Pittsburgh Steelers Team Grades: Ravens End Losing Streak And Spoil Big Ben's Return
Coming into Sunday's game, the Pittsburgh Steelers had lost two games in a row but some good news was on their side. They were heading into a divisional matchup against the Baltimore Ravens who had lost four games in a row. Making things even better was that starting quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was returning to the line up after missing just one game due to a knee injury.
Unfortunately, that would be the last of the good news on Sunday.
The Baltimore Ravens came out looking like an entirely different team than the one that had been on the field for the last four games of the season. At the end of the day, the Steelers lost by a score of 21-14, but it wasn't even that close of a game for the first three-and-a-half quarters.
Offense: D+
Ben Roethlisberger was back to take his rightful spot at starting quarterback and he didn't play bad, but the Ravens were determined to hound him all day. Big Ben ended the day completing 23-of-45 passes for 264 yards with one touchdown to Antonio Brown. Roethlisberger was also sacked twice and ended up throwing one interception. Eli Rogers led all receivers for the Steelers with 103 yards on six receptions.
Le'Veon Bell seemed almost nonexistent in Sunday's contest after he had received a lot of media attention as the guy who did it all for Pittsburgh. Bell finished with 32 rushing yards on 14 carries and 38 receiving yards on six catches.
The Steelers didn't score their first point until less than nine minutes remained in the game and it was far too little, too late by that point.
Defense: C-
Joe Flacco didn't have a great game. He finished with 241 yards on 18 completions while throwing one touchdown, one interception and being sacked three times. The running game for the Ravens couldn't do much of anything as they finished with just 50 yards on the ground total, and that includes 12 scrambling yards from Flacco.
One person that Pittsburgh could not contain was their own former third-round pick, wide receiver Mike Wallace. The Steelers just couldn't stop him as he caught four balls for 124 yards and one touchdown.
The Steelers' defense didn't play horribly bad, but their backs were against the wall due to the offense never giving them much to work with.
Special Teams: C
Antonio Brown could do nothing in the punt return game as he had three returns for a mere five yards. The Steelers had no kick returns the entire day, so the offense got no help there either.
Chris Boswell hit both of his extra point attempts and didn't have a single field goal attempt. Jordan Berry punted an incredible nine times with a long of 61 yards and pinned the Ravens inside their own 20 yard line on two occasions. Still, without any return yardage at all, the Steelers' offense had to do it all on their own.
Things went from bad to worse when Boswell went for an onside kick near the end of the game that many are saying is the worst onside kick attempt in NFL history.
Coaching: D
It's hard to really understand what happened here or what head coach Mike Tomlin had set as this week's game plan against the Baltimore Ravens. Baltimore had lost four in a row and couldn't get anything going even with the return of his starting quarterback.
It just seemed as if the Steelers went in totally unprepared. Nothing ever seemed to work and they were too far in a hole to even attempt to mount a balanced attack.
The Pittsburgh Steelers have now fallen to 4-4 after losing their third game in a row. The worst part about that streak is that Roethlisberger only missed one of those games, so his absence can't be blamed for the poor play all around. The defense has completely disappeared since somewhat containing Tom Brady a few weeks ago and now, the offense has no firepower at all.
As a matchup with the streaking Dallas Cowboys looms, the Steelers need to get their act together quickly in practice this week or they could fall below .500 very soon.
Post Author: Danny Cox.
