Analyzing the Steelers’ Week-4 defeat at the hands of the Ravens, by the numbers

3

This is the number of first downs the Steelers made in the entire second half of the game. Conversely, the Ravens had this many first downs on three of their six second-half possessions (one of which was in victory formation). Losing the first-down battle 14-3 in the second half of a game that was tied at halftime isn’t going to get the job done.

8:29, 47 yards, and 0 points

The Steelers only possessed the ball for 8:29 in the second half, gaining only 47 yards. The longest drive of the second half was 2:42 which was six plays and 27 yards, ending with a punt.

4-1-1

This information is the result of the Steeler’ second-half drives. Four punts, one interception and one turnover on downs.

0/6

The Steelers were zero-for-six on third downs in the second half. It was a balanced 0/3 in the third quarter and 0/3 in the fourth quarter. On those plays, Ben Roethlisberger was one-for-six for minus 5 yards and one INT. Comparatively, the Ravens were four-for-10 on third down in the second half, with Joe Flacco going four-for-seven passing the ball for 55 yards. Of those four completions, three of them were enough to move the chains.

53:03

This might seem to be a strange number. It’s actually one of the rare positives from Sunday night. 53:03 is the amount of time to finish the game during which the Steelers’ defense kept the Ravens out of the end zone. After surrendering the second touchdown with 8:03 remaining in the first quarter (which was only a 31-yard drive due to a turnover), the defense was in “bend but don’t break” mode. Of the 10 drives that followed, four ended in punts, four led to field goals, one was a fumble recovery, and the other ended the game. Keep in mind the defense was on the field for 21:31 of the second half. As much as it didn’t look pretty, they managed to do that and not give up a touchdown.

26 points

With the Steelers averaging almost 30 points a game coming into Week 4, holding Baltimore to 26 points should have been enough to get the W, but it wasn’t. I’m not arguing that the defense did a great job against the Ravens, but after giving up 14 first-quarter points, they only surrendered field goals the rest of the game. The offense simply has to be able to keep pace when the defense is holding a team to 3-pointers.