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Week 20 Game Recap: Baltimore Ravens 14, Pittsburgh Steelers 23
What you need to know
| Baltimore Ravens |
The Ravens had difficulty sustaining drives against Pittsburgh's defense and as a result did not have many scoring opportunities. Baltimore's best offensive weapon was Willis McGahee, who accounted for both of their touchdowns. McGahee did not have a stellar average per carry number, but did show some explosiveness and quickness on several runs that enabled him to turn a play that potentially would have lost yardage into modest gains. He used that quickness and acceleration on his two touchdown runs, accelerating straight through the line on a three yard scoring run, and sidestepping tacklers and escaping to the outside on his one yard touchdown. McGahee was the featured running back by far in this game, with his backups only garnering a combined two carries.
Joe Flacco looked uncomfortable throughout the game. He was under duress from constant blitzes and rarely had time to step into his throws. As a result he missed receivers when they broke open, and his day was punctuated by being intercepted three times. Flacco looked for Derrick Mason and Mark Clayton a lot, targeting them ten and eight times respectively, but with little success. He overthrew Mason twice, and two other passes to Mason were intercepted. Three of the passes thrown to Clayton were out of his reach and two others were deflected by Steelers defenders.
The Ravens attempted five plays on two possession in the red zone, and scored two touchdowns, both on rushes by McGahee, who had all three of the red zone rushing attempts. The two red zone passes were all to Mason, one too high in the end zone and the other resulting in a penalty called on Mason's defender.
| Pittsburgh Steelers |
The Steelers made enough plays to come away with the victory, most of them by Ben Roethlisberger and their defense. Despite not being able to generate much on the ground, Pittsburgh did not abandon the run, and Willie Parker kept plugging away. Parker ran hard at Baltimore's defense, but was held to less than 2.0 yards per rushing attempt as he was unable to break free. Twenty of Parker's 24 rushing attempts gained three yards or less, but he was able to help his team win the time of possessionn.
Ben Roethlisberger played very well against a defense that came after him with a lot of blitzes. Roethlisberger showed good pocket presence and moved around very efficiently in the pocket and made several plays by escaping outside the pocket and connecting with receivers who got open thanks to him buying them additional time. Roethlisberger was without the services of Hines Ward, who left the game in the first quarter with a leg injury. Ward returned and tried to play but left for the remainder of the game after catching a short pass in the first quarter. Roethlisberger adjusted well and utilized his other receivers well, and would have had even better numbers if not for a couple of potential big plays that did not materialize. Santonio Holmes appeared to score a touchdown after making a great effort to get into the end zone, but was ruled to have never secured the ball, and Limas Sweed dropped a deep pass just ouside the end zone with no defender close enough to prevent him from scoriing had he caught the ball.
The Steelers only had two plays in the red zone on one possession, which was their opening drive of the game. Parker ran for a couple of yards and Roethlisberger overthrew Heath Miller. The possession concluded with a field goal, which was Pittsburgh's first points on an opening drive in their last nine games.
What you ought to know
| QB Joe Flacco, Pass: 13 - 30 - 141 - 0 TD / 3 INT, Rush: 2 - -8 - 0 |
Flacco was under pressure from a very aggresive pass rush from the Steelers who blitzed Flacco on most of his passing attempts. Flacco did attempt to make some plays, but was largely unsuccessful when he tried to take some shots downfield. Of the 16 passes he threw that were 15 or more yards, he missed recievers five times, in large part to being forced to throw early, and had four other passes deflected by Pittsburgh defenders. Another one of those passes was intercepted and returned for a touchdown.
| RB Willis McGahee, Rush: 20 - 60 - 2, Rec: 2 - 13 - 0 (2 targets) |
McGahee ran very hard and at times appeared on the verge of breaking free for a big gain, but the Steelers' defense prevented him from breaking loose. He did manage to score two short yardage touchdowns. With less than five minutes remaining in the game, he took a vicious hit to the head and after being treated on the field was carted off on a stretcher in a cart. It was reported that McGahee was alert and able to speak and move his limbs, but had considerable pain in his neck.
| RB Ray Rice, Rush: 1 - 2 - 0, Rec: 3 - 43 - 0 (4 targets) |
Rice took short passes and ran well after securing them to gain significant yards as an outlet receiver. The only target he did not catch was thrown off target and richoted off his fingers, was intercepted.
| RB LeRon McClain, Rush: 1 - 3 - 0 (1 targets) |
McClain made two brief appearances in the game.
| WR Mark Clayton, Rush: 1 - 16 - 0, Rec: 2 - 18 - 0 (8 targets) |
Clayton was targeted on intermediate or deep throws six times, but was unable to come up with any big plays. Some of the passes were thrown out of his reach, others were deflected by a Pittsburgh defender and the one he caught was ruled out of bounds.
| WR Derrick Mason, Rec: 3 - 41 - 0 (10 targets) |
Mason made a couple nice catches while running mostly intermediate routes, but did drop at least one ball and had a couple other passes deflected by his defender. In addition, two of the passes thrown to him were intercepted, including one for a touchdown.
