Good News and Bad News: Steelers vs. Hated Ravens

Well, the really good news is that my wife's cousin was in from out of town and we went to the game together.  We had a great time and it was an incredible game... right up until the end there.

The bad news on that front is that, after starting my career undefeated when seeing the Steelers live, I just picked up my sixth loss.  Maybe it's my seventh.  Not sure.  I'm on either a 3-6 or 3-7 run, so maybe I should stop going.  I think that's a good call.

Good news first:

1. James Harrison returned with a vengeance.  Wow, what a game: Eight tackles, three sacks, three tackles for loss, and six quarterback hits.  If he can stay hot, the pass rush is going to be extremely dangerous when Woodley comes back.
2. The Steelers forced a turnover!  Gotta celebrate the small victories.
3. For the third consecutive week, the offensive line looked good.  Rashard Mendenhall averaged four yards a carry -- a good number against Baltimore -- they managed to punch it in inside the five, and Ben Roethlisberger was only sacked once.
4. I know the pass defense had a meltdown in the last drive, but they actually played well.  Joe Flacco did throw for 300 yards, but he needed 47 attempts to do it.  Roethlisberger threw for 30 more yards on ten fewer attempts.  Yes, that last drive was awful.  Yes, the secondary again failed to record an interception.  But, holding an opposing quarterback to 6.4 yards per attempt is a win for the pass defense, even if it didn't translate to a win in the standings.
5. Ray Rice had 86 total yards.  I would accept that as a win.  I was shocked that he only averaged 2.4 yards per attempt and they kept him from breaking a long run.  Stopping Ray Rice and making Flacco beat you is generally a good strategy.  It just didn't work on Sunday night.  The percentages are more in your favor if you make Flacco beat you than if you take your focus away from Rice.  If these teams meet again, the percentages will favor the Steelers if they're able to shut Rice down.
6. I doubt we'll see a collapse like that again the rest of the season.  Maybe they got it out of their systems?

Now for the bad news:

1. Two turnovers.  They need to take care of the ball, especially when they're not forcing turnovers on defense.  Yes, one of those turnovers was when Mike Wallace tried to run the Stanford Play at the end of the game, but that doesn't excuse Roethlisberger's interception.
2. The hated Ravens ran 77 plays and the Steelers only ran 58.  It could be that the defense was worn out after running around so much.  Facing 77 plays against the Colts or Seahawks is different than facing 77 plays against Baltimore.  There's a higher intensity level, the collisions are more violent, and the magnitude of the game puts stress on your body.  If the defense had gotten off the field on third down -- Baltimore was 14-for-21 in that area -- then maybe they would have had more gas in their tanks at the end.
3. Jeff Reed is still available.  One of the issues for the Steelers is that Tomlin doesn't trust Shaun Suisham.  That's why he waited for a delay of game penalty on fourth and six at the hated Ravens 30.  Honestly, I was pretty hammered at the time and thought it was only fourth and two and that the Steelers should go for it.  Or, at third and ten, there should be a two down strategy.  Take what you can get, then go for it on fourth down.  But, the larger issue is that Tomlin doesn't trust Suisham and Kevin Colbert needs to get on the phone and see who else is out there.  Oh, look at that.  Jeff Reed is available.
4. The largest issue, though, is that the Steelers were 1-for-4 in the red zone, with one turnover.  If they go 2-for-4 or 3-for-4, then Flacco's late game heroics turn into him padding his stats at garbage time.
5. Mike Wallace was targeted only six times and Antonio Brown was targeted 11 times.  From where I was sitting, it looked like Wallace broke out deep on a few plays, but Roethlisberger wasn't looking for him.  When you have a weapon like Wallace, you need to use him.  That's me talking as a Steeler fan and not as someone that has Wallace on my fantasy team.

There's more good news than bad for this game because I thought the Steelers played very well.  They just couldn't finish the game out and they couldn't finish when they got inside the 20.  The issues with the offensive and defensive lines appear to be resolved.  They're still not forcing turnovers and they're still turning the ball over too much.  When you don't force turnovers, then turning the ball over once is too many.  They need to put more work in on red zone drills -- both on offense and defense -- so that the offense gets better and the defense gets better.

The silver lining is that they're only a half game back and they've only played two division games thus far.  They have seven games left, with two each against Cincinnati and Cleveland, starting at Cincy next week.  Given that the hated Ravens swept them this season, they're no longer in the driver's seat in the division, but they're at least sitting shotgun.  

God help me, the Bengals are in first place and they will play two tough games against the Steelers in the coming month.  First order of business is to report back to work, try to get better, put Sunday night in the past, and focus on the next game on the schedule.  Maybe Baltimore suffers another letdown after another emotional victory over their bitter rival.  They're at Seattle and the Seahawks play tougher at home.  But, the fact remains that the Steelers can only control what they do, so they need to re-focus and kick the crap out of the Bungles next week.