be a blowout. Now, the blitz/o-line is a huge problem, so it probablywon’t be a blowout but flacco has been mediocre and Mcclain is still an unknown. And if the game gets out of hand, it won’t matter much if it is mendy or parker eating up clock late in the game.
As the blog points out, Mendy may have difficulty picking up blitzers, which means the steelers should and probably will be focusing on what plays can abuse the blitz rather than max protecting with tightends and calling slow developing plays.
Then again, it could be a big day for Mewelde, in a westbrook/bush role to punish the ravens for being overaggressive.

but I see no evidence in the “body of work” (to borrow from our HC) that BA will do anything different this week than he has done in his time here. I will even “boldly” predict the first series

1- Inside h/o Mendenhall left – gain of 2 yds.
2- Inside h/o Mendenhall right – no gain
3- Quick pass to Ward – gain of 4 yds.
4- Punt

Series 2, 3 and 4 repeat same, just substitute Holmes, Miller and Washington for Ward on the short 3d down pass.

Now that I have put it down, I am hopeful that I am proved wrong and my pessimism is misplaced. I dont know why everyone hates the Browns so much. They are not worth the effort. The truly hated rival for me is the ravens. I wont devolve into personal or city wide attacks, but I REALLY WANT US TO PROVE ME WRONG!!!!

GO STEELERS!!! DAMN IT!

Baltimore’s defense is definitely NOT past its prime. Yeah, Ray Lewis is older and perhaps not the force he was in his younger days, but I still can’t think of ANY other MLB I’d rather have leading my defense. the rest of the team is a great mix of young guys and vets. When healthy, and we definitely are compared to last year’s embarassing loss to you, we are still the dominant defense in the NFL.

I’m pretty worried about stopping the run with our injuries. Thankfully we still have A. Smith in there. If we can’t stop the run there is no need for flacco to throw, and there will be limited time to expose him. Someone can correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe that stopping the run is pretty simple schematically, but the boys need to get the job done. We utilize our safeties and CBs to great effect there, but it starts with the line tangling the O-line and getting some touches on the RB.

good comment man. Funny and insightful. Cheers.

One thing I’ll be touching on soon enough is the topic of ‘when to peak’. Last year we peaked too early. NY Giants, of course, peaked at just the right time. Injuries, adjustments. These are all things that need to be gotten out of the way early, not in Week 12 and on.

“I mean, he’s a little older now, but I’ll bet he still has at least a 96 TAK rating, and probably good IMP and STR ratings. I’d say he’s probably about an 89 OVR”

The blame goes all around. Ben, the line, arians, tomlin, WRs, RBs. Trying to say that just because one thing changes and the other is constant that the constant is the fault is just plain silly.

Lets dive into the realm of metaphor for a minute: I’m a car that is running really great. I’m getting a bit on in years and my oil filter is getting old. I change it, but I bought it on ebay. Then I go to the dump and pick up a new oil filter, and put it in. Still nothing…

The way teams play changes every year, every day. Ben needs to work on getting rid of the ball when he has that option. He, the line, and the offense need to work on the hot routes and audibling out of trouble. Placing the blame on his shoulders is wrong though, just like placing the entire 15-1 season on his shoulders is wrong. Personally I’d prefer Ben not throw into heavy 1-1 coverage. There are other solutions instead of taking a 60% shot at completion, 30% shot at incompletion, 10% shot at interception.

Under siege I’d rather see Ben give up an INT on a quick slant attempt than on a deep ball to Asante Samuels.

Granted that play ended up kind of like a punt, and it was a heck of a play on Samuels part, but Ben will develop an appreciation for mixing in the quick hitters.

Or he’ll continue to be the quick “hittee”. With the intense physical punishment he’s been suffering you’ve got to believe no one wants to straighten this out more than Ben.

He will.

One of the most disheartening thing about sunday’s game was the way that Ben looked. He didn’t look like he was leading us anywhere. I had no confidence we’d win that game after seeing how he looked on the sidelines. At some point he gave up, not that I blame him.