Week 11 Game Thread: Baltimore Ravens

…surprise.

True, but Wallace needs tutoring on getting the feet down inbounds.
And all our WRs need tutoring on how to hold on to the ball.

Yep. And one of those FGs they started at the Steelers’ 15 yard line or so.

Yeah. The announcers were talking about almost the entire game. I’m really curious why, considering his ineffectiveness and his injury, that they didn’t go to Batch. If they had put Batch in did that mean Byron couldn’t have come back in?

Really curious coaching there.

I saw that. Palko is one of them, I believe I read.
Anyhow, here’s what P’s me off: he consistently short-armed throws to wide open receivers, the two biggest, the 3rd down bouncer to Wallace and the vastly underthrown pass to Gilreath on the last drive. You could even make the case that on the pick, he underthrew Sanders.
Of course he’s going to say he’s OK, but the coaches should have pulled him for Batch (20/20 hindsight).

Agreed. And here’s the only reason why I feel a bit better even though we lost and why I have hope for this season: our D showed up. Hopefully, the TO’s will come. We had two chances at picks, Ike’s on the long post and Mundy’s undercut of Smith’s route. Yep, I know what you’re thinking: two hands of stone DBs.

Saw that from EB about Lefty’s ribs. Sucks.
Love your optimism too. I share it b/c our D is playing well again. They just need to cash in on all our chances at TO’s.

The last 3 have been injury fests but this one feels extra special (in that “I ate too much birthday cake and feel like hurling kinda special). I am so blase about injuries at this point that I fully expect ANYONE who makes a nice play or shows promise or is the last man on the depth chart etc…will immediately be blasted into IR immediately. Ben, Redman, Cotchery, Leftwich are the latest…Woodley,Polamalu and Harrison early in the year. It’s just what happens. I say Next Man UP with detached nonchalance and burn another stick of incense in tribute to the injury Gods and their supreme ability to frig up our season. STeel sharpens steel! Thank you sir, may I have another…blah blah..
We paid our dues..hope we get semi healthy and kick some ass down the stretch here.

I completely agree with this. The problem is going to be making that happen.

He just looks bigger than Ziggy. Ziggy seems to get lost sometimes. The plays he does make he looks great and explosive. But I think that he tends to get engulfed by the OL too much.

I think he’s mentally affected by the controversy around his holdout. He’s not my favourite player but I understand his importance to this team.

And this was written less than 6 months ago: http://m.bleacherreport.com/articles/1204426-nfl-7-backup-quarterbacks-who-will-sign-next-big-contracts/page/2

For the sake of making a full-throated defense of the “Smizik is always maximally wrong” position:

1) Leftwich is a backup for a reason – he don’t throw so good. Saying his throws made it obvious he was hurt is 20-20 hindsight bunk. If you’re in the middle of a game, and Lefty is telling you he’s fine, just a little sore, no big deal, what are you gonna do? Send him to the locker room for X-Rays? That’ll take half an hour at least – in a close game, the difference between a healthy Leftwich and healthy Chaz Batch for a quarter could be the difference between winning and losing. Not to mention what happens if Charlie gets broken in half – as he is wont to do – while Leftwich is laying pads-off in an MRI in the locker room? Who’s your QB then?

If its Ben, its a different story – he’s your franchise QB, so you don’t just run him back out there if he says he’s fine and you’ve got both Leftwich and Batch on the sidelines. Leftwich is a fungible commodity, so if he says nothing’s wrong, and you’re only a Chaz Batch away from running a no-QB offense, you’ve got to run him back out there.

2) I agree that you run 2 plays, and that one of them should probably be a run. But you don’t run twice. That argument is the quintessential Bob Smizik ignoramus yinzer idea. Run the ball – its Steeler football! Bullshit. Its 2012, throw a pass. The 3rd down playcall was a great one, and almost worked. Its the 4th down call that was wrong.

I also feel like if the Steelers had (correctly) gone for it on 4th-and-2 from the 4, Smizik would be writing how bad that was, and how you have to kick the FG. Just sayin’

3) The TOs proved important, blowing them was bad. However, at the time, given how close the game was, it was the right thing to do. But, mostly, how is this a coaching problem? Leftwich didn’t get the O set fast enough, and got confused trying to read the D.

Moreover, let’s give the other guys a little credit here. Baltimore has historically been a good defense, and as we all know, part of what makes a defense good is its ability to confuse the offense pre-snap. We see teams blowing TOs against our defense all the time – we shouldn’t be too shocked when it happens to our offense against another good (or, at least, well-schemed) defense.

And, to top it all off, Leftwich is the backup, in an offensive system that’s in its first year in Pittsburgh. This is still a new system, and he doesn’t get the reps Ben does. Its not unreasonable to expect that he’ll be slow getting the O set once or twice.

Its unfortunate, but its hardly unexpectable, unexplainable, or on the coaching staff’s head.

I don’t get it either. We have an excellent staff who always find a way to keep the players that absolutely must be kept, dump the ones who don’t fit anymore etc. I truly suck at all things math and my eyes reflexively glaze over when I see columns of salary cap numbers but apparently this does NOT happen ever to Omar Khan. Which we should be grateful for. Photo may or may not be a flattering likeness.