Post Baltimore Thoughts

I know they suck and everything else but I'm glad to get a win in Baltimore. I remember a couple years back when Baltimore won 5 games and 2 were to Pittsburgh. It is early but the division looks great at this point. 1 game + tiebreaker over Baltimore. 2 games + tiebreaker over Cinncy, 3 games + tiebreaker over Cleveland

Cleveland looks as bad as ever so far. The media usually ends up making me feel like they've turned a corner during the summer but another 0 for start, if they lose to the Jets next week they very well could go 0-10  based on their schedule. Hue Jackson is now 1-19 in Cleveland.

Joe Flacco (65.0) and DeShone Kizer (50.9) are ranked 31 and 32 out of 32 in QB rating.

In team defense Steelers are ranked 2 in: Yards per Game, points per game, sacks, forced fumbles

Defensively New England is ranked 32 in yards per game at 456.8  Indianapolis is 31 at 396.3. New England is ranked 31 in points per game allowed, they are 26th in sacks. They are 6th for most sacks allowed.

Ben has only won in Baltimore 2 other times: 2005 and 2008

I'm glad Miami gave Mike Wallace the money to leave Pittsburgh. I was sorry to see him go at the time but in hindsight I would've chipped in a few dollars to help Miami out

Despite not being up to old standards the first 3 games Bell is ranked 5th in yards(324), he is only 38 yds from #2, but Kareem Hunt is #1 at 401 and plays tonight.

Mike Hilton is looking very good thus far. I'm also really liking Ju-Ju early on. It looks like Eli Rogers may have fallen out of favor

These days Terrell Suggs reminds me of the Bumble in Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer TV special after he's had his teeth pulled....maybe Terrell can put some stars on Christmas trees this year....

Forgot one. I wonder if Eric Weddle is as happy now as he was in spring 2016 that he went to Baltimore and not Pittsburgh

I'm happy. It's a win at Baltimore which is rare. Playing them at their house reminds me of playing the Browns at their house in the 80's-90's. It don't matter if they had a crappy team, it was still tough sledding.

2005 and 2008 is the only times Ben won there? well. Hopefully this means... SUPER BOWL!

I like Hilton play him the rest of the year didn't miss Gay and JJ Wilcox is better then Mitchell. the Steelers secondary is playing a lot better than last year by the sack total with most being imo coverage sacks.

what can you say about Shazier? he played a great game him getting air and tipping the ball up for the Hilton INT was a thing of defensive beauty. to me Hilton has better ball in the air awareness then Gay, Gay is more hit the man then playing the ball.

if the Steelers could get another ILB close with speed and athletic as Shazier would make the Steelers base defense a really good run/pass defense.

I think the Steelers 3 WR set is now AB, Bryant, and Ju Ju and Ju Ju is just scatching the surface of his talent.

I know I've been down on Benj maybe this was the game he had to play to get his football feel.

the o-line finally gave Bell some holes to run through made the adjustments on how opposing defensive fronts were defending the Steelers running game. using Lineman/TE, Lineman/FB, combo pulling sweep (like the 60s Green Bay power sweep) then I saw a (70s Steelers) quit trap up the middle old school rushing attack.

effyou515 wrote:

if the Steelers could get another ILB close with speed and athletic as Shazier would make the Steelers base defense a really good run/pass defense.

It would be nice, but unlikely unless we have another top 15 pick in the draft. Big rumor has it that if we didn't pick shazier when we did, dallas was going to snatch him and they were the pick right after us.

But yes he's definitely a special talent, and that athleticism is why the Steelers picked him over Mosley. Mosley is a great player no doubt, but he won't make those types of plays. I think we got the right guy.

Fire Arians wrote:

effyou515 wrote:

if the Steelers could get another ILB close with speed and athletic as Shazier would make the Steelers base defense a really good run/pass defense.

It would be nice, but unlikely unless we have another top 15 pick in the draft. Big rumor has it that if we didn't pick shazier when we did, dallas was going to snatch him and they were the pick right after us.

But yes he's definitely a special talent, and that athleticism is why the Steelers picked him over Mosley. Mosley is a great player no doubt, but he won't make those types of plays. I think we got the right guy.

Yeah, I heard the same. Jerry Jones was either calling him, or already had, and Pittsburgh took him at 15

Thankfully I don't have to listen to these damn ratbird baltimorons at work today.

I really like Hilton. Another nice UDFA find. JuJu is fun and with a name, talent, and how much joy he plays with, he's going to be a quick fan favorite. And man it was nice to see Tuitt back after we thought we may have lost him for the year. And Cam, that man's our leader on defense. Shazier? The guy's just a playmaker. It was nice to see Bell get back into his groove too. I feel good about this team. The most important thing I think is they're creating a strong and young defense that will prepare Ben's successor well and will give him the same early help that Ben had.

LambertWardSteel wrote:

Fire Arians wrote:

effyou515 wrote:

if the Steelers could get another ILB close with speed and athletic as Shazier would make the Steelers base defense a really good run/pass defense.

It would be nice, but unlikely unless we have another top 15 pick in the draft. Big rumor has it that if we didn't pick shazier when we did, dallas was going to snatch him and they were the pick right after us.

But yes he's definitely a special talent, and that athleticism is why the Steelers picked him over Mosley. Mosley is a great player no doubt, but he won't make those types of plays. I think we got the right guy.

