Ravens-Steelers Week 2 takeaways: Pittsburgh should be worried
Maybe it's because Joe Flacco's elite, or because Dennis Pitta's finally healthy, or because Steve Smith is unstoppable -- but whatever the reason is, the Steelers' defense looked bad on Thursday in Pittsburgh's 26-6 loss to Baltimore.
It wasn't just the Steelers defense, though. It was their offense, too. And their special teams. And their coaching hasn't really even been that good. It's not just the Ravens game either where Pittsburgh's been horrible; the Steelers have actually played six straight quarters of bad football.
How bad has it been? Since leading Cleveland 27-3 at halftime on Sunday, the Steelers have been outscored 50-9. That's six straight quarters without a touchdown for the offense and six straight quarters without forcing a turnover for the defense.
Speaking of turnovers, the Ravens forced three on Thursday, including this ridiculous diving interception by Haloti Ngata, who I didn't know could catch or dive. This is probably the best interception you'll see by a 340-pound defensive lineman all year.
But back to the Steelers. The only bright spot for Pittsburgh was Antonio Brown and it was a dim bright spot because Brown actually missed two offensive series while he was evaluated for a concussion in the first half. Despite leaving the game briefly, Brown still led the Steelers in receiving with 90 yards.
Lets move on to the good stuff now.
Here's who impressed me on Thursday
Joe Flacco: You can't spell 'Elite' without Joe Flacco. Actually, you can, but that doesn't take away from the fact that Flacco looked amazing at times against the Steelers. The Ravens quarterback came out on fire in the first half and went a perfect 4 of 4 on Baltimore's opening drive that ended with a 2-yard touchdown pass to Owen Daniels.
On the Ravens' only other touchdown drive of the game, Flacco went 6 of 6 for 56 yards, meaning he went a perfect 10 of 10 on the two Baltimore drives that ended in touchdowns. Part of the reason that Flacco was able to play so well is because he wasn't running for his life. The Steelers rarely put pressure on him and Flacco wasn't sacked once.
Flacco finished 21 of 29 for 166 yards and two touchdowns and those 21 completions went to seven different receivers.
Tight ends (Owen Daniels, Dennis Pitta): The fact that Flacco looked good on Thursday also had a lot to do with the fact that he has two healthy tight ends to throw to. Pitta, who had the second most receptions on the team in 2012, missed 12 games last season because of a hip injury that doesn't seem to be affecting him at all in 2014.
Pitta and Daniels didn't put up huge numbers, but they put up important numbers: The two tight ends combined to catch eight passes for 58 yards. More importantly, they caught pretty much anything Flacco threw to them. Flacco targeted his tight ends nine times and eight of those ended in catches, including two touchdown receptions by Daniels.
Elvis Dumervil: The Ravens put zero pressure on Andy Dalton in Week 1 and the Bengals' quarterback left Baltimore with a clean jersey and a win. The same can't be said for Ben Roethlisberger. Dumervil played like there was a free fax machine on the line. The 30-year-old recorded the first two sacks of the season for the Ravens defense, taking down Big Ben twice. Dumervil almost had another half sack, but Courtney Upshaw was flagged for a weak roughing the passer call in the first quarter.
Just to give you an idea of how dominating Dumervil was at times, here's what he did to Steelers offensive lineman Marcus Gilbert on one of his sacks.
Linebackers (Daryl Smith and C.J. Mosley): The Steelers weren't the only AFC North team to spend a 2014 first-round pick on a linebacker -- the Ravens did to, and on Thursday, it looked like Baltimore made the better pick. Mosley, the 17th overall pick in the draft, made a sweet play in the fourth quarter when he hit Heath Miller, causing a fumble. Not only did Mosley cause the fumble, but he also recovered it. Fellow linebacker Daryl Smith also caused a fumble and knocked down two passes. Smith and Mosley combined for 17 tackles in the game.
Steelers rookie Ryan Shazier, the 15th overall pick in the draft, was almost as impressive as Mosley, but he didn't force any turnovers. Also, Shazier had some trouble tackling Dennis Pitta on this play.
Steve Smith: For the second game in a row, Smith was the Ravens leading receiver and I'm starting to feel like maybe Smith wasn't kidding when he said there's going to be 'blood and guts' when he plays the Panthers in Week 4.
I'm not sure if he made any direct threats against the Panthers on Thursday, but he definitely made one on Sunday against the Bengals.
In case your computer's on mute or you can't read lips, Smith says, "Hey, if you f---ing think I can't play, you're gonna find out in Week 4, motherf---er!"
I think he's talking to the Panthers.
Things that didn't impress me
Everything the Steelers did: That's right, I was unimpressed by everything the Steelers did on Thursday. Roethlisberger was erratic, but that wasn't completely his fault because he was under pressure most of the night. Although, by this point in his career, he should probably be used to all the pressure.
The Steelers running game couldn't get going when it needed to; their best plays were reverses to wide receivers Markus Wheaton and Brown. Unfortunately for Pittsburgh, it's kind of difficult to build your offense around running reverses. The lack of a running game combined with Roethlisberger's struggles led to the Steelers not scoring a touchdown for the first time since December 2011.
The good news for the Steelers is that they have 10 days off before they have to play again. The good news for us is that the next time the Steelers play, it's on national television and it can't possibly be any worse than what we watched tonight.
Fast facts
Just in case you were wondering, yes, there were Ray Rice supporters at the game.
Remember that Haloti Ngata interception from earlier, well, there was a celebration afterward and Ravens coach John Harbaugh definitely didn't get the best of it.
If you were watching the game and the Steelers sideline was a mess, it was Lawrence Timmons' fault.
On the other hand, maybe Timmons was just trying to feed this guy.
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