PITTSBURGH STEELERS 23  BALTIMORE RAVENS 20, OT

The two best defenses in football converged on the spot where the Monongahela and Allegany clash to form the Ohio River.   Maybe that was fitting, because in this game great plays clashed with agonizing mistakes.   Enough mistakes by the Ravens to erase an otherwise dominate performance and allow Pittsburgh to escape with an overtime win.

All the pre-game talk centered on this being the first true test for the 2-0 Ravens against the presumptive division favorites.   History would not be on the side of Baltimore, either. The Steelers owned a 13 consecutive-game home winning streak on Monday Night Football. 

Mix in the challenging tasks of a rookie head coach taking his team on their first road contest in a very hostile environment, questions about a youthful offensive line and whether they could protect their rookie, starry-eyed quarterback, and a defense weakened by the absence of key starters like Kelly Gregg, Dawan Landry, and Samari Rolle and the end result is a very daunting task – one that in the end the Ravens could not complete successfully.

But this was also a game that demanded answers from the Steelers.  Would they weather injuries to Willie Parker, Casey Hampton, Brett Keisel, and even a battered Ben Roethlisberger?  Was this Steelers line, now without the departed Alan Faneca, as bad as its league-worst 13 sacks suggested?

Answers weren’t delivered quickly on Monday Night.  Not in a game that took four hours to play.  Penalties, sacks, and turnovers continuously changed flow of the game. The Ravens fell behind early, but then they tilted the field in their favor for the better part of two plus quarters. 

For a while, the Ravens were dominant. Steelers fans booed and then the boos morphed to shocked silence.  And then in a blink of an eye, Heinz Field erupted in cheers.

How do you rate the Ravens when strong performances were marred by big mistakes?  Well, let’s give it a try…

Quarterback: B

Joe Flacco did some great things yet committed some costly mistakes.  He started the game with a fumble that he recovered. But it put the Ravens in an early field position hole.   There were two more fumbles when he held the ball too long in the pocket; one recovered by guard Marshal Yanda and another scooped by LaMarr Woodley for a decisive Steelers touchdown return.  Flacco threaded some risky throws, but was strong-armed enough to connect on them anyway. He hung his deep throws, but the intermediate tosses were on a rope, and accurate, which allowed him to stretch the field all night.  He showed touch on a fade to Dan Wilcox for his first professional touchdown.  He again demonstrated poise, this time on the road and when things took a turn for the worse he rallied while connecting on third downs to keep drives alive.  He dirted a throw to an unguarded Ray Rice for a would-be touchdown on the goal line, although the play was called back anyway when Rice should have been on the line.  His final numbers were a respectable 16 for 31 for 192 yards and one touchdown.  Give extra credit to the rookie in his first road contest under less than ideal circumstances.  

Running Backs: B+

Ravens runners Willis McGahee and Le’Ron McLain ran hard and were constantly falling forward for positive yardage.  Together they ran the ball 29 times for 105 yards, a respectable total against the strong Steelers defense.   McGahee in particular was making positive yards through small holes.  He fell on the ball at one point and appeared to have the wind knocked out of him; later a hard tackle to the same area of the chest sent him to the locker room, but he returned and continued to play hard.    McLain continues to show incredible nimbleness for a big man in space.  Multiple times he made tacklers miss to pick up extra yards. In a highlight reel touchdown run he exploded through Lawrence Timmons from the three to score.  Lorenzo Neal blocked well in run support.  However, McLain was not as effective in his role as a fullback, and was beaten a few times in pass protection.

Wide Receivers: A-

Tight Ends: C

Where is Todd Heap?  He wasn’t involved at all in the passing game. But Cam Cameron schemed a lot of max protection, often sending just two wide outs into the pattern. As a blocker Heap contributed willingly, but James Harrison made him look bad a couple times. Harrison had another monster game off the edges, with ten tackles, two and a half sacks and a forced fumble.  Dan Wilcox’s touchdown catch prevented what was otherwise a whitewash day for the tight ends.  Dan chipped in with some decent goal line blocking, himself.

Interior Line: B

When they needed the yards, the interior line usually got good enough push to allow their backs to gain positive yardage and put Flacco in better second and third down positions.   When they didn’t get that push on first down, the offense tended to stall.  When they needed it in the fourth quarter good line play spurred the drive that got the Ravens back in the game. Ben Grubbs and Jason Brown were dominant in space.  Grubbs struggled to pull quickly enough to stop onrushing Steelers at times, and failed to slide on one pass play that allowed a free blitzer to reach Flacco.

