Expect another tough game against Ravens for Steelers
MEMORABLE SERIES MOMENT
Steelers 39, Ravens 38
Dec. 10, 2017 at Heinz Field
It was only a year ago but it’s the kind of game expected in this defense-less era. Also similarly, the Steelers last year were coming off a Monday night win in Cincinnati to play the Ravens on a Sunday night. The Steelers took a 14-0 lead on two Le’Veon Bell touchdowns, but the Ravens — behind the running of Alex Collins (18 carries, 120 yards) and passing of Joe Flacco — took a 31-20 lead late in the third, and after a Buck Allen touchdown they held a 38-29 lead with 6:44 remaining. Ben Roethlisberger led the Steelers on a quick scoring drive that ended with Bell’s third touchdown, and they held the Ravens to a three-and-out and got the ball back with 2:25 left on their own 17.
A Terrell Suggs sack pushed the Steelers back to their own 8, from where they began their winning drive. Roethlisberger converted key third downs to Jesse James and Antonio Brown (11 catches, 213 yards) to set up Chris Boswell’s 46-yard field goal with 42 seconds left for the lead. T.J. Watt’s strip sack of Flacco on third-and-10 clinched the win for the Steelers.
TALE OF THE TAPE
“The Ravens are not as scary defensively as they used to be. If you could pass block two guys: Za’Darius Smith and Terrell Suggs, then I think Ben’s going to have a big game. Suggs in his 16th year can still get after it. He is the juice that electrifies that defense and so you’ve got to shut him out. He’s very wise in that he knows when to take plays off and when to crank it up. He’s very, very in tune with game situations, so he makes big plays at big times. If you get lulled to sleep by him on his half-effort pass-rushing moves, he’ll accelerate and beat you so you’ve got to be technically sound. Smith, the guy on the other side, he was productive but without the sacks last year. He’s a really good pass-rusher. He’s explosive. He’s powerful. He’s strong. He’s 270 coming from that outside linebacker spot, but one of the things that you notice about him is he seldomly got to the quarterback last year. Well this year he’s getting to the quarterback. He looks lighter.” — Steelers Radio analyst Tunch Ilkin.
TOP QUESTION
Can the Steelers get better?
It’s the eternal question and could be asked in this spot every week. But they’re going to have to get better defensively to make the Super Bowl. Can they? Well, the penalties can be cleaned up. That’s an easy start. They’ve by now found that fine line between aggression and stupidity. Terrell Edmunds will also get better at strong safety. The first-round draft pick looks legit. Now, instead of the ball finding him, he’s got to start finding the ball. Sean Davis will also improve at free safety. He’s ridden a roller coaster but is an athletic upgrade over anyone they’ve had there since probably Mike Wagner. Bud Dupree is finding his game. So is Jon Bostic. Artie Burns’ slump is killing them, and the loss of Morgan Burnett still hurts at the dime linebacker spot. The offense, though, with the boost from healthy tight end Vance McDonald and the development of rookie receiver James Washington, can compensate in the meantime.
THREE QUESTIONS:
With DT STEPHON TUITT
Q: You’ve been a part of some great rivalries at Notre Dame. How do the best of them compare to Steelers-Ravens?
ST: “It’s hard to say because both are kind of the same with the embedded roots. Notre Dame has people who’ve been there for generations and generations and have hated the same teams over and over again. Pittsburgh’s kind of the same way. But I’m considering this different because it’s the NFL and maybe the crowd’s a little bit different than what it would be at Notre Dame.”
Q: Are Ravens games more physical than other games?
ST: “It’s definitely a physical game. I remember when I first came here, I watched the old heads who used to play here before. I saw how physical that game was. When I come back and look at the films of the games we’ve played, it’s still the same way. The team that wins the game will be the team that knocks the other team off the ball.”
Q: Last year here the score was 39-38. Should we expect the same kind of shootout?
ST: “We never — or I should say I never — want to expect another shootout. We definitely don’t until we’re off the field. We’re going to go out there and do our best to play our best defense.”
GAME BREAKDOWN
What to look for from the Steelers tonight at Heinz Field:
ON OFFENSE
Late last season Bell rushed for 48 yards and caught for 77 yards. Expect the same division of labor with James Conner this year because the Ravens still have stout big men and C.J. Mosley in the middle, and don’t have Jimmy Smith at cornerback. Antonio Brown kills the Ravens when Smith — currently suspended — doesn’t play. In Smith’s seven career starts against the Steelers, Brown’s scored one touchdown and averaged 10.5 yards per catch, 6 catches per game, 61 yards per game. In the oft-injured/suspended Smith’s four misses since he ascended to his starting cornerback job in Baltimore, Brown averaged 13.9 yards per catch, 10 catches per game, 143 yards per game.
