Week #5 Steelers 1-3 vs. Ravens 2-2 Gamethread

[Steeler Hitman]

Game Day Location & Time:  Heinz Field on Sunday, October 6, 2019 @ 1 pm

History: 28 - 22 Steelers hold edge.

Surprise stat: Steelers have won 4 of the past 5 games versus the Ravens going back to 2016.  Last Meeting: Steelers defeated the Ravens in Baltimore 23-16. This is typically a back and forth affair. The Ravens had been dominating for a while.  I was very surprised to see that the Steelers have been winning against their rival as late.

Steelers Offensive Keys to Victory

 

1. OL has to play physical and smart. The OL still has not been its usual dominant self in the run game. They did a better job of pass protection this past week, but has also faced four very stout defenses every game. They will experience a fifth on Sunday in the Ravens. Help Mason Rudolph by establishing run and consistently trying to run.  This does not mean being predictable in the run game, but consistent.  Ravens NG/DT Brandon Williams is a beast against the run and a load for any rushing attack.  He was missed last week versus the Browns.

2. Be patient!!!!  The Ravens defense will make teams get out of balance and rhythm, which the Steelers offense has been the majority of the first four games. You must be smart and patient against the Ravens. I would suspect that they are going to stack the LOS and challenge Mason Rudolph to beat them.  He will have to be patient and smart.  I don't expect the surprise Wildcat formations will have the success that it did against the Bengals.  The Ravens will be ready. The Steelers need to find other ways to jump-start the offense and stay on the field.

3. Eliminate three and outs.  The offense has to stay on the field and extend drives.  Three and outs have killed the Steelers as a team the first quarter of the season.  Keeping Mason out of third and long situations or predictable situations for the offense.  I would encourage the team to try to pass on early downs. The Ravens will try to stop the run and our rushing attack may have more success running out of second and two or three than first and ten.  

4. Mason must rise to the occasion and throw the ball downfield.  The Steelers have not utilized their passing attack to the fullest. Ju Ju has been misused and James Washington has been ignored.  Dionte Johnson has surprised on some deep TD passes, but consistency is missing from the downfield passing attack. Nick Vannett was a pleasant surprise and hopefully can be helped with the addition of Vance McDonald and FB Roosevelt Nix.  The underneath passes to Samuels and Connors are nice, but Mason will need to throw some intermediate passes and better utilize all of his weapons or this game could get ugly if the offense can't move the ball and the defense is forced to play 65% of the time.

5. Protect the football.  The Steelers have been good at creating turnovers the past few weeks. They have also given up points due to their own miscues on offense. The Ravens are a tough and well coached football team. You cannot give them additional opportunities to beat you. Throw the ball away, protect the ball and continue to be smart.  It is better to punt and try to flip the field than to hand the ball over on downs or have an untimely fumble or int. 

6. Don't get out-smarted. The Ravens are a very solid football team with a great HC in John Harbaugh.  The Steelers have struggled with getting out-coached in the majority of games this season. Both OC Randy Fichtner and DC Keith Butler will need to be on their A games.  HC Mike Tomlin needs to be at his best as well.

Steelers Defensive Keys to a Victory.

1. Be physical. - - The DL and defense has been gashed at times in the run games and worn out or run down by physical and tough run grinding offenses. The Ravens can do this and can hit you with long passes or gash you with Lamaar Jackson's legs. Get off the field and don't allow the physical Ravens OL to wear you down.

2. Stay disciplined. Penalties and being out of position will lead to first downs, big plays and TD's.  The Ravens are capable of beating the Steelers without these things, so you can't help by allowing LaMaar Jackson to run 15 yards on a third and 12 or convert a pass in that situation.  Play physical, but under control and remain disciplined in the back end.  This will be a stiff test for Minkah and Edmunds as the Ravens will surely try to take some deeps shots with Marquise Brown versus our secondary.