Adam Terry and Jared Gaither struggled more against the Steelers than they showed in previous contests against the Browns’ and Bengals’ defenses.  Terry was completely fooled by Harrison faking the inside move once for an easy sack. He started slowly, and settled down later when the Ravens were able to run behind him.  Gaither was not as nimble in space, sometimes failing to find someone to block at the second level. When called upon to block down the line, he continued to provide a big push.  In pass protection Gaither gave up on blocks just a bit prematurely when Flacco held the ball longer than expected.

Defensive Backs: D

Rex put his corners in a lot of one-on-one, and they often suffered for it.   On the opening drive for the Steelers Fabian Washington fell down to allow a 19-yard gain to Santonio Holmes on third and eight, eventually leading to the Steelers first field goal.  Later, Chris McAlister got tangled with Hines Ward, missed his jam, and allowed Ward to slip free for a 49 yard gain as Roethlisberger slipped free of another near-sack.  That set up the second field goal. That’s the way it went for the Ravens.  Each time they slipped, the Steelers struck, and it led to opportunistic points.  Washington later allowed Holmes to score on a touchdown. Corey Ivy trailed a receiver by five yards on a drag route.  This group seemed out of sync.  Ed Reed was often playing in deep, deep centerfield, and wasn’t a factor.  The blitzing free safeties were not able to get to Roethlisberger.

Linebackers: A

Ray Lewis is playing in top form. He was in on 13 tackles and had a key deflection on a pass to stop the Steelers at the end of regulation. His hard tackle on running back Rashard Mendenhall ended the rookie’s season (broken shoulder) seemingly as soon as it began.  Bart Scott was equally impressive and he controlled the center of the field.  The only blemish on his game was the failure to wrap up Roethlisberger on an easy sack opportunity.  Jarrett Johnson was also playing at a high level.  He did get a personal foul call to spark the Steelers turn around, although it was in retaliation for a poke from Hines Ward as they were headed out of bounds and not as blatant as portrayed by the MNF crew.  Suggs consistently beat blocks to control the line of scrimmage and pressure the middle.

Defensive Line: A

The Steelers had just 46 yards in the first half, largely with the Ravens defensive line playing in their backfield.  Justin Bannan was unblockable at times.  They controlled lanes and allowed Ravens linebackers to capture the glory.  Haloti Ngata even fell back into coverage, and somehow Big Ben missed his 340 frame, sticking an interception in Haloti’s bread basket. Honorable mention to Ben Grubbs who got some action on a late goal-line stand.   The four-man front got pressure all night.

Special Teams: B-

Yamon Figurs did not play particularly well. Twice he took kick-offs from deep in the endzone and could not pass the fifteen-yard line. This was a game of field position and these plays hurt.  Yamon also muffed a punt, but fell on it.  He allowed another punt to bounce at his twenty and roll to the 13.  Field position mistakes killed the Ravens. Sam Koch was outstanding save the shanked 27 yard punt when he had an opportunity to pin the Steelers.  It would prove to be the first domino to fall during a dramatic game changing sequence. The personal foul by Johnson followed, then the 38-yard touchdown pass to Holmes as Washington slipped, quickly followed by Flacco’s fumble for a touchdown. Nakamura clobbered Andre Frazier, causing another incident where a player was put on a backboard with his facemask removed. Stover knocked in two chippies.

Coaching: B-

The coaching staff failed to control emotions a bit in the second half as the team lost poise and focus leading to costly mistakes. Emotions may have gotten the best of the coaches also as they too were guilty of being a little overaggressive in the second half.  It led to some big plays for the Steelers.  Cam Cameron got away from the run a bit early in the third quarter as the Steelers were regaining momentum.

Officiating: B+

Referee Gene Steratore maintained good control over the action with two teams that were going at each other hard.  They correctly waived off of Steelers’ facemask penalty.   In front of the Pittsburgh crowd they had the courage to reverse the call on Mason’s sideline toe drag with two minutes left in first half.  They should also be commended for keeping their hankies in their back pocket when Steelers punter Berger flopped.

Broadcast: B