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| Forsett led a strong run game for Baltimore. Photo credit: Nick Wass/AP |
The Ravens were looking to get back to focusing on the football after a week of turmoil. They did just that as they came up with a big effort to beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 26-6 on Thursday night. Baltimore looked very sharp on both sides of the ball as they notched their first victory of the season.
By: Michael Hanley
The Ravens started slow as their defense were getting pushed back by the Steelers as Pittsburgh drove the field for the first eight minutes of the game. Then a sudden shift in momentum happened. Daryl smith of Baltimore caused a fumble and DeAngelo Tyson recovered it, extinguishing what was looking like a very promising opening drive by the Steelers. The Ravens took full advantage of that turnover and drove the length of the field for the first score of the game.
That would be just the start of what was a dominant night for that unit. They were able to put consistent pressure on Ben Roethlisberger which caused Big Ben to rush allot of his throws. They stuffed the run game of Pittsburgh all game long with their big front four providing the wall that Steeler running backs ran into all night long.
Baltimore had the look of a team that was more comfortable with their new offense under Offensive Coordinator Gary Kubiak. Flacco was comfortable finding open receivers over the middle of the field and using new weapon Steve Smith Sr. early and often.
The run game took a while to get going but really hit its stride in the second half with both Bernard Pierce and Justin Forsett leading the way on the ground. Both were able to find lanes to run through and get big chunks of yards against the Pittsburgh run defense. Joe Flacco finished a terrific 21/29 for 166 yards and 2 touchdown while Justin Forsett ran the ball 22 times, totaling 96 yards.
The Steelers had a lost night on both ends off the ball as they failed to generate anything consistent through the air or ground on offense nor could stop the Ravens offense on a consistent basis. It seemed like they were stuck in allot of 3rd and long distances as they could not get many big plays to loosen up that speedy, big Ravens defense.
Since the run game dried up on them, it was left to Big Ben to carry the load & he could only do so much. When Pittsburgh did get opportunities to finish off drives with touch downs they failed to execute & only got two field goals out of their chances. Roethlisberger finished a pedestrian 22/37 for 217 yards and one interception.
Steelers defense, particularly the run defense, was porous as they let Baltimore roll up 157 yards on the ground, making it easy for the Ravens to stay balanced and keep the Pittsburgh defense on their heels. Flacco felt little pressure form the Steelers pass rush and the zone defense was thwarted time and again as Flacco found one open man after another.
While the Ravens got back on track and past the turmoil of this past week, the Steelers are back to the drawing board on just how to improve both sides of the ball in quick fashion.
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