Ravens 30, Stillers 13���. Sep. 19, 2004 ����Game #2
Stillers-Ravens Postgame
Analysis and Grades
After
barely beating a weak, hapless, injury-ravaged Raiders team last week in Heinz
Field, the Stillers spent the past 6 days woofing, crowing, and preening, all
the while licking their chops over the prospect of following Cleveland's
whipping of the Ravens with one of their one.�
Instead, it was the Ravens who administered a good-old fashioned ass-whipping,
thoroughly smacking down the Stillers in a 30-13 beating.�
Grades:
QB:�
Maddox never seemed to find the groove, and finished with an elbow
injury after going a meager 4-13 for 67 yards.�
Maddox had a plethora of lousy plays, to include:
- In a
trend that happened his entire day, Maddox left the pocket early, and then was
flagged for an int. grounding flag in the 2Q.�
- Later in
the 2Q, Maddox double pumped, then got dumped after a 1-yard gain.�
- Just like
last week, Maddox pulled another "Tomczak" and dropped the ball while
back in the pocket.�
- On the
next play, he was stripped by Baxter, and was done for the day with an injured
arm.�
In sum,
indecisiveness and timidity ruled the day for Maddox.�� Perhaps the only decent play he made all day was to leap up and
bat away a ball that had been swatted back toward his face on a pass
attempt.�� The key thing that annoyed me
today was Maddox�s sissified running from pressure that did not
exist.�
Ben Roth
came on in relief of Maddox, and as can be expected from a rookie making his
first-ever appearance, he was spotty.�
Roth threw 2 INTs, one of which was returned by McAllister for the
game-clinching TD.� He took a sack late
in the game, in which he stood and held the ball far too long.� But it wasn't all shabby.� Roth led the Stillers to two TD drives,
culminating each with a TD pass.� He was
a bit fortuitous on the 1st TD drive, with a pass that should have been picked
instead slithering through Reed's hands and into Ward's for a 58-yard
gain.� Some noteworthy plays:
- Nice
touch on a seamer to Randle El, good for 20 yards
- Nice pump
fake and quick throw to Ward for the 12-yard TD pass
- Good
step-up from pressure, and good touch to Ward on a flag route for 25 yards in
the 4Q
Like I said
last week, this (against the Raiders) was marginally acceptable QB play, but
clearly, Maddox will have to play better for this team to win against the
better teams in the NFL.� Obviously, he
didn't play better and gave his team little chance to win. �Maddox: D+.��
Roth:� B-.�
RB:�
Staley finished with a ok numbers of 57 yards on 16 carries, good for
3.6 yards per carry.� In the first half,
he averaged over 4 yards per crack, but the offense never found a rhythm and
his carries were sporadic.� Staley did
run tough, and had the offense kept with the ground game and had the Balt. lead
not ballooned so much, he would have put a lot more yardage onto the stat
sheet.� Haynes rushed 7 times for 34
yards, most of which came from a variety of SG draws. �Haynesie showed good 2nd effort on the 3d
& 2 quickie pitch in the 2H, gaining 4 yards and a key first down.� Staley was ignored in the passing game until
the 4Q, when he caught a flare for 9 yards.�
The Tubby Tailback, Jerome Bettis, made a cameo appearance in the 2Q,
but fortunately The Fat Back never touched the ball.� B.��
FB: Kreider was able to lead Staley
through a few holes, but as noted above, the ground game never got
established.� Haynes saw some work at FB
in the 2H, likely due to his being more of a threat out of the backfield.� B.�
WR:�
Ward led the way, grabbing 6 balls for 151 yards and 1 TD.� The big 58-yard gainer was a good deal of
luck, but credit Ward for having the presence to maintain eye contact on the
ball and not giving up on the play.�
Ward had a nice grab of a high pass on 3d & 7 in the 2Q, gaining
14.� Plex Burress started the game off
lousily enough, dropping an out pass on the Stillers' very first play.� Plex hardly picked up his play much after
that, grabbing just 2 passes for 30 yards, and allowing an out pass to go right
through his hands late in the game, just prior to the INT/TD by
McAllister.� El did a nice job to lunge
into the EZ for his TD, and caught a couple other balls.� His reception for a 1st down on 3d & 11
in the 2Q was challenged and over-turned; El had allowed the ball to slither
and hit the ground.� It's this kind of
reception that could turn El from a gimmick artist/returner, into a
starting-caliber receiver.� He's
obviously not there yet.� Mays had 1
catch for 8 yards, and dropped a pass late in garbage time.� He was also flagged for a pick on a 3d &
4 completion to Ward in the 1Q.� As I
said last week, Burress needs more involvement than 1-2 catches per game, and
this is a rather large problem with this offense right now.� Ward: A.��
All others, C-.���
TE:�
Jay Riem had a 10-yard reception to open the 2nd Stillers' series of the