3. Pressure the QB, but don't lose contain. - - No QB likes pressure and especially from up the middle.  TJ and Bud must be careful when coming at Jackson from the outside as he is more than capable of turning a sack into a long gain, especially while the defense is playing man. It is important for everyone to maintain their responsibilities on the field. 

4. Stop the run.  Put the Ravens in must throw situations.  Lamaar can throw, but much of his success is predicated on the Ravens ability to run.  Try to make them one dimensional.  Watch out for TE Mark Andrews. The Steelers have struggled against TE's in coverage and it may be time to adjust from trying to let Barron and Bush cover these good TE's.  It may be time to deploy the third safety or slot guy (Sutton or Hilton) to try to cover the TE. 

5. Continue to be opportunistic! The team could use some help with a few turnovers to keep the ball out of the Ravens hands and help jump-start the offense.  The Steelers cannot lose the turnover battle and expect to win.  This is another really good football team that they are playing. 

6. No big pass plays.  As stated earlier do not let the Ravens kill the defense with 30, 40, or 50 yard big plays.  They will take their shots, so the defense must be up to the challenge.  This will be the difference between second and ten or third and seven and first and ten on our side of the fifty yard line.  Make them earn every yard and force them into making mistakes (penalties, missed assignments and turnovers).

Prediction:  I am really torn on the way this game will go. Tough rivals who know each other well and both are playing with second year QB's who have not played 16 regular season NFL games yet.  My mind is saying Ravens 24 - 16, but my heart is saying Steelers 23 - 20.

 

 

Honeys, Honeys and mo Honeys!

Edited October 3, 2019 by Steeler Hitman
Working on Weekly Thread

[August4th]

stopping the Ravens run game will be key, also Mason is going to have to take some shots down the field, doubt the Ravens will allow him to dink and dunk like he did against the Bengals.

[Chieferific]

15 minutes ago, August4th said:

stopping the Ravens run game will be key, also Mason is going to have to take some shots down the field, doubt the Ravens will allow him to dink and dunk like he did against the Bengals.

Yeah. The Steelers are built for exactly not what the Ravens do. Light NT. Light ILBs. Assuming VW gets in, that adds problems with Sideline to Sideline plays. It's gonna be tough. 

[MOSteelers56]

I think we've got a good shot at beating them. We've got good sideline to sideline speed. We've got CBs that aren't afraid of tackling, the line needs to bring its big boy pants, though. We have to stop Ingram and he's a beast. He's not really the type of back we typically struggle with, though. Minkah, Bush, Barron, and hopefully Vince will need to bring their A games. We need to do well at limiting their TEs, keeping Brown in front, and keeping Lamarr in the pocket. The offense needs to stay on the field too. If the defense is out there too long the Ravens will wear them out and break them.

[Dcash4]

Im just wondering who we trade for this week. My vote is unhappy Adam Theilen

[3rivers]

trade dupree since his value went up? Maybe add artie burns?

[Lambert44]

Big game this week if we want to keep this season interesting. I think its a came they can win.

Jackson loves throwing to his TE's, this is why we drafted Bush and signed Barron and we must make it tough on Ingram.

[MOSteelers56]

8 minutes ago, Lambert44 said:

Big game this week if we want to keep this season interesting. I think its a came they can win.

Jackson loves throwing to his TE's, this is why we drafted Bush and signed Barron and we must make it tough on Ingram.

And traded for Minkah.

Our ILB's and Safeties need to be ready for a fight. We need to stop their running game and TEs. I think our corners should be ok against their WR core.

[kurgan]

20 hours ago, August4th said:

stopping the Ravens run game will be key, also Mason is going to have to take some shots down the field, doubt the Ravens will allow him to dink and dunk like he did against the Bengals.

I agree Mason needs to take a shot or 2, but I like the offense this past week.  Keep it away from that offense.  They can't score if they are not on the field.  Plus, the deep pass was wide open because the Bengals were cheating up.

