Baltimore Ravens vs. Pittsburgh Steelers: Full Report Card Grades for Pittsburgh
Ben Roethlisberger has done something no NFL quarterback has ever done.
Roethlisberger threw six touchdown passes for the second straight game, an NFL first, in leading the Pittsburgh Steelers to a 43-23 win over the Baltimore Ravens Sunday at Heinz Field.
The Steelers (6-3) climbed into second place in the AFC North while the Ravens (5-4) fell into last place in the only division in which no team has a losing record. If the season ended today, the Steelers would be the No. 5 seed in the playoffs.
As most games against the Ravens do, this win took a physical toll on the Steelers. Troy Polamalu and Ryan Shazier were injured in the first half and did not play in the second half, according to Dale Lolley of the Observer-Reporter:
"In addition to Polamalu (knee sprain) and Shazier (ankle), Mike Tomlin said Shamarko Thomas has injury to other hamstring #Steelers
— Dale Lolley (@dlolleyor) November 3, 2014"
For the third week in a row, the Steelers took control of the game with more than 20-plus-point second quarter. They trailed 7-0 after one quarter Sunday night, but scored 22 in the second period to take a 22-10 lead at halftime.
They scored 28 in last week's 51-34 win over the Indianapolis Colts and 24 the week before in their 30-23 win over the Houston Texans.
After going 1-2 in a supposedly soft stretch of their schedule that included a home game against Tampa Bay and road games at Jackonsville and Cleveland, the Steelers took full advantage of a rare, three-game homestand. They've gone 3-0 against the Texans, Colts and Ravens and will try to take that momentum on the road with them against the New York Jets next week and the Tennessee Titans the week after.
The Steelers are 6-3 for the first time since 2012 and don't play another team with a winning record until they go to Cincinnati on Dec. 7.
Quarterback
1 of 10
Ben Roethlisberger again had to endure the hard knocks of the Ravens-Steelers rivalry.
Against the team that bloodied and broke his nose in 2010, Roethlisberger took a hit to the jaw in the first half. But it didn't keep him from throwing six touchdown passes for the second week in a row, a feat unprecedented in NFL history.
Roethlisberger completed 25 of 37 passes for 340 yards and had no interceptions. He's gone three games without an interception. In the past seven games, the only pick he's thrown was a phantom interception by Buster Skrine at Cleveland. He's thrown 22 touchdown passes and three interceptions this season.
Roethlisberger avoided pressure on numerous throws against the Ravens. He was off on a couple of his passes and committed the Steelers' only turnover when he fumbled a snap in the fourth quarter.
Overall, you can count on one hand the number of quarterbacks in the NFL who are playing better than Roethlisberger right now.
Grade: A
Running Backs
2 of 10
LeGarrette Blount, not Le'Veon Bell, was the Steelers' leading rusher Sunday night.
That wasn't much of an accomplishment considering Blount ran for 23 yards on 10 carries and Bell had just 20 yards on 10 carries. It was Bell's lowest rushing total of the season. The Steelers went three-and-out on their first three series, and Bell didn't help matters when he lost eight yards on one run.
However, Bell once again was an effective receiver. He caught a five-yard touchdown pass to tie the game 7-7 early in the second quarter. Bell caught five passes for 38 yards and did a nice job blocking throughout the game.
As a team, the Steelers ran the ball 25 times for 55 yards, an average of 2.2 yards per carry.
Grade: C+
Wide Receivers and Tight Ends
3 of 10
Antonio Brown has not run into a cornerback this season who can shut him down.
Brown led the Steelers with 11 receptions for 144 yards. He has 71 catches this season with eight touchdowns and is on pace to shatter Hines Ward's franchise record of 112 catches in a season.
Martavis Bryant continues to show why he'll never again be on the sidelines in sweats. In his third career game, he caught three passes, two of them for touchdowns. Both scores came in the red zone as the Steelers got into the end zone all three times they advanced past the Ravens' 20. The 6'4" rookie has 10 receptions, including five touchdowns, so far in his first year.
Markus Wheaton caught his second career touchdown in as many weeks. Tight end Matt Spaeth caught a two-point conversion pass from punter Brad Wing after a bad snap on the PAT to increase the Steelers lead to 22-10 in the second quarter. He also caught a 33-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter to give Ben Roethlisberger his sixth touchdown pass of the evening.
There were a few dropped passes here and there, but in general it was another prolific night for the Steelers receiver corps.
Grade: A
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Offensive Line
4 of 10
Ben Roethlisberger was sacked three times, and all three sacks came on three consecutive plays early in the second quarter. The line hadn't allowed a sack for seven quarters before that, and kept Roethlisberger off the ground for the remainder of the game.
The line shouldn't bear all the responsibility for the three sacks. Tight end Matt Spaeth shares at least some of the blame for one of them. Marcus Gilbert had a better showing against Elvis Dumervil. After steamrolling Gilbert for two sacks in Week 2, Dumervil had one sack and one hit Sunday.
Overall, ESPN.com credited the Ravens with eight hits on Roethlisberger. The Ravens applied significant pressure, but Roethlisberger escaped enough to make plays.
The line couldn't open enough holes for the running backs, who averaged just 2.2 yards per carry.