game, and once that "block was checked" and the chore complete, the
TEs were totally ignored the rest of the game.�
The blocking from Tuman and Riem was average.�� B-.�
OL: The O-line faced a far stiffer
challenge than that soft, injury-ravaged Raider front-7 from last week, and at
times, they held their own.� At times,
they stunk.� Much was made about Raven
NT Kelly Gregg being out for this game.��
Fact is, Gregg did his team a favor, because NT Ma'ake Kemoeatu was a
demon the entire afternoon.� He gave
Hartings all he could handle.� Even on
the play in which Maddox simply dropped the ball back in the pocket, it was
Kemoeatu who bulled Faneca, of all players, back a good 4 yards into Maddox's
face, which apparently caused Mommy to drop the ball while trembling with
fear.� Meanwhile, Weaver and Suggs took
turns terrorizing and assaulting.�
Marvel Smith got thoroughly tooled by Suggs on an inside move on a 3d
& 4 late in the 1Q, resulting in a sack.�
Vincent was flagged for a hold, which negated a 9-yard run by
Staley.� It's easy to look dominating when
facing an injury-riddled, talent-depleted front 7.� Today, this unit found out what it's like to face a stern, stout
front 7.� C.�
DL:�
The D-line seemed so dominant last week against the lowly Raiders, but
today was a different story.� Sure, they
helped hold Lewis to� 2.6 YPC, but that
doesn't tell the entire story.� For one,
Taylor also toted the pig for the PoeBirds, and he gained a gaudy 8.4 YPC on 9
rushes.� Secondly, both of Lewis' TD
plunges were basically of the untouched variety, which is unacceptable.� Third, Troy Pola basically played as an
extra LB, so limiting Lewis wasn't some sort of heroic effort by the DL.� Smith, Hampton, and Kimo were all active,
but especially early on, they didn't get the job done.�� B-.�
LB:�
With Bell again out with injury, Foote got the start and had some
struggles.� On the Ravens' second play
from scrimmage, Lewis gashed the D for 9 yards, in which Foote took a poor
angle and misplayed this run.� This
occurred several times over the afternoon, including the first Lewis TD in
which Foote simply overran the play.�
Farrior was pretty active and helped stifle Lewis.� So, too, was Clark Haggans.� He did commit the foolish 15-yard
unnecessary roughness penalty at the end of the 18-yard scramble by Boller, but
credit Haggans with the grit and hustle to chase down a QB far down the field,
something never seen from his predecessor.�
Haggans also impressed on a toss sweep by Lewis in the 2Q, in which he
adroitly fought off the blocker and helped Pola stop Lewis for a 3-yard
loss.� Porter talked an awful lot of
smack leading up to this game, but didn't really deliver much during the
tilt.� Aside from helping to exacerbate
Todd Heap's ankle injury, Porter was a bit quiet.� He did help bottle up Lewis on several occasions, but if you're
gonna talk the smack, ya've got to deliver the smack.� Most disappointing was the fact that Baltimore came and
established the tempo and hitting during their first 3 series, while the
defense was soft and meek.� And this LB
corps should be the unit that generates turnovers; today, they came up with the
big goose egg.� B-.�
DB:�
The secondary played ok, although they had the honor of playing a woeful
pass offense that got worse when Heap went down in a heap.� Troy Pola led all players with 8 solos, primarily
because he spent most of the game lining up as an extra LB.� Pola fit into the role quite well, showing
some solid toughness and willingness to mix it up.� Sad Scott wasn't tested often, but in the 1Q, he had a chance to
shut down the Ravens and failed miserably.�
On a 3d & 7 in the 2nd series, Scott gave slowpoke Kevin Johnson a
massive cushion, and KJ easily grabbed a curl pass for an 8-yard gain.� This was as poor as piss, and for the life
of me I can't imagine why Sad Scott would play so far off a slowpoke twerp like
KJ.� Townsend had some ups, some
downs.� He blitzed in untouched and
sacked Boller to squelch the 2nd drive on 3d & 6.� But he allowed Hymes to out jump him on the flea-flicker, which
would have been a TD were it not for a motion penalty on KJ.� Colclough showed some potential.� He had a good hit and wrap of Heap on an
early 3d & 3, in which Heap -- with the help of a very generous spot --
barely got the 1D.� Late in the 3Q,
Ricardo had a nice, savvy break on a crosser to KJ, and that helped him bust up
the pass.� In all, Ricky Ricardo shows
solid instincts and good potential.� Ike
Taylor did not dress, while, of course, long-time Cowher favorite Wee Willie
Williams did.� This is maddening,
because Williams is nothing more than a 1-year stopgap, whereas Taylor could be
a potential future starter or nickel player.�
C+.�
Spec
teams:� The ST play was wrought with stench.� Chris Gardocki punted like a 1-legged
kangaroo, booting pitiful punts of 32 and 35 yards that gave the PoeBirds
