There was much to complain about offensively, but the defense played superbly.

·         (Q1, 12:24)  Suggs cleaned up on Ngata’s initial hit to split the sack of Roethlisberger as Ben’s nose was broken.

·         (Q1, 0:36)  Terrell beat Scott outside for a QH.  BR amazingly got the ball off and complete for a 1st down.

·         (Q2, 14:19)  Suggs stunted inside and pancaked Pouncey as he twisted down Roethlisberger for the sack.

·         (Q2, 10:07)  He bulled Adams back to BR before slipping off to record the QH as the ball was thrown away.

·         (Q2, 4:06)  Suggs split a double team from Adams and Heath Miller to create the initial pressure on Landry’s QH.

·         (Q2, 2:37)  Suggs dropped from RDE to cover.  When BR threw left to Mendenhall as an outlet, the RB let the ball drop incomplete as he lifted his arms to Sizzle.

·         (Q2, 2:32)  On 3rd and 2, Suggs beat Scott inside for penetration causing Mendenhall to sidestep where he was then snowed over and fumbled (recovered by Pouncey) to deny the first down.

·         (Q3, 12:32)  Suggs pushed Scott into Mendenhall to shut down the run as McClain made the tackle.

·         (Q3, 5:58) On a play that would be negated by Nakamura’s holding penalty on Miller, Suggs pressured BR as Johnson knocked the ball lose for what would have been a sack/FF.

·         (Q3, 2:52)  Suggs came untouched between Scott and Kemo to make the intitial contact on Redman as Landry cleaned up.

·         (Q4, 15:00)  With the Steelers lined up 1st and goal at the Ravens’ 2-yard line, Suggs beat Ward on the offensive left side to take down Redman for a loss of 2.

·         (Q4, 14:20)  On the very next offensive snap, Suggs beat Scott outside to stuff Mendenhall for a loss of 1.

·         (Q4, 10:02)  The Steelers lined up for a 3rd and 13 play with 1 set and 1 chip blocker.  The Ravens brought a 3-man rush, but Suggs beat Scott to the outside, and forced a long overthrow to an open Ward.

·         (Q4, 6:19)  While he got no credit, Suggs helped clean up on Redding’s sack of BR.

·         (Q4, 3:13)  He beat Scott outside and got a hand on the shoulder of BR.  Roethlisberger backpedalled left as Suggs clawed at his arms and the football.  As Suggs pursued and took him down, BR sidearmed the ball past the line of scrimmage and incomplete to avoid the intentional grounding call.

There have certainly been Ravens that have made 2 or even 3 plays as big or bigger in a game (Reed vs. Washington or Philadelphia in 2008, Lewis vs. Denver or Cleveland in 2002, McCrary in SB XXXV), but I can’t ever recall a defensive player impact the game on so many plays.  It was further accentuated by his dominance against both the run and pass.  Had Brady or Manning played a game like this, we no doubt would have become very tired of Collinsworth continually praising his play to the virtual exclusion of all else.  On Sunday, these compliments were well-earned.

While I have heard no one yet suggest it, Suggs is having a terrific season and should now be in contention for DPOY.  A game of half the plays at Houston next Monday would stamp his candidacy as official.

I noticed the network credited Lewis and the Ravens as having never allowed 4.0 YPC in any season which is correct, but fails to maximize the accomplishment.  They actually have never allowed as much as 3.8 YPC in a season (the 1996 average is 3.8 when rounded up).  After Sunday’s effort, they are now at 4.0 YPC for 2010.

On to the statistics, which are based on 64 defensive snaps and exclude 1 kneel:

Overall:

Vs. the Run:  23 plays, 55 yards, 2.4 YPC

Vs. the Pass:  41/234, 5.7 YPP

Overall:  64/289, 4.5 YPPA

By number of defensive backs

Short Yardage (3 DBs):  1/-2, -2.0 YPPA

Standard (4 DBs):  17/79, 4.6 YPPA

Nickel (5 DBs):  38/147, 3.9 YPPA, 3 sacks, 1 TO

Dime (6 DBs):  8/65, 8.1 YPPA

By number of pass rushers

3:  9/32, 3.6 YPP, 1 TO

4:  22/112 5.1 YPP, 3 sacks

5:  6/76, 12.7 YPP

6:  3/14, 4.7 YPP

7+:  1/0, 0.0 YPP

Individual Notes:

·         Washington and Webb split time as the nickel.  Washington played 19 snaps, which included the Steelers’ long drive for the field goal that cut the Ravens’ lead to 10-6.  Fabian had the initial coverage on Sanders on Roethisberger’s 28-yard completion on 3rd and 11.  He also helped contain Wallace (with Landry and Lewis) on the WR screen (Q4, 13:37) which ended the Steelers drive at the Ravens’ 1-yard line.