| WR Marcus Smith (1 targets) |
Smith managed to draw a penalty on his defender on his lone target, which was in the end zone. His team scored from the one yard line on the next play.
| TE Todd Heap, Rec: 3 - 26 - 0 (5 targets) |
Heap was used mostly on short pass routes. His modest numbers could have been slightly enhanced as he was open on a couple of plays where he was targeted but the ball was not delivered accurately.
| PK Matt Stover 0 - 0 FG, 2 - 2 XP, 2 points |
Stover made both of his point after attempts and did not have any field goal attempts.
| BAL Rush Defense |
Baltimore's rush defense was unyielding. They refused to be pushed off the line of scrimmage and corralled Willie Parker before he could gain any momentum. The defensive linemen and linebackers constantly tackled him at or just a yard past the line of scrimmage.
| BAL Pass Defense |
The Ravens blitzed Roethlisberger constantly and applied pressure throughout. However they gave up some big plays as Roethlisberger was able to escape the pass rush and deliver passes to his receivers to sustain drives.
| QB Ben Roethlisberger, Pass: 16 - 33 - 255 - 1 TD / 0 INT, Rush: 2 - -2 - 0 |
Roethlisberger overcame a back injury he suffered during the first quarter where he received treatment on the sideline and the loss of Hines Ward to make several big plays to lead his team to victory. Roethlisberger did not miss any time and displayed excellent mobility in evading a stiff Ravens pass rush several times to buy his receivers additional time to get open. Roethlisberger proved accurate both in the pocket and out of the pocket, and distributed the ball to nine different receivers, making good decisions as to who to target. His numbers could have been enhanced if not for a ruling that Holmes did not have possession of a pass that he appeared to have caught for a touchdown, and for Limas Sweed not dropping a well thrown deep pass a couple of yards outside of the end zone with no Baltimore defender to prevent him from scoring.
| RB Willie Parker, Rush: 24 - 47 - 0, Rec: 1 - -2 - 0 (2 targets) |
Parker ran with determination and did not shy away from taking on Baltimore's defenders, but was unable to have any big plays in large part to the stout Ravens defense. Pittsburgh kept giving him the ball, and Parker was able to help his team win the time of possession battle.
| RB Mewelde Moore, Rush: 1 - 6 - 0, Rec: 1 - 9 - 0 (2 targets) |
Moore's involvement was more as a pass blocker and on special teams.
| RB Carey Davis, Rec: 1 - 20 - 0 (1 targets) |
Davis took his only offensive play of the game and turned it into a good 20 yard run after catching a short pass.
| WR Nate Washington, Rush: 1 - 1 - 0, Rec: 3 - 21 - 0 (7 targets) |
Washington was used almost exclusively on short routes, but was unable to break free for many gains.
| WR Hines Ward, Rec: 3 - 55 - 0 (3 targets) |
Ward once again showed his toughness by returning after hurting his knee and limping on the sidelines in obvious pain, by returning and making a catch. However he was held out the remainder of the game. He caught all the passes thrown to him, including one where he ran very well after the catch for significant yards.
| WR Limas Sweed, Rec: 2 - 20 - 0 (4 targets) |
Sweed had some opportunities to make plays with Ward missing most of the game, but did not capitalize on an opportunity where he was open deep, the ball was well thrown, and he dropped it with no one between him and the end zone. Sweed's best play came when he prevented his defender from catching an underthrown pass to him in the end zone by breaking up the pass.
| WR Santonio Holmes, Rec: 2 - 70 - 1 (7 targets) |
Holmes had an eventful game. He made what appeared to be a great effort to catch a pass and stretch the ball into the end zone while being tackled, but was ruled to have not had control of the ball. On another occasion he was targeted in the end zone, but the Ravens' defensive back made a good play to break up the pass. Holmes did get into the end zone by taking an intermediate pass and running through traffic before turning on his speed to outrun the defense for the score.
| TE Heath Miller, Rec: 3 - 62 - 0 (5 targets) |
Miller was targeted deep a few times, including once in the end zone that was thrown out of his reach. He made a big play on a second and 24 play by running a deep pass route very well, and catching the pass for a first down to extend a drive late in the game.
| PK Jeff Reed 3 - 3 FG, 2 - 2 XP, 11 points |
Reed made both of his point after attempts and all three of his field goals, which were from 34, 42 and 46 yards.
| PIT Rush Defense |
Pittsburgh's rush defense was solid, holding the Ravens' running backs to a collective 2.9 yards per carry average and only allowing three runs of over four yards. However they did allow two short yardage rushing touchdowns.
| PIT Pass Defense |
The Steelers' pass defense was aggresive and outstanding in all facets. They blitzed constantly and in addition to sacking Flacco three times, forced him to throw errantly on numerous other instances. Their defensive backfield contributed by playing excellent defense on Baltimore's receivers, and intercepted three passes. The dominance of the pass rush was summed up on two consecutive plays late in the fourth quarter when, after sacking Flacco intercepted him and returned it for a touchdown to seal the victory.