Ravens vs. Steelers: Complete Report Card Grades for Pittsburgh
The Pittsburgh Steelers might be the AFC North champions, but two other teams in the division still will be playing football while they're sitting at home.
The Baltimore Ravens ousted the Steelers 30-17 Saturday at Heinz Field in an AFC Wild Card Game.
In light of the loss, former Steeler Charlie Batch has some wardrobe advice for the Steelers:
"#Steelers should throw away last weeks "Run the North" Tshirts. U cant claim that when you cant beat a division foe at home during playoffs
— Charlie Batch (@CharlieBatch16) January 4, 2015"
Pittsburgh couldn't overcome the loss of Le'Veon Bell. The AFC's leading rusher with 1,361 yards was out with a hyperextended knee he suffered against Cincinnati last week.
In Bell's absence, undrafted rookie Josh Harris ran for 25 yards on nine carries. Ben Tate, signed earlier in the week and playing for his third team this season, gained 19 yards on five carries.
The third-seeded Steelers led 3-0 after the first quarter, but the sixth-seeded Ravens went ahead on a five-yard touchdown run by Bernard Pierce and never trailed again.
The Steelers twice pulled to within a point on Shaun Suisham field goals but didn't score a touchdown until Ben Roethlisberger threw a six-yard touchdown pass to Martavis Bryant to narrow the deficit to 20-15 with 11 minutes left. They wouldn't get any closer.
This was the Ravens' first playoff victory over the Steelers. They lost divisional playoff games in 2001 and 2010 and the AFC Championship Game in 2008, all at Heinz Field.
The Steelers, who finished the season 11-5, are 0-3 in their last three postseason games. They haven't won a playoff game since 2010, and Mike Tomlin is 0-3 in the Wild Card Round as Pittsburgh's head coach.
Quarterbacks
1 of 10
Both of Ben Roethlisberger's interceptions came in the fourth quarter with the Steelers trying to rally.
On the first one, he was under pressure and tried to dump the ball off to Ben Tate, but it deflected off Tate's fingertips, and Terrell Suggs picked it off at the Steelers' 21-yard line. One play later, tight end Crockett Gillmore hauled in a 21-yard touchdown pass from Joe Flacco, and the Ravens had a 30-15 lead with just under eight minutes left.
Roethlisberger was taken out of the game after being sacked by Courtney Upshaw and hitting his head on the ground with 4:40 left in the fourth quarter. He went through the concussion protocol and then threw his second interception immediately upon re-entering the game. With three minutes left and the Steelers still trailing 30-15, Darian Stewart intercepted Roethlisberger in the end zone.
Scott Brown of ESPN.com had this report from the locker room:
"Ben Roethlisberger: "I didn't play well enough to win." Apologized to Rooneys, coaches, teammates and fans and put loss on him.
— Scott Brown (@ScottBrown_ESPN) January 4, 2015"
Roethlisberger completed 31 of 45 passes for 334 yards and a touchdown with the two interceptions. He was sacked five times.
It wasn't just the sacks and interceptions that doomed the Steelers. They were a pitiful 5-of-16 on third-down conversions, and Roethlisberger misfired on some crucial throws.
He was way off on a deep pass to Antonio Brown with the Steelers trailing 20-9 late in the third quarter. Then just before the Suggs interception with the Steelers trailing 23-15, Roethlisberger and Heath Miller weren't on the same page. The quarterback threw behind Miller to force the third down in which Suggs made the interception.
Roethlisberger also was intercepted by Matt Elam on a two-point conversion attempt that would have pulled the Steelers to within 20-17, but that didn't count toward his passing statistics.
His brightest moment came when the Steelers forced their only turnover. Given the ball at the Ravens' 45-yard line, he needed just two plays to slash the lead to 20-15. He threw a 44-yard pass to Brown, and then after a false start penalty he tossed a five-yard touchdown pass to Martavis Bryant.
Bruce Gradkowski replaced Roethlisberger after the Upshaw sack and inherited a 3rd-and-21 situation at the Ravens' 36. He completed passes of 18 yards and four yards to give the Steelers a first down.
But Roethlisberger's interception spoiled the 12-play, 66-yard drive.
Grade: C-
Running Backs
2 of 10
This position group was under the microscope with Le'Veon Bell on the sidelines.
Undrafted rookie Josh Harris and free-agent pickup Ben Tate had big shoes to fill, and they didn't come close.
