Joe Flacco had the ball and 92 yards of Heinz Field's beat-up grass between him and a Ravens victory. Steeler fans were confident. So was Flacco. 

Flacco dinked and dunked his way down the field like he had all night and Torrey Smith atoned for an earlier TD drop by pulling in a 26-yard TD pass from Flacco with 0:08 seconds left to seal the win for Baltimore.

It's a shame because the Steelers played a gutsy performance despite missing many key components of their team. The offensive line -- specifically Max Starks and Ramon Foster -- did an oustandaing job all night long. Larry Foote played an inspiring game in James Farrior's spot. James Harrison looked like his old self.

But, in the end, the Steelers allowed the Ravens to go 14 out of 21 on 3rd downs, including the winning pass to Smith. Flacco worked William Gay and Keenan Lewis all game long and exposed the Steelers defense with underneath routes. The Ravens offensive game plan seemed to be pass to TE, check down to Rice, delay to Rice, throw the ball up for grabs and hope for a pass interference call. Sadly, it worked. Dennis Pitta had a big game, joining a long line of white TEs who have plagued the Steelers in recent years. 

The Steelers secondary was especially awful during the Ravens' last drive. They seemed content to give Flacco free 10-yard completions the whole way down the field. The Ravens wisely moved Anquan Boldin into the slot and he dominated Gay during the drive.

It must be said that the Steelers offense didn't help the defense out much either. Roethlisberger threw a redzone interception to start the 2nd half and the Steelers had to settle for two short Shuan Suisham field goals earlier in the game.

Pittsburgh also committed 6 penalties for 69 yards. Some were certainly questionable. Ryan Clark was correctly flagged for a helmet-to-helmet hit that led to a Ravens FG. But Ray Lewis knocked Hines Ward out of the game with a similar hit earlier that went unflagged. Ike Taylor was called for pass interference in the endzone which led to an ensuing Ravens TD. It was not the correct call. 

While it is easy to get frustrated at the inconsistent officiating, the Steelers have plenty of blame to spread around their locker room for this one. The bottom line was that the team had the lead with 2 minutes and change to go and they let Joe Flacco take it away. That drive can never happen if you want to win that game.

There is still a ton of football to be played. The Ravens haven't clinched the division or the Super Bowl yet, contrary to what people may believe. The Steelers have a huge game with the confident Bengals next week and have to learn from this one and move on.  

Looking at the title and seeing that you’re about to read a preview of the Steelers vs. the Ravens, I’m sure you’re thinking “He’ll probably use the phrase ‘physical, hard-nosed football’ about twenty times.” Well, you’re wrong. This will be all about the advanced stats and what they tell us about the matchup. For the curious, here’s a recap of last week’s win over the Patriots. There are two links below: the Advanced NFL Stats win probability graph/box score and QuantCoach’s coaching stats for the week.

Steelers 25, Patriots 17
Coaching Stats

Ben Roethlisberger was the best player on the field in terms of both Win Probability Added and Expected Points Added, with 0.42 and 9.7, respectively. Heath Miller was second in both with 0.26 and 6.5. Overall, though, the offense wasn’t quite as good as you’d expect, especially factoring in the Patriots mediocre pass defense. The fact that Shaun Suisham kicked three FGs means that the Steelers could very well have made this game a blowout. Willie Gay led the defense in WPA with 0.14, a much better performance than last year’s game, and showing that it’s not profitable to throw to Gay Island (Hey, did you know you can buy “Gay Island” shirts? Oh, you did? Cool). Rob Gronkowski had the best WPA performance for New England with 0.22, and Gary Guyton’s second-quarter INT of Ben gave him the best EPA performance, with 4.3.

You probably don’t need coaching stats to tell you that it was a masterful job on both sides of the ball, but especially on defense. Anytime you hold Tom Brady to under six yards per pass attempt, it’s a great game.

Click through for the Steelers-Ravens preview! no comments

I'm out of town doing some traveling this weekend, so I don't have the time (or Internet access) to do a crazy preview post for today's game, but here are 10 quick thoughts heading into the biggest game of the year. 

1. I've got to think the biggest matchup of the game is going to be Max Starks against Terrell Suggs. Suggs has terrorized the Steelers the past several years and completely embarrassed Jonathan Scott in week one. The Steelers and Ben Roethlisberger will be able to throw the ball against Baltimore if Starks can contain Suggs most of the night.

2. The Ravens made the Steelers look "old and slow" in week one, but the Steelers they face this week are a heck of a lot younger. Guys like Ziggy Hood, Cam Heyward, Stevenson Sylvester, Keenan Lewis, Weslye Saunders, Jonathan Dwyer, Antonio Brown and and Steve McLendon have all taken on bigger roles and gotten a lot better since the opening week. The "old and slow" Steelers look a lot more like the "Young Money" Steelers these days. 

3. Since their first matchup,  Ben Roethlisberger has thrown 13 TDs and 4 INTs. Joe Flacco has thrown 5 TDs and 6 INTs. His QB rating for the year is 75.4. Ouch.

