Watching the somber 9/11 memorials on television today didn't have this Steelers fan in the mood for football, and apparently the Steelers players weren't ready either as Pittsburgh suffered its worst defeat at the hands of the Ravens, 35-7.
An offensive pass interference penalty called against Anquan Boldin late in the game took another touchdown away from Baltimore, but as my wife suggested, the Steelers should have declined the penalty since Pittsburgh donated so many points to the Ravens already anyway.
The Steelers defense was nothing short of f@*&ing terrible as Ray Rice ran through Pittsburgh's defensive line, while its linebackers stood around and watched, and the secondary chased flies instead of Ravens.
As bad as the Steeler defense was, the Steeler offense was even worse, turning the ball over 7 times (no, I'm not drunk, seriously 7 turnovers). At one point in the second half the Steelers had 5 of 6 consecutive drives end in a turnover. One of those turnovers occurred on the most ill-advised pass since Kordell Stewart played in an AFC Championship game. Down 29-7 in the middle of the third quarter and the Steelers driving toward the goal line, Big Ben inexplicably passed up an opportunity to run behind two blockers and threw instead to two Ravens who had a short chat about who should intercept the ball before one of them did. That decision caused this fan to let fly a torrent of f-bombs that will hang in space like a dark cloud over most of the midwest for at least the rest of the week.
Big Ben, who threw 3 interceptions on the day and lost 2 fumbles, looked eerily similar to Kordell Stewart who threw 2 interceptions among his first 3 pass attempts in a 30-14 opening week loss against the Patriots in 2002.
As a team, I haven't seen the Steelers play this badly since 1983 when they were destroyed by Detroit 45-3 on Thanksgiving day, and this guy was the Steelers QB:
Cliff Stoudt, 1983None of this should take away from the Ravens effort today, they were clearly ready and the Steelers were not. It was painfully obvious that Baltimore wanted to avenge their 31-24 defeat to Pittsburgh in the AFC Divisional playoffs, when the dirty birds blew a 21-7 halftime edge. Today, the Ravens were trying to run the score up, as they went for a surprise 2-point conversion after their fourth touchdown. Later, they passed up an easy field goal to go for a touchdown attempt, and with under three minutes to go were still trying to throw the ball into the endzone. Obviously, someone has "Steeler issues."
The Ravens are 0-3 against the Steelers in the post-season, including a 23-14 loss in the 2008-09 AFC Championship when Joey Fluke-o threw a pick-6 late in the game that sealed the Ravens fate. Today's win was Fluke-o's first against Pittsburgh in eight tries. If there is a silver lining for Steeler fans today, its that Fluke-o and the Ravens still haven't beaten Pittsburgh when it matters most -- in the playoffs.
No comments:
Post a Comment