ON DEFENSE:
The Steelers are 28th in yards-per-completion allowed at 13.7. That’s a horrible stat for an underrated Ravens passing attack that ranks ninth in yards passing per game (292). They and the Steelers’ last two opponents are top-10 passing teams and top-5 scoring teams. Flacco’s throwing these days to speedster John Brown (18.5 ypc.) and standout Michael Crabtree (10.3). Rookie tight end Mark Andrews has been compared by teammates to legendary tough guy Mark Bavaro, and the Ravens could get their first-round draft pick, tight end and former Pirates farmhand Hayden Hurst, back from his Aug. 24 foot injury. The Steelers will need their linebackers to cover tight ends better, and to that end were amping up the practice reps of athletic rookie ILB Matthew Thomas.
PREDICTION
Even though I expected the Steelers to take a step back before moving forward this season, I’ve been wrong picking each of their games this season. This week, I expect the same kind of game we saw late last season, except this time I don’t expect Boswell to make his late field goal. I can’t. There’s no reason to expect him to break out of his slump until I see it on the field. So here’s to a fourth wrong pick … Ravens, 38-36.
BY THE NUMBERS
2: Touchdown catches by Antonio Brown to tie John Stallworth (63) for second place on the Steelers’ all-time receiving touchdowns list behind Hines Ward (85).
3.4: Yards per carry for Ravens RB Collins. Last week, the guy who had a career-high 166 scrimmage yards against the Steelers late last season, finally broke out of his early-season slumber with 68 yards on 18 carries (3.8).
196: Yards receiving by John Brown the last time he played against the Steelers. He caught 10 passes for the Arizona Cardinals in 2015
352: Yards from scrimmage this season by Conner to rank second in the AFC, behind only JuJu Smith-Schuster’s 356.
378: Yards passing for Roethlisberger in last three home games against the Ravens. If he does it again, he’ll have his third consecutive 350-yard game and probably his third consecutive 100-plus passer rating of the season.
DOWNLOADS
n Mike Hilton thought he had suffered a serious shoulder injury as he lay on the sideline Monday night in Tampa. But it’s an elbow hyperextension that he was hoping would heal by tonight. He’s listed as doubtful. “I just need to get enough strength back to use my hands wrapping up and trying to press receivers.”
n T.J. Watt and his mega-superstar brother J.J. have the exact same stats after three weeks: 10 solo tackles, 6 assists, 3 sacks. T.J. was precise in the verbiage used to comment: “Hopefully we keep going and we keep getting better throughout the season and I end up above him at the end.”
n Dupree, who scored Monday night scored his first touchdown since 2014 when his pick-six for Kentucky beat South Carolina, on why the Ravens aren’t the Steelers’ most-hated rival anymore: “The Cincinnati games now are how the Ravens games used to be years back. The Cincinnati game is more violent. This game is super violent, too, but with the Bengals more people are talking smack, each team talks about each other, each team really wants to kill each other. We hate each other. That’s more with the Bengals now. But the Ravens game is still a rival game. It’s still going to be a physical, hard game. They’re going to come out and try to give us their best shot, they’re going to try to run the ball down our throats, try to hit Ben as hard as they can, they’ll try to smash Conner. Both sides of the ball are going to be a physical bloodbath.”
n Burns got beat deep by Tyreek Hill of the Chiefs, and when he got beat deep the following week in practice Burns was chewed out, and the next day replaced by Coty Sensabaugh. But because the Steelers like Burns’ athletic ability, he rotated back onto the field against Tampa Bay — and got beat deep by Mike Evans. Here’s defensive coordinator Keith Butler on his secondary: “I would like to see more from all of them. We don’t (want to) give up big plays, keep the top on it if we can. The Tampa game, that’s where they had done the most damage in terms of going deep, so we try to battle all week about staying out of the situations and we weren’t able to, so that’s a big deal.”
n McDonald’s 112 receiving yards Monday night marked the second time in the last four Steelers games the oft-injured tight end has hit the 112-yard mark. Now that he’s healthy again, Steelers offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner was asked if McDonald opened his eyes would get the ball to him more often: “Vance is very aggressive,” Fichtner said. “You can even go back and watch his game he played in against Baltimore over there last year. He’s a very aggressive player to a point where maybe that’s where he gets dinged up a little bit. He’s a very aggressive player for his position. We always are trying to (get him the ball), but again, really the first week and a half, two weeks of him being back, adjusting to reps, adjusting his conditioning level — that type of thing — and then realizing that the way he plays can subject him to some dings in an attempt to have him every game.”
PARTING SHOT
“It’s going to be awesome to be back in Heinz Field for a night game and have a true prime-time playoff feel to a game. … That last (Ravens game) sticks out to me because there was so much emotion going into that game with Ryan (Shazier first game after injury). It was a night game. It was super loud. That’s when the Renegade comes on and you get the chills and everything, so I’m really looking forward to this.” — Steelers outside linebacker T.J. Watt.