[News] The Breakdown: Eisenberg's Five Thoughts vs. Pittsburgh Steelers

[BR News]

This win changes everything. What Ravens defense did so right. Even though it didn't gain many yards, the rushing offense was the difference. Blocking kicks is officially a trend.

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[Fastynart]

I was glad to see Webb have a good game. He is a good guy but has been slowed by injuries and it has hurt his performances. Also. Young and Jimmy Smith played well. The line did its job against the rush, but, once again, no pressure on the quarterback. Roethlisberger looked as bad or worse than Flacco. Take away that one Flacco pass to Wallace, and he did nothing the whole game. Three and outs constantly. Given the ball inside the opponents territory and come away with nothing. While it is good to get a win, especially against the hated Steelers, nothing much has changed. The offense is still inept. Joe is still underperforming. The defense still has no pass rush. Even so, they should beat the worst NFL team, the Browns and, thanks to the mediocre division they are in, they have a chance.

[Wildwest Raven]

I'm happy for the Defense and Special teams..thank you guys!!. The Offense still looks horrible, too many 3 n out's when we needed them to at least give the D a rest.

[Black&purple#55]

Tavon young & Jimmy Smith looks impressive. Flacco sucks

[jravens1313]

The defense was awesome today! How does Harbaugh not use 1 timeout in the 4th quarter when our defense was on the field for 34 snaps. Our D-Line was gassed out and couldn't get a rush. Our offense had two 3&Outs, and we had one punt block. That was insane management by Harbaugh and almost gave the Steelers the game. Young was so impressive. He is going to be special.

Our offense needs to become run first. Protect the football, protect Joe like he is a rookie again. Flacco forces the ball to Pitta way too often, and that interception while in field goal range was an embarrassing decision.

Oh yeah...Tucker is AMAZING!!!

[outkast1]

Please draft a QB next year !

[RavensBaltimore]

Saying the offense was better because they didn't abandon the run makes no sense. The offense was just as bad if not worse than when we were throwing it 40+ times. Running did not keep Roethlisberger off the field. Our defense did. When your defense gets as many 3 and outs as they did, you should have the ball a lot more than 4 mins longer than your opponent. Playing conservative like that is not going to get us anywhere. Our defense was good, but we were helped out by the fact that Roethlisberger was terrible. If we are going to get back to winning consistently, the offense is going to have to open it up a little more and put some points on the board, and the o-line has to improve.

[Flamengo1265]

Happy about the victory but the Ravens offense is still more messed up than Edward Scissorhand's tackle box. They played horribly in the 2nd half and Joe Flacco's back foot passing technique needs some work. Maybe the Ravens could hire a coach to teach the o-line how to run block.

[cobrajet]

51 minutes ago, Fastynart said:

I was glad to see Webb have a good game. He is a good guy but has been slowed by injuries and it has hurt his performances. Also. Young and Jimmy Smith played well. The line did its job against the rush, but, once again, no pressure on the quarterback. Roethlisberger looked as bad or worse than Flacco. Take away that one Flacco pass to Wallace, and he did nothing the whole game. Three and outs constantly. Given the ball inside the opponents territory and come away with nothing. While it is good to get a win, especially against the hated Steelers, nothing much has changed. The offense is still inept. Joe is still underperforming. The defense still has no pass rush. Even so, they should beat the worst NFL team, the Browns and, thanks to the mediocre division they are in, they have a chance.

I could not agree more about Webb. I was so glad to see him have a very good game.

[Maurice0094]

I'm not worried about Stanley because he will go through some learning pains. Flacco needs to stop being so jittery because he had time on a few occasions. I can see Young being a real factor on the outside at CB. The biggest group that need to mesh together is O-line and then the OLB/DE's no pass rush was given to help the secondary that did well overall.

[dirtybird66]

as pointed out the #6 pick in the draft CANNOT be counted on in the run game,isn't that what we want to do first,bring LEWIS back at tackle and put stanley somewhere ekse,or how bout this,swictch them up on passing downs.

