Ravens win at Pittsburgh; The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

On the verge of falling two games behind the Steelers within the division, the Baltimore Ravens scored the decisive touchdown with under one-minute remaining in Pittsburgh.

The importance of the win can not be understated. Pittsburgh had started their season at 3-0 without Roethlisberger, and will be getting him back for their next-game. If the Steelers had won today, the Ravens would have suffered their second road-loss within the division. With the win, the Ravens grab that important head-to-head victory, and will put Pittsburgh into a position where they are forced to win in here in Baltimore.

The Good:

1) When the Ravens turned the ball back over to Pittsburgh with 2:40 left on the clock, it did not look good. Baltimore had spent an unnecessary time-out prior to their 4th down, and you wondered if the Ravens would get the ball back in-time to mount one last rally. The Steelers aided Baltimore with a couple of penalties, but Flacco and the Ravens deserve credit for punching the ball into the end-zone.

1a) As Mark Clayton was piling up another good afternoon for St. Louis, I was becoming further frustrated by the lack of production from Houshmandzadeh. Houshmandzadeh showed-up when needed during that last-drive, and ran a perfect route on the Pittsburgh defender for the Touchdown. You had to feel good for Houshmandzadeh that his first real contributions helped give the Ravens a crucial victory.

2) Most of Mason’s production came on the opening drive, but he still finished with his best game of the 2010 season.

3) Flacco completed passes to 7 different receivers for 256 yards.

3a) Flacco had people in his face quite often today, but was only sacked once. Flacco gets credit for getting rid of the ball, and the offensive-line gets credit for dealing with the crowd noise and edge rushers of Pittsburgh.

4) Heap, and McClain both made several nice blocks today giving Flacco some additional time to throw.

5) With Rice being used as little more than a decoy, McGahee was the focal-point at RB prior to his concussion. While limited to 2.8 yards per carry, his 14 attempts helped keep the Pittsburgh defense honest.

6) Lardarius Webb made several nice plays in the second-half, including eliminating a completion to Mike Wallace in the end-zone.

7) I think Brandon McKinney made a positive difference on the line. He helped control the middle of the Steelers offensive-line, and helped team with Ngata to limit Mendenhall to 79 yards rushing.

8) Suggs brought pressure today, and had big-time sack on Batch in the 3rd Quarter. The sack, and 7 yard loss, occurred on 3rd down and Pittsburgh’s Jeff Reed missed a 49 yard-attempt on 4th down. That was crucial.

9) Ngata was probably the best player on the field.

The Bad:

1) I was happy that Kruger got action today, and on Ngata’s sack provided some pressure. His penalty on Special Teams took away field-position.

2) While he was active for his first NFL game, I did not notice any contribution from Terrence Cody today.

3) Some-times you have to tip your cap to the opposition, but the 93 yard, 7 minute drive from the Steelers was hard to watch. After holding Pittsburgh to basically nothing all day, the Ravens suddenly were unable to stop the Steelers ground-game. I guess this is nit-picking really, since Baltimore limited Pittsburgh to just 210 yards overall.

4) As shown by Reed later in the game, many Kickers have trouble converting FG’s to the open end-zone in Heinz Field. Still, did anyone have confidence in Cundiff when he lined-up to attempt that 46 yarder in the 1st-Quarter?

5) Chris Carr is playing well at CB, but I was surprised by the decision to deactivate Josh Wilson. At the minimum Wilson can help this team as a Kick Returner.

The Ugly:

None. The Ravens could have easily lost today, and the reaction around town would have been that the sky was falling. Obviously not having Roethlisberger available was limiting to the Pittsburgh offense. Still, the Steelers had the lead with under 1 minute remaining on the clock. At-home, all their defense had to do was keep the Ravens out of the end-zone.

Flacco and the Ravens made the plays necessary to win, and they obtained a pretty critical victory.

Up-Next:

Baltimore hosts Denver who won today in Tennessee. The Broncos QB Kyle Orton is throwing the ball all over the place, and putting-up a lot of yards. Second-year RB Knowshon Moreno missed his second-straight game with a hamstring. Laurence Maroney, and Buckhalter were able to do nothing against the Titans. Denver totally eliminated Chris Johnson as a weapon today. The Broncos won despite allowing 6 sacks.