Good News and Bad News: Steelers at Hated Ravens

As far as good news is concerned, there isn't much to report:

1. I have Mike Wallace on my fantasy team, so that's at least something.
2. As my buddy Dan pointed out earlier today, we don't have to carry the stress of an undefeated season hanging over our heads.  We can relax in the knowledge that the Steelers are going to go 16-0 this season and we don't have to worry about it every week.
3. According to NFL bylaws, the Steelers will only be given one loss for yesterday's performance, instead of the three or four losses that they deserve.  That means that they're only 0-1 and there's a lot of season left to be played.
4. Ike Taylor looked good and effectively took Lee Evans out of the game.

There's lots of bad news, though:

1. The offensive line played pretty crappy.
2. Ben Roethlisberger got abused and was still in the game late in the fourth quarter, even though there was no chance for a comeback.
3. Rashard Mendenhall looked really tentative heading into the hole after that bumbled exchange/fumble in the third quarter.  He started out pretty strong, but the hated Ravens took him out of the game in the fourth quarter since the Steelers had to start throwing every down.
4. Seven turnovers.
5. Looks like Willie Colon got hurt.  Again.  So that's awesome.
6. The defense might have looked younger and more active had 74 year old Dick LeBeau thrown on some pads and ran out on to the field.
7. Bryant McFadden -- who I've defended in the past -- looked awful and the Steelers really need to think about getting Keenan Lewis or William Gay in there.
8. The Baltimore players were awfully proud of themselves after the game, which means they might not shut up about this victory until the Steelers play the hated Ravens again in November.  
9. My horribly, horribly misguided Preview will be on the Internet forever.
10. The biggest thing I got wrong in that Preview was that the hated Ravens were very, very ready for this game and the Steelers were absolutely not ready.
11. There were a lot of things that went wrong yesterday, but the biggest thing that concerned me was the way Baltimore blew the Steelers off the line on both sides of the ball.  Sure, it is possible that the guys on defense are older and slower, but they didn't get any smaller or weaker with age.  On offense, the line should have an advantage (I guess that's just in theory) because they know where they're supposed to go at the snap.  The defense shouldn't be able to jump to the ball faster than the offense because (again, in theory, since this isn't what we saw yesterday) they're supposed to be reacting and shouldn't know what's coming.

Now, for some perspective.

It's only one game and this is no time to panic.  They're not going to turn the ball over seven times in a game again this season.  Baltimore has a really good team and they played almost flawlessly yesterday.  The Steelers looked like a big pile of steaming crap, no doubt, but a big part of that was that the hated Ravens played exceptionally well.

The offensive line will play better.  In general, it would be difficult for the team to play much worse, so they will all play better in the next 15 games.  It will probably be several years before we see Roethlisberger play another stinker like that.

The pass rush will improve; playing against a much crappier team like the Seahawks or Manning-less Colts will help that along.

As I see it, the primary issue with the defense yesterday was that they were out of position for most of the game.  That made them have to hustle into position to get to the play.  When they got in position, they weren't able to square up and tackle.  This is responsible for two issues: The fact that they looked really slow and old and the fact that their tackling fundamentals were atrocious.

Pretty much everyone looks slow and old when they're chasing after Ray Rice.  Additionally, chasing guys down all day wears you out and makes you move even slower.  In previous seasons, LeBeau was able to insulate his guys from this by setting it out so that the play was always in front of them.  They were behind the play and doing a lot of chasing because the hated Ravens ran a lot of plays outside the hashmarks and most of the defense was jammed up in the middle of the field.  I'm sure the defense will be more spread out on Sunday against Seattle.  I'm sure the focus will be on getting to the quarterback and keeping everything in front of them.

McFadden does not get a pass on this.  You don't let Anquan Boldin get behind you if you give him a seven yard cushion at the snap.  That should never happen.

The other good news is that the Steelers know they have a lot of stuff they need to fix.  They may be able to fix everything by the time they play the Seahawks, but the other other good news is that they probably don't need to fix everything until they play Houston in Week 4, since they should be able to beat Seattle and the Colts without being 100% together.

And, hey, this also means that the Steelers will be the ones out for revenge come November.