[dirtybird66]

STANLEY and may I point out must not of wanted to dissapoint the fans back in western PA.

[dirtybird66]

believe it or not HARRISON was a RAVEN! but he played too tough and physical so the RAVENS let him go,he always seems to get the last laugfh,even at 40 years old! nice move ravens!

[purpledown]

Sign Brandon Williams.

[Moderator 3]

2 minutes ago, dirtybird66 said:

believe it or not HARRISON was a RAVEN! but he played too tough and physical so the RAVENS let him go,he always seems to get the last laugfh,even at 40 years old! nice move ravens!

That's pure crap. 

[ravens4life86]

Eisenberg gets it, this week.

Balance is the Ravens key to success.
While 50 yards is not much, 29 rushes kept the Time of possession in our favor, keot the defense fresh, and kept Joe under 40 passes.

Check the record this year alone..Joe passes 40x = 4 losses, Under 40 passes =4 wins.

Big plays, Wallace TD, Block punt TD

[Ravensfolyfe]

We look like the Ravens of old,defense,special teams and no offense. Ravens needed this win bad now control you're destiny.

[law215]

1. A key to the Ravens winning formula is to keep Flacco throws under 35. Flacco needs to work on his game mentality and accuracy with passes. He is better than what he is showing this year.
The scramble shows physically he is back from the knee, so I think it is just a matter of time and offseason focus on fundamentals until gets back to stepping into throws.

Flacco was not alone in mistakes. The holding and procedure calls killed drives at times. 1st and 15-20 is hard to overcome.

Coaches stuck with the run even though it was not working. They let the defense and special teams win. That is usually Ravens winning football. The 2012 playoff with the team on QB’s shoulders is an anomaly.

2. Got to give Pees and defensive coaching staff some credit. I usually beat him down, but Pees finds a way to consistently shut down the Steelers. He prepares against the Steelers and Patriots as well as any DC in the league with less talent in the secondary.

3. That interior line of the Ravens defense is the real deal. Ravens must keep Williams. Williams, Jernigan, Pierce dominated the line. They made Steelers one dimensional.


4. The special teams was great today. They found a way to block yet another kick, Tucker is the best, Koch flipped field position with every punt, and the coverage unit made Brown a non-factor.

5. I like some of these young players. Young did a good job, Orr and Mosley were all over the field, Judon was bringing pressure, and quietly Pierce helped control the middle. He and Williams in the middle is like running into a brick wall. They are still a few pieces away, but we have some young talent.

[mearzunkies]

believe it or not HARRISON was a RAVEN! but he played too tough and physical so the RAVENS let him go,he always seems to get the last laugfh,even at 40 years old! nice move ravens!

This is true.

[gregob56]

I beginning to lose faith in Flacco.  Joe needs some coaching up on his mechanics.  I counted one pass, all day, where his weight was going forward when he released the ball.  I am not a QB expert by any means.  But, any football fan can see he has tunnel vision and his pocket awareness is regressing.  

In training camp he was working on throwing to a spot for his receivers to meet the ball.  Haven't seen that at all this season.  Instead he is throwing behind, low or way overhead.  He needs to get better quick as the second half of the season, the tougher part of the schedule is upon us.

[CQ1]

Thank you for the victory! I will leave it at that without lamenting on any dire play from our QB- asides from the ONE nice pass to Wallace.
Mallet against Cleveland? Joe needs alooooooong break.

[designermaryland]

Flacco is complete garbage at this point. We would be better off if he had torn up his knee on his uncoordinated slide attempt. Continual 3 and outs. Cannot capitalize on defense and special teams giving them turnovers and field position. No offensive flow or ability to exploit any coverage because he is clueless and suddenly inaccurate. How we find ourselves in first place is beyond me, but if the offense cant produce 2 first downs in a row, they will not stay in contention for long. Essentially (again) the offense made 1 big play on the Wallace TD, then was abysmal for the other 59 minutes of the game. Had it not been for a blocked punt, Flacco would not have been bailed out of a loss.