·         Webb didn’t play poorly, but one play was visually disturbing.  With 2nd and 6 on the Ravens 41 (Q1, 9:57), Webb appeared to have good coverage as the ball was in flight, but Wallace gained 2 steps as the camera was focused on the pair.  Webb’s previous matchup with Wallace was Lardarius’ game of the season as he contributed several big plays to the Ravens’ week 4 win.

·         Ben spent much of the night picking on Wilson.  Wilson had a nice over-the-shoulder interception and knocked the ball free from Sanders (Q3, 11:04) to force a punt, but was caught playing soft on several occasions and missed 2 tackles (Q3, 13:09 and Q4, 7:40) that led to approximately 30 additional YAC. 

·         Cary Williams was inactive for the first time since his suspension which, along with the deactivation of Jason Phillips, left the Ravens short 2 of their better special teams players.  These absences didn’t have a great impact since the teams combined for just 9 returned kicks/punts (Steelers 2, Ravens 7) the entire night.

·         Ngata and Pouncey had a good battle, but Haloti got the best of the young center.  Pouncey was too late to help Foster block Ngata on his half sack, was unable to stop Haloti from penetrating on the jailbreak takedown of Mendenhall (Q3, 6:41), and again allowed penetration on Ngata’s takedown of Mendenhall (Q3, 1:11) that resulted in the injury to Flozell Adams.

·         The difference between Flacco and Roethlisberger is apparent when these 2 are forced to move from the pocket.  Flacco is the better passer without pressure.  He’s got a stronger and more accurate arm.  On the run, however, Ben is one of the best QBs in the league, regularly making time for his receivers to slide free into an empty spot on the field.  While the Ravens had some notable success with pressure on Monday, too often they were unable to close.

·         Gooden played poorly against both the run and pass.  He lost Redman (Q1, 13:34) for a gain of 14 on a screen right, was unable to stop Redman’s run right (Q2, 13:43), and was rubbed off Mendenhall (Q3, 14:19) by Sanders on what would be a gain of 9.

·         Landry played well except for the final missed tackle on Redman (Q4, 2:58).  On that play, the Ravens chose to rush 6 and no one could recover effectively to help bring down the Steelers’ back.  Previously, Landry diagnosed the screen left to take down Mendenhall for no gain (Q2, 15:00), registered a QH (Q2, 4:06), made a nice tackle to stop Mendenhall for a gain of 5 (Q3, 4:51), helped stop Wallace on the WR screen at the 1 (Q4, 13:37), and made a nice undercutting tackle of the behemoth David Johnson to force a punt (Q4, 5:36).

·         Reed brought down David Johnson and Isaac Redman once each in the open field.  Those players presented troubles for other would-be tacklers.  He was also credited with touching down Sanders at the 2-yard line on the last play of Q3.  The Steelers would settle for a field goal 4 plays later.  Based on the completions, it also appears BR was making an overt attempt to throw away from Ed.

·         Kruger played just 5 snaps.  He’s an effort pass rusher, much like Barnes, who seems to do best against quarterbacks who hold the ball too long.  That’s Roethlisberger in a nutshell.   For the season, Kruger has now played 122 snaps with only 41 in the 1st half and 81 in Q3, Q4, or OT.  Some of that is a function of situations that demand passing, but Mattison may be trying to have a rested pass rusher for the 2nd half.  In Sunday’s game, however, Kruger did not play any of the Steelers’ last 21 competitive snaps.

·         Cody played just 3 snaps.  He entered for a 2-play sequence to begin the Steelers 3rd drive, then for the first-and-goal snap at the Ravens 2 (Q4, 15:00). 

·         McKinney was active for the first time since 10/24 vs. Buffalo and played 10 snaps.  Gregg played 15, Redding 52 and Ngata 54 of the 64 defensive snaps.

·         The Steelers game-winning TD was both the first allowed all season off a turnover and the first allowed by the Ravens on a drive that began in their territory.  The season’s first 18 opponent drives that began in Ravens’ territory led to 11 field goals (1.8 points per drive).  Wow, that didn’t make me feel any better.