Wk 5 vs BAL 1.

[ATL96Steeler]

The 1-3 Steelers fresh off their 1st win of the season on MNF convincingly over the Bengals now get the defending champion Ravens this week. The 2-2 Ravens looked good in weeks 1 and 2 vs inferior teams rushing out to a 2-0 start. The last two games have been vs stiffer competition in KC and CLE...the game last week against the Browns had to be a slap in the face. CLE went into BAL without both starting safeties and won by 2 TDs.

The Ravens come in ranked 1st on OFC, and 23rd on DEF...not typical of a Ravens team to be leading the league in scoring, but it just goes to show that early season rankings don't really mean that much. They walloped MIA with 59 pts in week one to spike the average. The rush DEF the last two games has been surprisingly unlike the Ravens...they gave up 140 to KC and 193 to CLE on the ground.

The Steelers have won 4 of the last 5 in this rivalry...last year was a split with both teams winning on the road. The Ravens are the #1 rushing team in the league. I watched the KC and CLE games...on OFC they look very much the same...the read option is still a part of their OFC, with Jackson carrying the ball less than year, mostly on keep the chains moving downs. He is going down field with many of his passes, they still feature TEs in the passing game but Marquise Brown is flourishing early and Mark Ingram has been the primary RB, very effective so far with 5 TDs.

Injuries

Vince Williams ILB questionable
Cameron Heyward DE questionable
Vance McDonald TE questionable
Jayrone Elliott LB questionable
Anthony Chickillo DE out

Add Nix to the Out list

With a MNF game the week is a tad shorter than normal with and Sunday game to follow...hopefully Heyward and McDonald can practice between now and Fri.

Outlook

Vegas has the Steelers as 3.5 home dogs in this one. I love that position for the Steelers who can lose focus when things are going well...their backs are still very much against the wall. The Ravens will be a stiffer challenge than CIN, but I like their chances if they tighten up their run DEF. The Ravens DEF might be without Brandon Williams. They have people that can get to the QB, but they are not the Ravens of old in that department. For a team that game plans against the Steelers better than any other team aside from maybe NE, seeing the game last week had to put that staff on OT as they have some Rudolph plays to prepare for.

I'm going 23-17 PIT

What say you?

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

I have a feeling this one is going to be a stressful game. Steelers defense is really going to have to clamp down like they did last week for them to have any chance. Offense showed signs of life, but they still haven't opened things up. Mainly because Mason has been scared of the deep ball. Ravens are good against the short pass and Mason will have to look for the intermediate routes a lot more. Which scares me a lot because some of these WRs have a hard time creating separation.

Offense... As I said before, Mason's gotta connect further down the field to open things up underneath. It's no secret that the Steelers offense is extremely placid. They are only averaging <4 air yds per pass. Meaning Mason wants to dump the ball off. Expect the Ravens D to spread their 2nd level into zones and let the DBs man up. They'll challenge the PIT O to open things up. Hopefully they can recreate the same success that Jarvis Landry had on the drag/cross/underneath routes. Things could get ugly if not. Keeping the chains moving will be essential in this game. Cleveland had a great game running the ball on them last week, so hopefully Conner & Samuels can get things going.

Defense... Want to see everything that we saw last week against the Bengals. Worries me about Heyward's availability. Without him this defense has always suffered immensely. But they should be getting VWill back which will be nice. Should see Barron & Bush playing a lot of spy on Lamar Jackson this week. Keeping him contained is going to be tough. But even more so is keeping their rushing attack bottled up. Ingram is having a great year, and the Ravens O-line is good. Keeping the ILBs clean in this game will be a tougher task.

Nailbiter but somehow they find a way.

PIT 23 - BAL 21

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

 

[Superbelt]

 

[ATL96Steeler]

I have a feeling this one is going to be a stressful game. Steelers defense is really going to have to clamp down like they did last week for them to have any chance. Offense showed signs of life, but they still haven't opened things up. Mainly because Mason has been scared of the deep ball. Ravens are good against the short pass and Mason will have to look for the intermediate routes a lot more. Which scares me a lot because some of these WRs have a hard time creating separation.

Offense... As I said before, Mason's gotta connect further down the field to open things up underneath. It's no secret that the Steelers offense is extremely placid. They are only averaging <4 air yds per pass. Meaning Mason wants to dump the ball off. Expect the Ravens D to spread their 2nd level into zones and let the DBs man up. They'll challenge the PIT O to open things up. Hopefully they can recreate the same success that Jarvis Landry had on the drag/cross/underneath routes. Things could get ugly if not. Keeping the chains moving will be essential in this game. Cleveland had a great game running the ball on them last week, so hopefully Conner & Samuels can get things going.

