The Baltimore Ravens completely manhandled the Pittsburgh Steelers today on both sides of the ball. The defense forced as many turnovers as points allowed with seven. The offense put up around 500 yards of total offense and rushed for over 100 yards on the Steelers D. Finally, Joe Flacco can breath a sigh of relief as he proved the naysayers wrong and beat Ben Roethlisberger.
The Ravens definitely wanted this win more as the Steelers looked unmotivated after a series of turnovers. This game means a lot for the Ravens especially after the Steelers ended their season last year in the playoffs.
More after the jump…
The games between the Ravens and Steelers have been known to be close, but this was just the opposite. There was a clear cut winner today which is unusual to see for a Ravens Steelers matchup.
The biggest things I noticed was how well the Ravens were prepared. What I thought was going to be a disaster, the offensive line shut me up quick. Bryant McKinnie looked great at LT and reminded me of Jonathan Ogden as easily controlled defenders. Vonta Leach is a huge upgrade over Le’Ron McClain. His pass protection skills were put to the test and he delivered. Le’Ron McClain missed a block last year in the playoffs that led to a critical sack of Flacco but Leach took care of any leakage into the backfield during this game. He also provided some great lead blocks for Ray Rice as he carved up the Steelers D for over 100 yards.
Though Lee Evans didn’t make any big plays that will show up on the stat sheet, he made his presence known and allowed Anquan Boldin and Ed Dickson to get open underneath. Evans received a lot of attention from the Steelers and he helped open up the playbook.
The Ravens star players on defense really shined today. Ray Lewis forced a fumble and got an interception, Ed Reed caught two interceptions, and Haloti Ngata forced two fumbles and tipped the pass that ended up getting picked by Ray Lewis. Terrell Suggs also made his presence known on the edge by causing havoc in the backfield and adding three sacks to his stat sheet. With those three sacks, Suggs passed Peter Boulware on the Ravens all time sack leaders.
This game was a surprise to fans on both sides. I certainly never would have predicted a complete rout of a team that was just in the Superbowl but anything can happen if a team wants it that bad. And believe me, the Ravens wanted this one.
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