Grade: C
Defensive Line
5 of 10
The Ravens ran the ball 18 times for 63 yards, an average of 3.5 yards per carry. That's a significant improvement over the first meeting between these teams, when the Ravens trampled the Steelers for 157 rushing yards in a 26-6 victory.
Cameron Heyward and rookie Stephon Tuitt both had quarterback hits, according to ESPN.com. Heyward and Cam Thomas both had one tackle for negative yardage. Brett Keisel was the leader of the unit with three total tackles. Keisel and the rest of the defensive linemen did enough grunt work to allow the linebackers to make an impact.
Grade: A-
Linebackers
6 of 10
James Harrison had two sacks for the second week in a row and leads the Steelers with four sacks this season. But the 36-year-old's imprint on this game went beyond sacks. He made seven tackles, two tackles for loss and hit Joe Flacco four times. He also came up huge in run support.
Lawrence Timmons led the Steelers with 11 total tackles. He had his second sack of the season as well as a tackle for loss and two quarterback hits.
Timmons' sack and both of Harrison's sacks came on third down and forced the Ravens to punt.
Arthur Moats notched his second sack of the season and helped turn the game around by forcing Ravens running back Lorenzo Taliaferro to fumble early in the second quarter. The Ravens led 7-0 at the time, but that turnover led to the game-tying touchdown.
This position group teamed up for another takeaway on the Ravens' next possession. Harrison pressured Flacco into throwing an interception to Jason Worilds. That set up the Steelers' go-ahead touchdown in the second quarter.
The linebackers produced four sacks and seven of the 10 hits on Flacco.
Grade: A
Defensive Backs
7 of 10
Brice McCain was victimized by Torrey Smith on a 35-yard touchdown reception that gave the Ravens a 7-0 lead in the first quarter. But he atoned for that when he recovered the fumble that Arthur Moats forced early in the second quarter. McCain returned it 26 yards to the Ravens' 27-yard line. The Steelers tied the game, 7-7, five plays later.
McCain, Antwon Blake and William Gay blanketed Ravens receivers all night and did a good job preventing yards after the catch. The only other touchdown pass Joe Flacco threw went to tight end Crockett Gillmore in garbage time. The Ravens converted just three of their 13 third-down attempts.
Grade: B+
Special Teams
8 of 10
The highlight of the night for this unit came accidentally. Holder Brad Wing couldn't handle the snap on an extra-point attempt, so he picked up the ball and winged a two-point conversion to Matt Spaeth to give the Steelers a 22-10 lead in the second quarter.
The lowlights outnumbered the highlights. Jacoby Jones returned a kickoff 108 yards for a touchdown in the fourth quarter after the Steelers went up 29-10 and seemingly put the game away.
Jones also returned Wing's first punt 25 yards to the Steelers' 35, and Joe Flacco promptly threw a 35-yard touchdown pass to Torrey Smith to make the score 7-0.
Wing averaged 41.5 yards on six punts. None of Sam Koch's punts were returned, but LeGarrette Blount reached the Ravens' 29-yard line on his only kickoff return.
Grade: C-
Coaching
9 of 10
Mike Tomlin's best coaching move might have come when he had Mean Joe Greene talk to the team before the game.
The Hall of Fame defensive lineman had his No. 75 retired at halftime.
"Tomlin: Joe Greene addressed team before game. Wouldn't elaborate.
— Dejan Kovacevic (@Dejan_Kovacevic) November 3, 2014"
Tomlin made another smart move when he challenged an incomplete pass by Joe Flacco early in the third quarter.
The Steelers led 22-10 at the time, and the Ravens were about to go for it on 4th-and-3 from the Steelers' 38 when Tomlin threw the red flag. James Harrison was taking down Flacco as he threw the incompletion, and Tomlin thought that Flacco was down before he threw the ball. The replay revealed that Flacco was down and that Harrison had a sack. So instead of 4th-and-3 it was 4th-and-12, and the Ravens punted.
After scoring a total of 44 points in three games (Weeks 4-6), the Steelers have scored at least 30 in each of their last three games. They haven't done that since they did it in four straight games spanning the end of the 1973 season and the beginning of the 1974 season. Offensive coordinator Todd Haley's job is a lot more secure now than it was three weeks ago.
On defense, coordinator Dick LeBeau pushed the right buttons, even after losing Troy Polamalu and Ryan Shazier to injuries.
There seemed to be some communication problems with the sidelines that forced the Steelers to burn two timeouts in the third quarter. But they didn't need them at the end of the game anyway.
Grade: A-
Final Grades
10 of 10
| Positional Unit | Grade |
| QB | A |
| RB | C+ |
| WR/TE | A |
| OL | C |
| DL | A- |
| LB | A |
| DB | B+ |
| Special Teams | C- |
| Coaching | A- |
| Cumulative Grade | B+ |
The Steelers get the same grade they got for last week's 51-34 win over the Indianapolis Colts. The significance of these wins is comparable.
The defensive grades are higher this week, but the offensive line was a little bit of a disappointment, and the Steelers didn't really move the ball on the ground.
Had the Steelers lost this game, the Ravens would have had the tiebreaker over them because of a season sweep. So Pittsburgh answered the call in a game it couldn't afford to lose and beat an opponent with a similar level of talent.
Over the next two weeks, the Steelers will have to break their habit of falling down against inferior competition. They play road games against the Jets and Titans, who have a combined record of 3-14.
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