[Jim from Ellicott City]

So what has changed? The offense generated 274 yard of offense with 95 yard coming on the only TD scored by the offense. The Defense scored a TD as did the Special Teams unit. The Ravens Offense is anemic and Flacco is just terrible. I know I should not say this but I was hoping he hurt himself on that slide (if you can call that a slide). I did not want him hurt..hurt. I just wanted to see what Mallett could do.

[designermaryland]

I beginning to lose faith in Flacco.  Joe needs some coaching up on his mechanics.  I counted one pass, all day, where his weight was going forward when he released the ball.  I am not a QB expert by any means.  But, any football fan can see he has tunnel vision and his pocket awareness is regressing.  

In training camp he was working on throwing to a spot for his receivers to meet the ball.  Haven't seen that at all this season.  Instead he is throwing behind, low or way overhead.  He needs to get better quick as the second half of the season, the tougher part of the schedule is upon us.

i agree. but he is beyond help really. if you are a veteran of 9 years and are still perplexed by man coverage or blitzing and cant figure out how to counter your blocking or audible into a favorable hot read, you are probably not going to win many games.

[757RavensFan]

1 hour ago, outkast1 said:

Please draft a QB next year !

Next year is a horrible draft for QBs. 

[757RavensFan]

10 minutes ago, designermaryland said:

Flacco is complete garbage at this point. We would be better off if he had torn up his knee on his uncoordinated slide attempt. Continual 3 and outs. Cannot capitalize on defense and special teams giving them turnovers and field position. No offensive flow or ability to exploit any coverage because he is clueless and suddenly inaccurate. How we find ourselves in first place is beyond me, but if the offense cant produce 2 first downs in a row, they will not stay in contention for long. Essentially (again) the offense made 1 big play on the Wallace TD, then was abysmal for the other 59 minutes of the game. Had it not been for a blocked punt, Flacco would not have been bailed out of a loss.

That's a crappy thing to say. 

[picke]

The offense is still a work in progress with a QB that doesn't seem to progress much at all. Vision, decision and precision...all Flacco issues.

[terpmaniac]

Man the first two drives by the Ravens were killed by stupid penalties both times. Flacco's interception came after a first down by Aiken was nullified by an illegal shift penalty. I agree about while the run game was pretty bad, we stuck with it. Remember it was 21-0 with just over 8 minutes left to play. Keep that in mind.

[Jim from Ellicott City]

  16 minutes ago, designermaryland said:

Flacco is complete garbage at this point. We would be better off if he had torn up his knee on his uncoordinated slide attempt. Continual 3 and outs. Cannot capitalize on defense and special teams giving them turnovers and field position. No offensive flow or ability to exploit any coverage because he is clueless and suddenly inaccurate. How we find ourselves in first place is beyond me, but if the offense cant produce 2 first downs in a row, they will not stay in contention for long. Essentially (again) the offense made 1 big play on the Wallace TD, then was abysmal for the other 59 minutes of the game. Had it not been for a blocked punt, Flacco would not have been bailed out of a loss.

That's a crappy thing to say. 

I agree that it may be a crappy thing to say but what if most of the problems on offense are related to Flacco. Remember, the Ravens floundered behind Kyle Boller for years. I will never have patience like that again for the QB position. I would really like to see what Mallett can do. I can not believe that he can be much worse. So far this season (thru 8 games) he has a whopping 6 TD's which ranks his at 31st. It would be worse but the QB's with fewer TD's have missed games due to injuries.

[TheRavengers]

Just so you know, Flacco's stats for the day aren't exactly awful, they're average, nothing mind-blowing but nothing horrific. Of the 12 passes that were incompletions, 1 was an INT, some were over/underthrows and the rest were ones that the receivers in question should've had the sense to catch.

Flacco DOES need to get it together and throw for more than 1 TD a game, because 6 TDs on the year is nothing to be proud of, but some of that also falls on the receivers who need to make the catches, too. Having a 95-yard pass play is awesome and I'm glad I saw it but it needs to not be the only offensive highlight of the day, they play just "good enough" offense, not "let's beat the other team into a pulp" offense.