4. Night game at Heinz Field against the Steelers' biggest rival. The atmosphere is going to be electric tonight. Flacco has played some miserable games at Heinz Field...this could be one of the toughest environments he has ever played in.

5. Ike Taylor has had a Pro Bowl-type season this year and he'll likely have the task of following Anquan Boldin around the field tonight. Lee Evans is injured and won't play and Boldin has become Flacco's go-to receiver. Tonight is another chance for Ike to stake his claim as one of the best cover corners in the game. 

6. Speaking of coverage, Baltimore's tight ends killed the Steelers during the team's last meeting. The Steelers have to do a better job on Ed Dickson

7. It seems like Ed Reed and Troy Polamalu are always at the center of the Steelers/Ravens games. Polamalu has typically made game-changing plays while Reed is somewhat invisible, but the opposite was true during the week one blowout. Aside from Suggs/Starks, the battle of Hall of Fame safeties might have the most impact on the game. 

8.  Thoughts and prayers for Steelers WR Emmanuel Sanders, whose mother passed away this week. He's out tonight and under no circumstances should he have been playing. Anybody who is upset that he's not in the lineup has got some major problems. 

9. Bruce Arians and the offense have been on some kind of roll lately. Arians has been masterful in his play calling for most of the season. Tonight will likely be his biggest challenge of the year. With Sanders out, the Steelers will have a little less speed on the field and the Ravens pass rush isn't nearly as tame as the one the Steelers saw last week from the Patriots. I'd like to see the Steelers pull out the game plan they used against Tennessee, where Roethlisberger threw a ton of short and intermediary routes on 3-step drops. He rarely left the pocket, but the WRs and TEs are good enough to get open quickly and make plays.

10. A prediction: Steelers 21 Ravens 20. This one could definitely go either way. Both defenses are so good, these games usually are determined by which QB makes less mistakes. Flacco has been awful this season and while he is due to break out of his slump, I don't think it is happening at Heinz Field on a Sunday night.

An interesting email landed in our inbox this week from longtime Steelers fan Don Moore. Don attended Super Bowl X in 1976 between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Dallas Cowboys in Miami. He had seats just behind the endzone and was watching the pregame warmups with he witnessed something very bizarre...here's what happened:

Curious if anyone else is aware of this as I've never seen it in print. Prior to [Super Bowl X]  Roy Gerela was practicing kicks and there was no net. Balls were not being returned [from the stands]. He ran out of them, became enraged and jumped into the stands triping over the railing and falling akwardly on top of a poor woman in the 1st row. I was in about the 6th row, happened right in front of me. Police and Franco came over, helped Gerela off and that was that. No big deal - lasted less than a minute. I always believed though that was the reason for Gerela's poor game which they said was a result of cracked ribs caused by a tackle injury on the 1st play. Only thing I ever saw was a brief article years later that said the Steelers had settled a law suit involving an incident prior to the game. Any of this known? Amazing how things have changed. Can you imagine today a player jumping over the railing into the stands?

Don added:

Definitely a crazy incident to say the least. Gerela would go on to miss two relatively easy field goals (36 and 33 yards), an extra point and he was nearly the goat of the game. 

Here's what the United Press International wrote about Gerela's injury the next day via the Tyrone Herald:

It it possible that the injury occurred prior to the game and the Steelers were able to conceal the incident? It certainly would be a lot easier to do that in the 1970s prior to cell phones and such a large media presence at the Super Bowl. For what it's worth, I spent several hours searching for more info on the lawsuit and incident during warmups and found nothing. 

If anybody else remembers the strange pregram incident or can shed some light on the situation, feel free to leave a comment or shoot me an email.  Also, if you are curious, Gerela is currently a high school teacher and assistant football coach in New Mexico.

Lots of Steelers news on this first day of November. First, the bad news...

-B- Steelers OLB LaMarr Woodley is expected to miss Sunday's game against Baltimore with a hamstring injury, sources tell the Post-Gazette. Even worse: he is likely to miss the following game against the Bengals. The Steelers will be without both of their elite pass rushers in Woodley and Harrison for the biggest game of the season. Lawrence Timmons and rookie Chris Carter will likely start on the outside with Stevenson Sylvester and Larry Foote on the inside. Ugh. 

Update:

Woodley just tweeted this video, saying not to count him out yet against Baltimore. I'd still be shocked if he played. 

-B- Speaking of Foote, Ron Cook has an excellent column today on Foote's leadership role on the team. Foote was the man barking out the defensive signals and playing one of the toughest mental positions in the NFL on Sunday. Lots of people rolled their eyes when the Steelers signed Foote last offseason, but - outside of Farrior - nobody in the league knows the Steelers complex defense better than him. He's smart enough to line up at all 4 linebacker positions. 

I especially loved this tidbit in Cook's column:

Foote never doubted himself. At least he didn't until Farrior called him at home Friday night.