Tate actually carried the ball three times for 17 yards on the game's opening series. He picked up eight yards to move into Ravens territory but fumbled. Antonio Brown recovered the fumble, but Tate was taken out of the game. Harris wasn't as effective, and the Steelers eventually had to punt.
Had Tate not fumbled, he would have stayed in the game, and the drive might not have petered out.
He also couldn't get his hands on a short pass from Roethlisberger as the quarterback tried to escape pressure with 8:10 left in the game.
Harris ended up with 25 yards on nine carries, and Tate finished with 19 yards on five carries. They both caught two passes. Dri Archer caught three passes for 15 yards. His 19-yard touchdown reception would have cut the deficit to 30-23 with 4:47 left in the game, but it was wiped out by a holding penalty.
As a team, the Steelers ran for 68 yards on 19 carries, for an average of 3.6 yards per carry. Even those numbers were skewed by Roethlisberger's 16-yard scramble.
Will Johnson picked up three yards on 4th-and-1 with the Steelers trailing 20-9 late in the third quarter, but that doesn't give the grade much of a boost.
Grade: F
Wide Receivers and Tight Ends
3 of 10
Martavis Bryant scored the Steelers' only touchdown on a five-yard pass from Ben Roethlisberger. That made the score 20-15 with 11 minutes left in the game, but the Steelers could not make the two-point conversion.
Bryant and Markus Wheaton both took another step forward in their development. They caught five passes apiece to complement Antonio Brown, who had nine receptions for 117 yards, including a 44-yarder that set up Bryant's touchdown.
Bryant and Brown also hindered the Steelers with penalties after they had fallen behind 30-15 in the fourth quarter. Brown grabbed a facemask, and Bryant was called for offensive pass interference.
Heath Miller caught six passes for 76 yards, but he dropped a third-down pass that could have put the Steelers in field-goal range on the game's opening drive. He also fumbled the ball away with a minute left in the game to end any last hopes for a miraculous comeback.
Grade: D
Offensive Line
4 of 10
Sure, the Ravens were tied for second in the league with 49 sacks this season, but the Steelers offensive line had to rise to the occasion and tame that pass rush.
It didn't happen.
Ben Roethlisberger was sacked five times, including twice by Marcus Gilbert's nemesis, Elvis Dumervil. Courtney Upshaw's sack temporarily knocked Roethlisberger out of the game with the Steelers trying to rally from a two-touchdown deficit late in the fourth quarter.
In addition to the five sacks, Roethlisberger was pressured into his first interception on a short pass intended for Ben Tate with 8:10 left in the game.
The line committed two penalties in the fourth quarter. A false start by David DeCastro pushed the Steelers back from the Ravens' 1-yard line. Roethlisberger threw his only touchdown pass to Martavis Bryant on the next play.
The other penalty was much more costly. Kelvin Beachum's hold took away Dri Archer's 19-yard catch-and-run touchdown. The touchdown would have made the score 30-23 with 4:47 left. The Steelers could have had a chance to tie with a defensive stop.
Perhaps the situation wouldn't have been so dire if the offensive line had done a better job of protecting Roethlisberger earlier in the game.
Grade: F
Defensive Line
5 of 10
The Ravens only ran for 49 yards on 25 carries, averaging less than two yards per carry. But they did all the damage they needed to do on an eight-play, 80-yard touchdown drive that put them ahead for good.
Justin Forsett gained 32 yards on four carries on the drive, and Bernard Pierce scored on a five-yard burst that gave the Ravens a 7-3 lead early in the second quarter. Forsett gained only four yards after that.
Cameron Heyward was credited with two quarterback hits, but he didn't have that one impact play that he always seems to come up with in every game.
Rookie Stephon Tuitt recovered a Forsett fumble in the fourth quarter. It was the Steelers' only takeaway of the game.
Grade: B-
Linebackers
6 of 10
James Harrison, in what could be the final game of his career, often had Joe Flacco on the run early in the game.
The Steelers only sacked Flacco once, however. Inside linebacker Sean Spence, who had his first career sack last week against Cincinnati, had another one Saturday.
Lawrence Timmons led the linebackers with seven tackles, including two tackles for loss.
Jason Worilds also had a tackle for loss, but on another play he was penalized for taking a swing at a Ravens player. That shifted the ball from the Steelers' 45 to the Steelers' 30, and the Ravens eventually kicked a field goal to stretch their lead to 10-6 in the second quarter.