Defense... Want to see everything that we saw last week against the Bengals. Worries me about Heyward's availability. Without him this defense has always suffered immensely. But they should be getting VWill back which will be nice. Should see Barron & Bush playing a lot of spy on Lamar Jackson this week. Keeping him contained is going to be tough. But even more so is keeping their rushing attack bottled up. Ingram is having a great year, and the Ravens O-line is good. Keeping the ILBs clean in this game will be a tougher task.

Nailbiter but somehow they find a way.

PIT 23 - BAL 21

I think they find a way too.

Mason deep ball...the all22 just dropped so I will check it out during lunch, but off my memory, he only threw 2 or 3 deep balls...the one to Holton (OPI), the TD to Johnson, and one other one I thought. Definitely will need to force BAL to respect the deep ball to get the underneath routes to work. The OFC overall...I like the duo RB pkg and love getting 30 & 38 on LBs in space, but another thing I like is Mason goes under center more than Ben did so at some point they can run some play action if they get something going with the run game. They can also do some bootlegs with him...stuff I'm sure they practice against a lot with Jackson, but it's not something they typically see the Steelers do.

DEF...they are well suited to defend a Jackson led team with Bush on the field...I want to see them make it a hard day for Ingram....they can survive Jackson making a few plays running as long as they're not scoring plays, but Ingram AND Jackson will be a problem. BAL already have 53 targets to TEs (32 to Andrews alone) in 4 games so Barron, Bush and Edmunds will all need to play well in coverage.

 

[Bridgeburner]

I hate the fucking Ravens.

Steelers 749
Ratbirds 0

 

[thedddd]

Steelers - 27
Ravens - 24

Chris Boswell continues his clutch season with a game winning FG.

I hope they figure out how to stop a mobile QB, IE...getting exposed by Russell Wilson who isn't even that mobile.

 

[thedddd]

I am going to make one bold prediction:

 

[ATL96Steeler]

I hope Randy opens this thing up early in this game...imo the Ravens DEF is not that great on the edge, and LBs in coverage can be attacked...trying to pound it against Brandon Williams rarely works, but he’s still hobbled...my guess is he will try to go.

Not much on tape to Washington...has to have 1 or 2 deep attempts in this one you would think.

 

[Yo Tee]

If we keep opening up the playbook like we did last week, we will probably have the same success, but this is a rivalry game and we all know how rivalry games go. 7-8 in the last 9 years including the playoffs and we are 5-6 at home against the Ravens in the last 10 years. Lamar Jackson is slippery and, as proven with the game against Seattle, we can get to him early and often but can't keep that up throughout the entire game. I would love to see Mason take more shots down the field but our defense is gonna need to keep the pressure on Lamar Jackson no matter what. I can see us winning this but I can also see us easily losing this game.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Juju active today. So is VANCE! LFG!

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Hope we get to see some 12 personnel today. Vannett & McDonald could be nasty up the seams.

@ATL96Steeler @Superbelt

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Could see a familiar face at BAL ILB today...

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

This guy gets it...

 

[Ojb81]

sorry, but i'm not convinced by what the Steelers did to a pitiful Bengals team last Monday night. Harbaugh and his staff habitually come into this game with the lesser roster and are still usually able to coach circles around our brain trust headed by the grand idiot himself. I can EASILY see the Steelers coming out flat, under-prepared, with no fire, no passion, no energy, and a ridiculous game plan on offense that does little to move the ball and score points. I can EASILY see this team feeling all warm and fuzzy after this past Monday night, and then summarily getting the shit kicked out of them by a Baltimore team that just got embarrassed in their own stadium by the upstart Browns.

Ravens 36
Steelers 17

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

sorry, but i'm not convinced by what the Steelers did to a pitiful Bengals team last Monday night. Harbaugh and his staff habitually come into this game with the lesser roster and are still usually able to coach circles around our brain trust headed by the grand idiot himself. I can EASILY see the Steelers coming out flat, under-prepared, with no fire, no passion, no energy, and a ridiculous game plan on offense that does little to move the ball and score points. I can EASILY see this team feeling all warm and fuzzy after this past Monday night, and then summarily getting the shit kicked out of them by a Baltimore team that just got embarrassed in their own stadium by the upstart Browns.

Ravens 36
Steelers 17

I feel you.

Bracing myself for the "execution" blame game.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

WTF? Vince is active and Barron gets the dot? @Superbelt

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Caption this

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Caption this

"You see Jon, the trick to being a terrible head coach is to..."

 

[Pure Steel]

Just win today, Browns lose tomorrow and all is good......kind of...