"I was just relaxing on the couch when he called out of the blue," Foote said. "He told me I had better be ready for the Patriots. 'You know they're coming after you because they always come after me.' I was fine all week, but that got me nervous. He kept me in on a Friday night and kept me up all night watching film. I didn't want to let this team down."

-B- Here's the view from Pats land on Sunday's game from our buddies at Foxboro Blog.

-B- WPIAL playoff pairings are out.  

-B- Bill Hillgrove's call of one of the louder moments in recent Heinz Field history.  

What a terrible weekend it was to be a linebacker in Pittsburgh. James Farrior is likely out a month. LaMarr Woodley is having an MVP-type season, but he left the Patriots game with a left hamstring injury. 

The Steelers did get some good news today, though: James Harrison has been cleared to return to practice. Ed Bouchette speculated last night that Harrison would perhaps be able to play next week against Baltimore, but Harrison tweeted that he is likely out on Sunday. 

Woodley says he'll be able to go and let's hope he can. Woodley has been so dominant lately that the Steelers haven't missed Harrison too much, but playing the biggest game of the year without both of them would be trouble. Chris Carter and Lawrence Timmons did an admirable job in relief against New England, but neither are nearly as good at rushing the passer off the edge as Woodley and Harrison and the Steelers missed that during the Patriots final couple of drives.

The question has been asked for the better part of a decade: How do you beat Tom Brady? How do you keep his offense from scoring on every drive? The Steelers answered that question for us yesterday: Don't let him touch the football. Right as the game started, Ben basically challenged Brady to a shootout. With the offense firing all over the place, the Patriots were the team who had to try and keep up. Dick LeBeau switched up everything and didn't even use the famed zone blitz. The DBs were physical against the Pats all afternoon, and the Patriots don't like to play phyiscal. The Steelers bullied the Patriots on both sides of the ball and they didn't have an answer. Jump.

It came down to the bitter end, but the Pittsburgh Steelers have finally beaten a Tom Brady-led Patriots squad for the first time since 2004. 

The final was 25-17, but the Steelers dominated play much more than the score indicated. Pittsburgh outgained New England 427-213. Brady only threw for 198 yards. The Patriots went 3/10 on 3rd down conversions. The list goes on. 

Roethlisberger's final stat line was much more Brady-esque. Big Ben completed 23 (!!!) passes in the first half alone and finished the game going 36-50 for 356 yards. 

What was most encouraging about this win, though, was that the Steelers were able to hang on on for the win even without many of their key players. James Harrison, James Farrior and Hines Ward didn't play. LaMarr Woodley missed most of the 2nd half. Marcus Gilbert was in and out of the game with injuries. 

Young Steelers like Bruce Carter, Stevenson Sylvester, Weslye Saunders and Keenan Lewis played major roles in this win. It wasn't the old guard of the Steelers figuring out the Patriots as much as it was the fresh-faced, athletic Steelers beating New England at their own game. 

Much, much more from this one later on in the week.

Baltimore visits Heinz Field next weekend.  

Here it is: the Steelers’ biggest test of the year: a date with the New England Patriots and Tom Brady. There’s only one way to preview this, Robin: to the stat-cave! First, here’s a recap of last week’s win over the Cardinals. There are two links below: the Advanced NFL Stats win probability graph/box score and QuantCoach’s coaching stats for the week.

Steelers 32, Cardinals 20
Coaching Stats

Ben Roethlisberger was by far the best player in terms of both Win Probability Added and Expected Points Added, with 0.59 and 23.0, respectively. Antonio Brown, Heath Miller, Lawrence Timmons, and Ryan Clark also had big days. Kevin Kolb (0.08 WPA, 9.6 EPA) and Early Doucet (0.08, 3.4) had the best performances for Arizona.

As far as coaching goes, the difference was a lot closer than the score indicated. The big difference in the game was the 2-0 lead for Pittsburgh in terms of takeaways. That turnover margin is finally moving back in a positive direction. Do I think it will continue that way? Click to read the rest of the preview!

One of the more exciting things to watch in Pittsburgh over the last three seasons has been the growth and development of a young, dynamic receiving corps. The Steelers have hit home runs with Mike Wallace, Antonio Brown and Emmanuel Sanders in the mid-late rounds of the NFL draft. With Hines Ward aging and Santonio Holmes trade, the team smartly and very cost effectively turned what should have been a weakness into perhaps their greatest positional strength. 

While Wallace had a breakout year in 2010, we didnt' see the true development of Brown until this summer. Brown worked out hard during the offseason and was a completely different receiver when preseason rolled around. Roethlisberger and Brown seemed to have developed great chemistry and it definitely seems like Roethlisberger is looking his way more often. In fact, Big Ben has been distributing the ball with a lot more variance in 2011. 

Thanks to Advanced NFL Stats, I was able to easily pull together the number of targets that each receiver has had in 2010 and 2011. The jump in Brown's targets is staggering! Hit the jump for the graphs and a few more thoughts on Big Ben's spreading of the wealth...