Yeah, I heard the same. Jerry Jones was either calling him, or already had, and Pittsburgh took him at 15

Sean Lee and Shazier would have been a beastly duo. But glad we got our guy haha. I honestly think he had pro bowl caliber play his last couple seasons, and would have made it had he stayed healthy the entire year.

Happy about the win in Baltimore also, but not getting too excited.

the ravens got spanked by the jaguars the week before, they're O line is pretty bad and Joe Flacco is a sitting duck out there. He's got to be one of the worst QB's when the pressure is on.

Our D looked good except for the two big run plays. But looking back since the start of the season, we haven't really been tested by a good offense yet, so i'll just say our D looks good - but not great - yet. not until we face a good offense; GB, NE, KC....

Ben doesn't look sharp. Mostly poor decision making more than anything else. I'm actually a bit more confident that the Offense will come around though. Sounds like Ben knows he needs to play better. We've faced the Ravens (don't know what happened with the Jags but they always play us tough) and the Vikings two good D's and we did ok with only half our cylinders working.

Please no more 2 point conversion tries unless we have to get two. Its going to cost us a game eventually.

My thoughts following the Baltimore game are that we're alright from a defensive standpoint. We looked much better with guys like Tuitt and Watt back out on the field. The running game of the Ravens never really got going outside of a couple of runs. The defensive line and the backers were in the backfield most of the game as well. I'm not really worried about the defense, they haven't even hit their ceiling yet. Scary to think how good our defense can be when they are firing on all cylinders.

Offensively, a lot of people seem pretty happy with the fact we won. I'm happy we won, anytime you steal one in Baltimore it's a good win. However, I am still not impressed with the offense. While Bell and Conner did carve up the Raven's defense at times, it should be pointed out that Brandon Williams wasn't playing in this game and would've made a huge difference to their run defense had he been playing. We should've absolutely been lighting them up with the running game, just like the Jaguars did. Still seeing some inconsistency with run blocking from the offensive line. They need to get better. The passing attack is also not exactly inspiring confidence. Ben hasn't looked all that accurate this season, he is overthrowing receivers when his penchant used to be his accuracy on deep throws. I think part of that is just building chemistry again with JuJu being a rookie, and Bryant having missed the entire previous season. Part of it though is Ben just needing to play much better. I'm hoping with more practice and more snaps in game that the offense comes into form. This is supposed to be the strength of this team, but right now it doesn't really look like it to be quite honest.

What scares me about our defense is how we can't stop the run unless Tuitt is in the game. I do love hearing the term "coverage sack".
Shazier,Hilton, Heyward all had an outstanding game and deserve a game ball.

Now that the 4 game "preseason" is over I hope Ben, Bryant and the O-line get on track. Bell seems to be back and ran well. Ben just looks like he is not looking off of his primary and because of that we have a damaged cooler His touch is off. He's throwing floaters when he should be throwing darts and not giving his guys going long enough time to run under his deep balls.

All of these things can be fixed and Jacksonville might be a good test for us.

Juju Smith-Schuster already looks like a budding star, he's got the confidence and it factor you see in players that eventually become playmakers. I like how he bounced back from bad performances early this season, and doesn't allow himself to get down, unlike past wr's that didn't work out because of confidence issues (wheaton / sweed in particular)

speaking of which, I should probably change my avatar, but I won't. The last 2 avatars I've had, the player ended up not working out for us (sanders then wheaton )

IowaSteeler927 wrote:

My thoughts following the Baltimore game are that we're alright from a defensive standpoint. We looked much better with guys like Tuitt and Watt back out on the field. The running game of the Ravens never really got going outside of a couple of runs. The defensive line and the backers were in the backfield most of the game as well. I'm not really worried about the defense, they haven't even hit their ceiling yet. Scary to think how good our defense can be when they are firing on all cylinders.

Offensively, a lot of people seem pretty happy with the fact we won. I'm happy we won, anytime you steal one in Baltimore it's a good win. However, I am still not impressed with the offense. While Bell and Conner did carve up the Raven's defense at times, it should be pointed out that Brandon Williams wasn't playing in this game and would've made a huge difference to their run defense had he been playing. We should've absolutely been lighting them up with the running game, just like the Jaguars did. Still seeing some inconsistency with run blocking from the offensive line. They need to get better. The passing attack is also not exactly inspiring confidence. Ben hasn't looked all that accurate this season, he is overthrowing receivers when his penchant used to be his accuracy on deep throws. I think part of that is just building chemistry again with JuJu being a rookie, and Bryant having missed the entire previous season. Part of it though is Ben just needing to play much better. I'm hoping with more practice and more snaps in game that the offense comes into form. This is supposed to be the strength of this team, but right now it doesn't really look like it to be quite honest.

I agree with this thinking. Even though the D hasn't faced a high flying offense it just seems to have the right feel to it. They seem to be generating the QB pressure that the coaches keep telling us is vital to success for this D and to help out the secondary. I think the secondary has improved with Haden and more experience for Davis and Burns. Heyward and Shazier are beasts. I really like what Hilton brings as an extra piece.

I'd agree the offense isn't where it needs to be but I'm always happy to get out of Baltimore with a win. It seems like they always manage to screw us up no matter who is playing. Getting Bell going for 144 even with the ravens weak DL seems like a great day in Baltimore. I'm hoping this offense is a steady build to peaking the 2nd half of the season. A team like KC may be peaking too soon. Maybe we even get any potential Pats* playoff game in Pittsburgh. I was a little surprised some people actually picking Bucs to beat them tomorrow.