Blame It On The Throwbacks: Ravens Sweep The Steelers 23-20

Harrison had 6 tackled, 3 sacks and 1 forced fumble in his first game back from orbital surgery.

I tried to tell you all that those uniforms bring bad karma, but you wanted to argue and say I was wrong. Ha. Now what do you think?

Do you understand now why I don’t want to see those throwbacks ever again and certainly not the rest  of this season. We have enough adversity without messing with the karma. Throwbacks and Coach T in a white sweatshirt?  Who thought it was ok to mess with football karma on Ravens-Steelers night???

OK, Ravens fans, I am ready for you to tell me that I am making excuses -and I am going to start with this: That NON-helmet to helmet call when Ray Lewis hit Hines Ward was ridiculous. Even worse was Harbaugh throwing the flag, challenging the reception and WINNING the call. Maybe you couldn’t see it at the game, but let me tell you. Hines was hit hard, and got a concussion and THAT’s why, if anything, he didn’t hold onto the ball. His head also hit the ground pretty hard. Trust me, I am not whining about the hit, I am whining about the unfairness in the call.  If that had been James Harrison hitting anything it would have been a flag, a call and a fine. In fact, James Harrison will probably be fined for Ray Lewis’ hit.  And then they get Ryan Clark later with a call.  You know and I know it wasn’t right. So, I pointed it out, we agree, and we move on.

If that had not been a Ravens – Steelers game, I would have said it was the best game I had seen in a while. But between holding my breath, rocking back and forth, tweeting and crying, I was an emotional mess with a migraine to boot.

The good:

Harrison is back and has 3 sacks on Flacco. Including a jump over Ray Rice (or rather Rice moved out of the way because he was scared) to put pressure on Flacco. (James also had 6 tackles and 1 forced fumble)

Speaking of Rice, he was held to just 43 yards. Much better than game one.

Antonio Brown had 5 receptions for 109 yards. (Way to go young money! And he’s also on my fantasy team, thanks for the points!!) He’s going to be a super star. Between Brown, Wallace and Sanders, Ben has a million options on offense. And how about Cotchery stepping in and picking up the slack when Hines went out? Solid depth at receiver.

Ben had 20 completions out of 32 attempts for 330 yards. His third game over 300 in a row. Ben is playing great football right now and I hope that trend continues through the rest of the season.

The bad:

I’ve been saying it for a couple years, maybe now you will believe me. Will Gay is terrible in coverage. The Ravens did exactly what anyone with common sense should do, attack that side. At one point in the third quarter, Polamalu was dropping back in coverage to help him out, but towards the 4th, that stopped and I am not sure why. I agree that pressuring Flacco is a good idea, but if he gets time, and everyone is in the box, that means someone is open. I’d like to see how Keenan Lewis does in coverage. I am lobbying for him for a start. Let’s go Keenan!

Will Gay on coverage against the Ravens.

I’m also surprised at Ike and getting called for pass interference. That was a big mistake and in the endzone. I’m not saying he didn’t do it, he did. And it was a big mistake that cost the Steelers. The Steelers had 6 penalties for 69 yards compared to the Ravens 3 penalties for 29 yards. In a game like this, those penalties mean a lot.

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