golden FP.� The punt coverage was mostly
poor.� Logie was flagged for a hold,
which negated a 31-yard El punt return.�
Morey was offsides on a Balt. punt.�
Harrison had an illegal block on an El punt return.� Reed badly hooked a 48-yard FG in the 2Q,
aided partially by a lousy snap by the God of Long Snapping, Mike Schneck.� To add salt to the wound, Iwuoma was carted
off the field with some sort of ab injury.�
The lone bright spots were the superb punt return work by El, as well as
the KO coverage unit .� D+.��
OC:�
Whisenhunt's offense never got in synch until late in the game, and he
deserves much of the blame.� There
seemed to be a lot of grab-bagism today, with plays blindly and aimlessly sent
in without any purpose.� This team talks
smashmouth, but then opens the game with 2 passes sandwiched around a 7-yard
run by Staley, and then punts.� There
was also a wasted TO in the 2Q, with the play clock running down.� I'm perturbed that Staley has been neglected
in the passing game for 2 games now.� He
was ignored in the 1H and caught a flare in the 2H for 9 yards.� What really enraged me was the 2nd-to-last
drive of the game, with the Stillers down 23-13.� Roth had hit Ward for a 25-yard gainer.� After a Plex drop, WiseHunt called for a SG draw, which lost a
yard.� A play later, on 3d & 11,
Roth tried to make something out of nothing, and was picked off and the ball
returned for a TD.� Game over.�� I hated the shitgun draw in this situation
for a couple of reasons:�
a.� It'd already been called about 12 times and
had lost its ability to fool the defense.
b.� At the time of the play, there was about
3:38 left in the game.� You're down by
10, which is hardly insurmountable, but time is of the essence.� Running the shitgun draw chews the clock,
which is precisely what ya don't want.�
WiseHunt
might now be faced with the prospect of operating with a rookie at QB.� Welcome to being an OC in the NFL,
Kenneth.� C.�
DC:�
LeBeau showed some guile in using Pola as an extra LB, which worked
pretty well.� Still, LeBeau got caught
flatfooted when the game began.� The
opening series was a throat jam, with the Ravens jamming the ball down the
Stillers' throat.� On this long, 11-play
march, Balt. even overcame a 15-yard penalty on their coaching staff for
interfering with the refs along the sideline.�
LeBeau was also lucky that a ticky-tack motion flag negated a superb TD
catch by Hymes.� Also, a 3d & 16 in
the 2Q was easily converted, when LeBeau didn't have jack for pressure, and
Boller easily completed a deep slant to KJ for 24 yards.� Very poor.�
Lastly, there was far too much acreage up the middle on QB scrambles by
Boller.� In all, LeBeau should feel
ashamed for getting whipped by such a meager, 1-dimensional offense
"led" by such a lousy QB such as Kyle Boller.� Added to that, his defense didn't create a
single turnover, in large part because it didn't pop anyone hard enough to
create one.� C-�
�
HC:� Two things
were quite obvious from the very first drive of the game -- the Woodpeckers
were up and ready for this game; the Stillers clearly were not.� The Ravens outhit and mauled the Stillers on
their first 3 drives, dominating TOP and setting a tempo that the Stillers were
never able to match.� Billy is obviously
neither a grand tactician nor strategist; his only redeeming value is his
supposed ability to motivate and work his troops into a frenzied lather.� Quite obviously, that didn't happen today at
all, and Cowher deserves much blame for that failure.� On a coaching note, Billick deserves credit for calling his final
TO at 2:05 of the 2Q, with the ball on the Pit 20 and a 3d & 7 coming up. �This enabled the Ravens to boot a FG just
before halftime.� Had Bilbo Cowher faced
the same situation, you can be assured that he'd have refused to call the TO,
because Cowhard is one of those dullardly coaches that thinks TOs can be
deposited into a savings account and used later.� The worst part of the Maddox injury isn't that the Stillers will
be without their starting QB for some length of time.� No, the worst part is that Billy Cowher now has a built-in excuse
for yet another losing season, and that he most certainly will take to
the bank.� D.�
�
Synopsis:�
Like last season, in which the team never won 2 games in a row, this
team shows the same kind of inconsistency.�
Of course, that's long been a trademark of a Bilbo Cowher-coached team
-- the gross inability to handle prosperity.�
It's quite obvious this team spent the past 6 days patting each other on
the back and basking in the glow of a last-second, 3-point win at home over a
very lowly Oakland team that won all of 4 games last season and has had enough
preseason injuries to qualify for federal disaster relief funds.� The team now travels to the heat of Miami,
where conditioning -- never a strong suit of a Cowher-coached team -- could be
a major factor.