Pittsburgh Steelers: The Good, Bad and Ugly of Week 1

The Pittsburgh Steelers lost to the Baltimore Ravens Sunday afternoon by a final score of 35-7.

On the emotional 10th anniversary of 9/11, the Steelers played with little-to-no emotion in a loss that puts them a game behind their biggest rival in the AFC North.

The Steelers and Ravens always come to the stadium ready to play a tough, physical game, but on this occasion, the Steelers were outplayed, out-muscled and out-coached on both sides of the ball.

That brings us to the first installment of "The Good, Bad and Ugly" in the 2011 NFL season. 

The Good: Ray Rice

It doesn’t matter who you’re rooting for, great football is great football—and Ray Rice played a great opening game against the Steelers.  

Rice bounced and spun off, through and around Steelers defenders all afternoon with his low pad level and exceptional field vision. 

Rice finished the day with 19 rushes for 107 yards and a touchdown. Add four receptions for 42 yards and another touchdown through the air, and you can’t do much less than appreciate what a weapon Rice is out of the Baltimore backfield.

If you haven’t drafted a fantasy team yet, Rice looks better than ever in Ravens purple. 

The Good: The New Replay System

Every touchdown this NFL season will be reviewed. While it takes a certain amount of suspense away from the game, taking the red flag out of the coach’s hand, the replay system is worth the wait.

The Steelers saw the benefit of the new system in the first quarter of the game when a Ray Rice touchdown was called back to the one-yard line after replays showed his knee down before the ball broke the plane of the goal line.

The Steelers gave up the touchdown two plays later, but the new system put them in position to succeed.

The Bad: The Steelers' Defensive Front

The Steelers' defensive line did little more than take up space on the field this afternoon, getting no penetration on Baltimore’s offensive line.  

The Ravens' offensive line was considered to be a point of concern coming into the game.

After the game, they looked like a force to be reckoned with.

The Steelers’ defense has been so potent in past seasons because of their ability to play the game in their opponents' backfields. They spent very little time there this afternoon, and it showed; the Ravens were able to run at will, giving up 170 yards on the ground—a far cry from not giving up 100 yards rushing for almost a full season. 

The Bad: The Steelers' Pass-Rush

LaMarr Woodley had the game’s lone sack for the Steelers, and it came at a point in the second half when it mattered very little.  

With a secondary that certainly isn’t among the NFL’s best, the Steelers depend on their pass-rush to limit opposing passing games.

With only one late-game sack and three quarterback hits all game long, Joe Flacco went relatively unhurried as he picked apart the Steelers for three touchdowns and a 117.6 quarterback rating. 

The Bad: The Steelers' Play-Calling

A new season, but more of the same from a play-calling standpoint.  

The Steelers' offense was stagnant for much of the first half and really didn’t start accumulating much of their total yardage until the Ravens went into a prevent defense in the fourth quarter.

The Steelers ran a healthy dose of wide receiver screens, ran the ball for 66 yards and ran a few more wide receiver screens…

Predictable? Sure.

New? Not so much.

What became surprising was just how vanilla the defensive play-calling was on the part of coordinator Dick Lebeau.

While the pass-rush was ineffective for the most part, the Steelers rarely rushed more than four players, and somewhere lost in the mix were the middle linebackers. 

The issues here were closer to 65-35 percent in terms of execution versus poor calling, but the Steelers looked overmatched in play and coaching.

The Ugly: Bryant McFadden

He never played a down in the preseason, and it showed.

McFadden got beat twice on the opening drive, the last one resulting in a touchdown for Ravens receiver Anquan Boldin, and Flacco and company continued to key on him the rest of the day.

Boldin, who was McFadden’s primary responsibility, took advantage of telling signs in No. 20’s game for the majority of the afternoon. McFadden gave his receiver a direction the majority of the game; opening his hips, angling to a particular side of the field, changing the size of the cushion he gave receivers on the line to sway them into one action or another.

While that strategy may work in high school, maybe even on the college level for a while, it’s an open invitation to get beat badly in the NFL—and the Ravens accepted that invitation all day long.

The Ugly: Pass-Defense

While Bryant McFadden was on a level of ugly all his own, the rest of the defense did very little to make the situation better. 

The Steelers gave up 224 yards passing and three touchdowns in the game; 224 yards is not an obscene number, but the manner in which the yards were given up certainly was.

The Steelers continually gave the ball to the Ravens in great field position after seven turnovers, otherwise the total would have no doubt been much higher.

The Steelers continually blew coverage assignments. Whether it was the defensive backs getting beat deep and over the middle or the linebackers looking lost (at best) and leaving the flats open, the Steelers' pass-defense was ugly. 

The Ugly: Turnovers

Seven turnovers, including four lost fumbles and three interceptions, killed whatever momentum and chance the Steelers had to get back into the game.  

Ben Roethlisberger, who turned the ball over five times, had one of the worst performances in his seven-year career. He fumbled the ball twice and threw three interceptions, just two less than his 2010 season total.

Running backs Rashard Mendenhall and Mewelde Moore each added a fumble to the Steelers' tally. 

The Wrap-Up

The Steelers left a lot of questions to be answered after Week 1 of the NFL season.  

Moving forward, Pittsburgh is going to have to scale back the turnover margin. They were able to make a Super Bowl run last season because of their ability to hold on to the football; at times, their best defense was keeping the ball out of their opponents' hands.

That cannot change in 2011.

While Ben Roethlisberger turned the ball over five times, and there is never an excuse for putting the ball on the ground, he wasn’t exactly getting a whole lot of time. With pass-rushers coming free on almost every play, there are times when a defender on the NFL level is going to have his way with you.

The Steelers are going to have to find a way to solidify an offensive line that did very little to improve from a season ago.

The Steelers will return home to play the Seattle Seahawks next week and will get a very little break, as the Seahawks are more than formidable defensively.