Grade: D+
Defensive Backs
7 of 10
Joe Flacco completed 18 of 29 passes for 259 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions for an astonishing quarterback rating of 114.
The Steelers gave up four passes of 20 yards or more, including a 40-yard pass to Steve Smith Sr. against Brice McCain on the first play of a third-quarter drive that culminated in Torrey Smith's 11-yard touchdown catch and a 20-9 Ravens lead.
Right after Terrell Suggs intercepted Roethlisberger, the entire Steelers defense seemed to give up on a 21-yard pass to tight end Crockett Gillmore that turned into Flacco's second touchdown and increased the Ravens' lead to 30-15 in the fourth quarter.
The Steelers defense failed to get off the field on a 3rd-and-10, a 3rd-and-13 and a 3rd-and-14.
Mike Mitchell's helmet-to-helmet hit on Jacoby Jones erased the Steelers' early momentum and led to the Ravens' first touchdown drive. Antwon Blake was called for pass interference on the first drive of the third quarter, which moved the Ravens 32 yards closer to Justin Tucker's 45-yard field goal that made it 13-9, Ravens.
Steve Smith Sr. led the Ravens with five catches for 101 yards. Tight end Owen Daniels caught four passes for 70 yards, although the linebackers share some of the responsibility in containing him.
Troy Polamalu might have played his final game as a Steeler and led the team with eight tackles to go with one quarterback hit. But the Steelers needed game-changing plays in this game. Four years ago, Polamalu would have been able to provide one. The 33-year-old version couldn't.
Grade: F
Special Teams
8 of 10
Shaun Suisham kept the Steelers afloat for a half with field goals of 45, 22 and 47 yards, and the Steelers trailed 10-9 at halftime.
Brad Wing punted three times. He pinned the Ravens at their own 7-yard line in the first quarter. His 37-yard dud set up the Ravens for the touchdown drive that widened their lead to 20-9 in the third quarter. His last punt went for 48 yards.
The Steelers didn't let Jacoby Jones hurt them on returns. He made it past the 20 on kickoff returns only once. But the one time he did, Shamarko Thomas hit him after he went out of bounds, and the late hit gave the Ravens the ball at their 37-yard line after the Steelers had pulled to within 20-15 in the fourth quarter. The Ravens went on to kick a field goal.
Thomas blocked a Sam Koch punt through the end zone for a safety right after the two-minute warning to make the score 30-17 and eliminate the need for a two-point conversion if the Steelers could have somehow scored two touchdowns. But it was almost garbage time at that point, and it doesn't offset the severity of Thomas' late hit earlier in the fourth quarter.
Grade: B-
Coaching
9 of 10
The coaching staff's finest moment from a strategic standpoint came when the Steelers converted a 4th-and-1 from their own 42 late in the third quarter. The Steelers were down 11 and had to take a chance.
Penalties resurfaced in a big way. The Steelers were flagged eight times for 114 yards. They hadn't committed that many penalties since Week 8.
Three of the infractions Saturday were for unnecessary roughness and helped fuel Baltimore scoring drives.
The Steelers brain trust did all it could to prepare the team to compete without Le'Veon Bell. But overall, the execution wasn't there, and the players deserve most of the blame for that.
However, this game could have turned out differently if the Steelers had been more disciplined.
Grade: C
Final Grades
10 of 10
| Positional Unit | Grade |
| QB | C- |
| RB | F |
| WR/TE | D |
| OL | F |
| DL | B- |
| LB | D+ |
| DB | F |
| Special Teams | B- |
| Coaching | C |
| Cumulative Grade | D |
Taking Le'Veon Bell's injury into consideration, the Steelers' final performance of the 2014 season wasn't a complete failure. Any team would have had a hard time overcoming an injury to its most valuable player.
However, the Ravens' inability to win a playoff game against the Steelers had been a notch on the belt of the Steelers' franchise. Even without Bell, the Steelers could have put up a better fight in trying to keep a clean postseason record against their most bitter rivals.
The magic of December, when the Steelers rode a four-game winning streak to the AFC North title, was a New Year's casualty. Reality set in. Let's not forget that the Steelers lost at home to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this season.
That's the team with the top pick in the draft.
With that in mind, it's amazing the Steelers made the playoffs at all.
ESPN.com was used for game statistics.
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