28 minutes ago, Lambert44 said:

Jackson loves throwing to his TE's, this is why we drafted Bush and signed Barron and we must make it tough on Ingram.

I would NOT advocate for Barron on a TE, especially Edwards this week, after seeing him lose Eifert a # of times.   Maybe make him a QB spy or something.  Use Edmunds or Sutton on the TEs.  But, with VWIll back, Barron may be on the field less anyway.

[Danand]

How do you guys feel about this season? Are Steelers fans mentally in "tank with Rudolph", "lets just see how it goes and try to win as much as possible", "we are still contenders"?

Ravens just got a whooping by the Browns. The defense which we hoped would be the unit we could lead on, is atrocious. Lamar plays beyond expectation, but the offense suffers from too many drops and lapses in concentration which leads to turnovers and lost opportunities.

So basically, this doesn't feel like the usual Ravens-Steelers game, but I hope we are pleasantly surprised sunday.

I will be watching Devin Bush as much as possible. 

[Neumatic]

56 minutes ago, Danand said:

How do you guys feel about this season? Are Steelers fans mentally in "tank with Rudolph", "lets just see how it goes and try to win as much as possible", "we are still contenders"?

Seeing as we don’t have our 1st, tanking is off the table. We absolutely are not contenders. We are just along for the ride

 

[Danand]

1 hour ago, Neumatic said:

Seeing as we don’t have our 1st, tanking is off the table. We absolutely are not contenders. We are just along for the ride

 

So you guys are basically fine with being able to be a pain in the *** and spoil playoff hopes for the Browns and Ravens in the process?

[Chieferific]

6 minutes ago, Danand said:

So you guys are basically fine with being able to be a pain in the *** and spoil playoff hopes for the Browns and Ravens in the process?

I wouldn't go that far. Each team has it's strengths and weaknesses. I don't see any of them being dramatically better then the other. They can all beat or be beat. The Steelers aren't looking to just play the spoiler. It's a 3 team race into the Playoffs. 

[Danand]

1 hour ago, Chieferific said:

I wouldn't go that far. Each team has it's strengths and weaknesses. I don't see any of them being dramatically better then the other. They can all beat or be beat. The Steelers aren't looking to just play the spoiler. It's a 3 team race into the Playoffs. 

From my point of view and various bookies, no one has really written off the Steelers yet. A win sunday and Steelers and Ravens are even, and Browns go into a rough stretch of games.

[Steeler Hitman]

The Steelers need some cohesion and consistency.  They have been lacking that for the past few years.  When they went 13-3, they won games, but were not consistent with their play nor did they always play together as a unit (offense good, defense bad or vice versa). The same has occurred with the coaching as well. One game a great game plan, great execution and smart adjustments.  The next game the opposite. Sometimes they won and sometimes they lost despite this pattern. They had games when  they looked strong and dominant and then very average. The same pattern has been taking place this year as well.

The Steelers need to play together in all four aspects:

1. Offense

2. Defense

3. Special Teams

4. Coaching

It is hard to beat your opponent when you are battling and beating yourself. 

I am encouraged that the team seems to be getting away from the drama and distractions of the past and trying to improve as a team. I don't think that they are trying to tank, simply tread water, nor do I think that they expect this to be a completely smooth cruise. I think they will battle week in and week out.  I still believe that this team is capable of beating ANYONE if they play to their full potential each week. They no longer have a top five QB in Big Ben, one of the best RB's and the best WR in the NFL.  They still didn't win anything with all of those weapons.  They need to learn to put it all together at once.  If that happens, things could get interesting and this team may exceed expectations.  I predict that the defense is going to get surprisingly stronger as the season continues.  If the Steelers can play disciplined football on both sides of the ball, the coaches don't overthink/analyze/ get out-coached consistently and the offense can get a semblance of a running game and throw the ball past five yards consistently, good things can happen for the Steelers. Those are big  If's!