Steelers, Ravens battle for division lead
MEMORABLE SERIES MOMENT
Ravens 20, Steelers 17 (OT)
Nov. 29, 2009 at M&T Bank Stadium
Mike Tomlin’s Steelers are 1-1 on the road off an overtime loss. The loss occurred in 2009 in Baltimore in the midst of a five-game losing streak that cost the defending champions a playoff berth. The game is infamous for Ben Roethlisberger sitting out with a concussion that Hines Ward criticized in a national TV interview. Roethlisberger was kicked in the head in overtime the previous week in Kansas City but practiced all week. After Friday’s practice, he complained of headaches and was held out of the game. Charlie Batch also got hurt in overtime of the K.C. loss, so Dennis Dixon started his first professional game in Baltimore. Dixon’s 24-yard run down the right sideline gave the Steelers a 17-14 lead with 6:24 left in regulation, but the Ravens tied the score on their next possession and won in overtime after Paul Kruger’s interception at midfield set up a 29-yard field goal. Both teams finished 9-7 but the Ravens entered the playoffs on a tiebreaker.
TALE OF THE TAPE
“The Ravens’ offensive line is subject to being infiltrated and chaos-ed up and otherwise run over. I like Ronnie Stanley, the left tackle. He’s not physical but he’s a good player. But the rest of the guys leave something to be desired, especially Austin Howard, who has a problem shutting off any type of twisting action. Stephon Tuitt, Bud Dupree, anyone over the right tackle can have success running a twist.” — Steelers Radio analyst Craig Wolfley.
TOP QUESTION
Where’s the burst?
Le’Veon Bell’s longest run this season of 15 yards occurred on the last pre-kneeldown snap of the opener. He’s averaging 3.5 yards per carry, 60 rushing yards per game and 79 yards of total offense per game. The big question around town is whether he’s lost his explosiveness. Said Bell: “I feel good. I feel like I just haven’t gotten any open space yet. I haven’t had the chance to really make something happen. I feel like I’m close. The last couple games, it was just a tackle here or a shoestring tackle there. I’m close.”
THREE QUESTIONS: With NT JAVON HARGRAVE
Q: Your position coach loves your work ethic. Does that come from being a small-school guy with a chip on your shoulder?
JH: “It is the mentality that I took from growing up and some of my situations, so, yeah. I kind of use the term ‘Gettin’ out the mud.’ It’s just really how it is. You’ve just got to grind, grind to get where you want to be.”
Q: Did you live near a swamp?
JH: “Nah, it’s just a saying, something we say back home. Things ain’t really been easy to get where we got, but we got to where we got. We know the work we put in. That’s what we say ‘Gettin’ out the mud.'”
Q: Which makes you happier, stuffing the run or sacking the quarterback?
JH: “I mean, everybody likes sacks (laughs). I can say I love stopping the run, but everybody loves sacks.”
GAME BREAKDOWN
What to look for from the Steelers at 1 p.m. today at M&T Bank Stadium:
ON OFFENSE:
The Ravens have gone to great expense to build a secondary, but their run defense is sputtering, thanks to injuries to NT Brandon Williams and DE Brent Urban, the offseason trade of DT Timmy Jernigan, and the retirement of All-Pro inside linebacker Zach Orr. They’re allowing 4.3 yards per carry, and last week without Williams in their blowout loss in London allowed 4.7 per carry. Bell, who rushed for 122 last Christmas Day against the Ravens, is looking to break out for the first time this season.
ON DEFENSE:
The Steelers expect Tuitt, Dupree and T.J. Watt back against a Ravens offensive line that’s in disarray without All-Pro guard Marshal Yanda. He’s done for the year, replaced by practice-squadder Matt Skura at RG, while Howard, who was signed off the street in August, replaced departed free agent Ricky Wagner at RT. In fact, Stanley is the only starter remaining from the last game against the Steelers. It can’t be helpful to Joe Flacco, who’s playing with low-back pain and has a passer rating of 65.2.
