My anxiety level was at the extreme this afternoon watching the Steelers-Ravens game. The Steelers took a 13-0 lead, but then Baltimore scored a touchdown after they got great field position off a returned punt by Jim Leonard who started from Baltimore 38 yard-line and ran all the way to the Steelers 17 yard-line. Half time should have ended 16-7, but for some reason with just a few seconds left Ben Roethlisberger threw a pass up the middle instead of towards the sidelines and the clock ran out on them. I guess if one gets technical it was a fair 13-7 half time lead for the Steelers, because the only reason the Steelers were in position to score was due to a phantom roughing the kicker call.
In the second half, the Steelers pulled away slightly with another field goal and were up 16-7, but then Mitch Berger had a horrible punt and once again put Baltimore in great field position and so Baltimore scored another touchdown. With the score, 16-14 I was at a high level of anxiety, but Troy Polamalu calmed me down with a great interception and some nifty running to score a touchdown.
The McGhahee hit. That was a hard hit by Ryan Clark. An interesting note from the CBS commentators was that this was a clean hit by Ryan Clark even though it was helmet to helmet. On espn.com, Tim Graham wrote, “The officials missed an ugly penalty.” That is an interesting difference of opinion there. Even if this was a missed call, I don’t think it would have changed the outcome (it might have changed the score, but not the victor). There was a little over three minutes left in the game at that point. Even if Baltimore had scored, I suspect it would have taken them down below the two minute warning. The reason I argue this is that Joe Flacco didn’t appear to me to have a good handle running the two minute offense. Yes, there was more than two minutes left in the game at the time of the hit, but with the need to score twice, Baltimore should have pushed the tempo up. To me, it didn’t seem like Flacco was doing this very well.
Special Teams. Over the last couple years, I’ve always though that a serious weakness of the Steelers was their special teams play. This year, I didn’t get that feeling until today. Hopefully today’s game was just a fluke. How often do punters kick off the side of their foot? Both of Baltimore’s touchdowns were off of shortened field position provided by the Steelers special teams unit. Of course, in the earlier game (Eagles versus Cardinals) there was also some poor special teams play. Maybe it was some weekend curse.
The long ball. I never felt like this was a game that Baltimore could have blown open, but this is a game that the Steelers could have blown open. There were two moments where I felt a touchdown was all but possible, but both Santonio Holmes and Limas Sweed dropped the passes. The Holmes one is understandable – mainly because he’s also was one of the heroes of the game, but Sweed’s was just wrong. I felt the same way about the San Diego game. There were moments where the Steelers were close to a blow out. If the Steelers can work this out just a tad, they will have both a deadly offense and defense for the Super Bowl.
Hines Ward. I do hope he can play two weeks from now. The Steelers offense did seem to get bogged down once he left the game. This is something to stress about over the next two weeks. Fingers crossed.
Offensive line. The offensive line was great against San Diego, but just okay against Baltimore. There were moments where they held the line just longer enough to let Roethlisberger find an open receiver. Other times, Baltimore went straight at Roethlisberger. Of course, Baltimore is the second best defense in the league. The Steelers went after Flacco just as much. Pittsburgh had three sacks, Baltimore four.
Against Arizona. I’m feeling rather positive. The Cardinals do have a great offensive machine. I’ve always loved the Kurt Warner story. I think though that the Steelers will play the pass and allow their front to cover the run just like they did against Baltimore. This will hopefully slow down Warner. I also suspect that the Steelers offense will score more points against the Cardinals. Obviously, Arizona has a good chance at victory, but I think the Steelers have a better chance.
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