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Steelers Fall to Ravens: Blame Game On

Sorry in advance for the F-Bombs.....that kinda day....

Steelers Fall to Ravens: Blame Game On

I'll be the first to point fingers. What about this? Today's Ravens-Steelers game was the first since Christmas Eve '07 where Santonio Holmes didn't find the end zone. That's right; Tone had scored in seven straight contests against the Baltimoreans prior to this afternoon. What's that, you say? Holmes in longer on the team. Holmes, even if not dealt to the Jets for a box of trinkets would not have played, still out on a weed suspension. While true, today's game pointed out a couple of things:

*Steelers are going to miss Santonio going forward. I'm not sure if Mike Wallace has a complete enough package to replace Santonio as an every down player. I'm positive, despite a couple of nice grabs by Antwaan Randle El that there's nobody on the roster that can replace Wallace as the #3 wide.

*Steelers may well have won this affair had Ben Roethlisberger been under center. Cholly Batch had his moments, but he also had times of getting knocked on his ass, being indecisive and simply throwing bad balls.

Now, who's to blame for both the Santonio and Ben predicaments? I mean, besides the two of them. Art II; that's who. That's right; the owner's kid, the Chief's grandson, who stuck his finger to the wind this spring, listened to the Shadyside bistro crowd, jettisoned Santonio, and urged his lackey Roger Goodell to suspend our quarterback. This game, against the Steelers #1 divisional foe, is on Art II's hands.

Their was plenty of blame distributed though around 4pm this afternoon. Here's the usual suspects:

Jeff Reed: Here's a philosophical question to ponder on Skippy though, of the order of "If a tree falls in the forest an no one hears it..." variety. If a kicker's in the doghouse and gets extracted, can he re-enter the doghouse without fuckin' up again? 'Cause that's what happened today. Once Mendy scored to thrust the Steelers in front by a 14-10 margin with half a quarter to play, Reed was absolved. He did follow up with a weak kickoff, but the Ravens didn't score on that one.

On the day, Reed did miss two field goals, and while I can no longer say categorically that Jeff Reed is money....unless we're dealing in confederate currency, there are some mitigating factors to consider. Neither the 49 or the 45-yarder into the open end of Heinz were gimmes. The first miss can be attributed to the debacle of a 3rd down sack, moving the Steelers from solidly within Reed's range to perilously close to the edge of his leg's capacity. Skippy grazed the upright with that one. Sans the sack, the kick would have been good. In a game like this, with points at a premium, never ever ever cede field goal range once you're there.

Reed's second miss was very disappointing, but the wind was solidly in his face, and he had to contend with a high snap as well.

The other aspect of the anti-Skippy brigade that I can't comprehend is the vitriol sent his way simply 'cause he bitched about his contract this summer. So what? Why do we care if Skippy pisses and moans? To me, the only thing I care about is if the fucker splits the uprights. It makes me no more upset that he's a whiner to boot (no pun intended).

Bruce Arians: Christ, Arians gets plenty of blame when the Steelers win; there's no way he escapes the firing line in a losing effort. I can understand the daggers sent his way over the run, run pass routine on two consecutive series following Ravens 2nd half turnovers, both ending in the Reed misses. But, the greatest ire was reserved for the three consecutive runs following the Steelers taking over on downs at their own 3-yard line, with two-plus minutes remaining. First, and this came up during the Tennessee game as well, the issue here is strategy, not play selection. Head Coach Mike Tomlin was certainly behind the decision to run on all three plays, thus burning time off of the clock. And if he wasn't, something is seriously wrong with the management of this football team. Lemme ask you this? Given the way the season's progressed, are we more comfortable with the game being in the hands of the ferocious Pittsburgh Steelers defense, or those of the 35-year-old, 4th string quarterback. What about the progress of this game indicated that the Steelers would have picked up a first down from that spot had they put the ball in the air. Nope, the Ravens would have likely taken over at the same spot on the field, but with about 35 additional seconds in which to score.

Nope, this defense, needing to keep Baltimore out of the endzone from midfield (prior to the penalty) with 1:08 remaining and the Ravens with no timeouts. I'll take that.

Sadly, the defense couldn't come up with one more stop, and allowed an opposing touchdown in the final couple of minutes for the 3rd consecutive week. This one cost a ballgame.

Dick LeBeau: The Hall-of-Famer may be the most reasonable culprit, sending pressure, ceding both the sidelines and the deep middle on the Ravens final possession, allowing the ShoeBomber to catch the winning touchdown in an area generally patrolled by Troy Polamalu.

Charlie Batch: Charlie did kinda suck, but he did put a couple touchdowns on the board, and he is our 4th QB. Steelers ran a whole 19 offensive plays in the first half. I'm not gonna blame Charlie, but Charlie's one of the reasons why I will not put the responsibility for this loss on Bruce Arians.

Moving forward....I have a few thoughts on our Steelers standing at 3-1, a record that we would have certainly taken had it been offered a month ago. Right now though....

*Bye week sucks (more on that later this week)

*Losing going into the bye week really sucks.

*Losing to our prime divisional opponent entering the bye weeks sucks supremely

*Losing to our prime divisional opponent entering the bye week in the last fuckin' minute is excruciating.

No need to explain how big a win would've been in this spot. Steelers would've had a two-game lead and control of tiebreakers. Now, Steelers are tied and are down in the tiebreakers. It's like two losses, maybe even three.

Ben's back next game.




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