PREDICTION
The day after Roethlisberger said Mike Tomlin had ordered him to kickoff if the Steelers won the overtime coin toss, and two days after the chaotic peak of the anthem flap, I walked into the building with the intention of writing about a season spiraling out of control. Then I heard the team erupt into laughter in their meeting room. The team followed with two high-energy practices. Tomlin has apparently revived this bunch, so I’m picking them to win here. Besides, Las Vegas loves when the opposite happens, like when a team everyone’s convinced can’t win on the road enters it’s most hostile road stadium. … Steelers, 23-12.
BY THE NUMBERS
5: Consecutive games Roethlisberger has lost as the starting QB in Baltimore.
8: Ravens interceptions to lead NFL by one over Detroit and by at least four over everyone else. Nos. 2 and 3 cornerbacks Brandon Carr and Lardarius Webb lead with two apiece. The No. 1 CB, Jimmy Smith, has one.
8.4: NFL-worst yards per completion by the Ravens, thanks to a poor line, the QB’s bad back, and more than a quarter of all completions being screen passes.
31: Flacco’s NFL ranking with his 65.2 passer rating. Cleveland’s Deshone Kizer the only starter with a worse passer rating (53.2).
142: Yards rushing per game by the fourth-ranked Ravens, led by the three-headed attack of Terrance West, Buck Allen and Alex Collins.
DOWNLOADS
n Steelers defensive lineman Tyson Alualu has been to London four consecutive years with the Jacksonville Jaguars. Never has he returned and played the next week, such as the Ravens will do today. The Ravens were blown out by the Jaguars last week in London, 44-7, but Alualu does believe they’ll pay a physical toll. “They should be all right,” he said. “Baltimore went up there late in the week, so I think that’ll be better for them than having been there the full week. That’s when you’re adjusting to the time difference and the flight. When we went for a week, we needed that bye week coming back.” The Ravens left for that Sunday game on Thursday evening. After returning home, Ravens Coach John Harbaugh said, “I do not plan on going over there anytime soon to play again. Somebody else can have that job.”
n Even during the era when the Steelers were playing their base 3-4 defense all week in practice and throughout most of their games, they had trouble with cutback runners in zone stretch plays. That was the primary problem last week when they allowed 222 yards rushing to the Chicago Bears. The Ravens do the same thing. “They run stretch plays outside, they cut it back. They do a lot of the same things that the Bears are doing so there’s not much difference there,” said Steelers DC Keith Butler. “They have good running backs and you know they’re going to try and run the football on us.”
n Mike Wallace caught a 95-yard touchdown pass in Baltimore last year to jump-start the Ravens’ 21-14 win over the Steelers. The former Steelers speedster beat Artie Burns on a slant route and then ran through a missed tackle by Mike Mitchell for the touchdown. This year, Wallace has caught only three passes for 21 yards without a touchdown as the starter opposite him, Jeremy Maclin, has caught 7 for 95 yards and 2 touchdowns. “Mike Wallace is a good player,” said Butler. “He can run. Artie has got a challenge on his hands, so we’ll see what happens.”
n In the Christmas Day Steelers win last year, the Ravens gained 122 rushing yards at a 4.7 per-carry clip. But the Steelers played that game without Tuitt and Cameron Heyward, and Heyward believes it was a coming-of-age game for rookie NT Javon Hargrave. “I thought he had a helluva game,” said Heyward. “He grew up a lot very quickly last year. You look back at that game, he made a lot of plays, whether it was pressure, running to the ball in the run game. He stepped up a lot when we had a lot of younger guys, even younger than him, who hadn’t really played a lot.”
n Marty Mornhinweg is hoping to last at least a few more weeks as Ravens offensive coordinator and celebrate his one-year anniversary. He was hired following the in-season firing of Marc Trestman last year. Mornhinweg is the fifth offensive coordinator for Flacco in the last six season, compared to only one for Roethlisberger. Harbaugh was asked for the affect on Flacco. “I’ve been asked that question about 10 million times,” Harbaugh said. “I might be exaggerating slightly on that, but, yeah, it’s the same answer. We’ve got continuity in place, the offense we’re running. Offenses are offenses and what you try to do is what you try to do. We’re not making excuses.”
PARTING SHOT
“I can feel it and I can sense the urgency and how important it is. Anytime you’re in a [division] game it’s huge, but the rivalry between these two I heard is pretty unique and I can’t wait to get in there and feel the energy.”
— newly acquired Steelers safety J.J. Wilcox.