Amid all of the controversy of the Ray Rice situation, things didn’t go exactly as planned for the Pittsburgh Steelers, falling to 1-1 on the year after a 26-6 defeat at the hands of the Baltimore Ravens Thursday night at M&T Bank Stadium.
Three turnovers by the offense and a defense that allowed close to 350 total yards ultimately did the Steelers in Thursday night as Mike Tomlin’s team enters Week 3 with more questions than answers.
Let’s take a look at how the Steelers graded out in this tough division loss in my weekly Pittsburgh Steelers Report Card.
Quarterback: Ben Roethlisberger completed 22-of-37 passes for 217 yards. It was the first time since Nov. 26, 2006, that Baltimore held Pittsburgh without a touchdown. It also put an end to Big Ben’s streak of 30 consecutive games with a touchdown pass. The Steelers offense hasn’t been able to generate much since halftime of the Cleveland game, which spans six quarters of football. No big plays and more INT’s (one) than touchdown passes (none) doesn’t lead to a good grade. Grade: C-
Running Backs: For the second consecutive week we saw some good things from second-year pro Le’Veon Bell, at least in the first half where he ran for 56 of his 59 yards. The fact that he ran for three yards in the second half was more reflecting on the score of the game than Bell, who also added five catches for 48 yards. Without Bell, there wasn’t much to this offense all night. Grade: B-
Wide Receivers: Justin Brown’s fumble killed some early momentum. Heath Miller’s fumble killed a chance to get back into the game. Antonio Brown had to miss some time early but finished with seven catches for 90 yards. Markus Wheaton caught five passes for 38 yards in the first half, but didn’t have a catch in the second. Overall not a great night for the pass catchers. Grade: C-
Offensive Line: It wasn’t a good night for the offensive line, who had trouble in pass protection as well as sustaining a rushing attack. Marcus Gilbert allowed both sacks and after allowing two vs. the Browns is on pace to allow 32 sacks on the season. Like everyone else on the offensive side of the ball, the linemen have seen better days. Grade: D+
Defensive Line: After allowing 183 yards rushing and a 6.1-yard average to the Browns in Week 1, they allowed 157 on Thursday. The combination of Bernard Pierce and Justin Forsett combined to gain 152 yards on 30 carries, averaging 5.06 yards per carry. While they started out ok this week, that’s simply not going to get the job done. Grade: D
Linebackers: The linebackers were beat on a ton of plays in the passing game and got next to no pressure as Joe Flacco was not sacked on the evening. Lawrence Timmons and Ryan Shazier each had double digit tackles, but that is a result of the Ravens being able to run right at the Steelers in the second half. Overall it wasn’t a great performance. Grade: D
Secondary: Flacco picked the Steelers secondary apart, going 10 for 10 for 84 yards on both touchdown drives. He also completed 20 of his first 25 passes for 162 yards and made it look easy. The Baltimore signal caller put up an 87.4 QBR and 109.3 rating against this defense. Four personal foul calls against the secondary didn’t help either. Grade: D
Special Teams: Since halftime on Sunday, Shaun Suisham has been the Steelers’ offense as they haven’t found the end zone in six quarters. He kicked a pair of field goals and helped neutralize Jacoby Jones in the return game. Brad Wing had a decent night punting as well. The coverage units kept Jones in check until a 33-yard return in the fourth quarter. Grade: C+
Coaching: The offense hasn’t been great the past six quarters and the defense has holes. The Steelers have been outscored 50-9 in that span. Throw in nine more penalties for 75 yards on Thursday and this Steelers team has problems. Tomlin and his staff has a lot of work to do. They get some extra time as they don’t play until next Sunday night, but they have got to get things figured out. Grade: D
Photo Credit: USA Today Sports
