You Know You're In Trouble When....

[SidSmythe]

When your offense looks like it has to fight for every yard and your Defense gets chipped away at methodically.
I was gonna say more but what's the point.
Butler and Joey Porter will be in the building tomorrow morning.

[Northern_Blitz]

I'm starting to think that the O is almost as big a problem as the D.

I think the D played well enough to win despite looking ugly at times. Or at least better than expected

Our D is bad, but the O is supposed to pick up the slack. Need more than 50 yards in the second half, even against a really good D

[Moonie]

We got skunked. Skunked bad. Skunked to high heaven. Skunked slopped.

[SidSmythe]

I'm starting to think that the O is almost as big a problem as the D.

I think the D played well enough to win despite looking ugly at times. Or at least better than expected

Our D is bad, but the O is supposed to pick up the slack. Need more than 50 yards in the second half, even against a really good D

The O certainly didn't help.
BEN missed a lot tonight and the running game was anemic BUT.......
This DEFENSE is a joke. No pressure.

[papillon]

The O certainly didn't help.
BEN missed a lot tonight and the running game was anemic BUT.......
This DEFENSE is a joke. No pressure.

Nah, the joke tonight was the offense, completely non-existent running game, a quarterback that appeared to be feeling bad that he was targeting open guys not named Brown so he tried forcing it to Brown and we saw how that worked out. AB may have to only get 3 or 4 targets per game until the Steelers offense proves that if a defense removes him from the game that the other guys can score TDs. They haven't shown that to be the case.

Pappy

[Docosc]

Collinsworth was talking about Butler trying to protect the secondary by not blitzing. Essentially not trusting the Db's to cover for blitzers. I know he is usually kind of a tool, but I think he might be on to something here. He got scared of giving up big plays, so instead gave up a whole bunch of little ones. Thing is, he actually kept them out of the end zone. If the O had done it's job, that would have worked. Of course, the O went home at halftime, so Butler's scheming went for nothing. But it did work, in a way anyway.

[papillon]

Collinsworth was talking about Butler trying to protect the secondary by not blitzing. Essentially not trusting the Db's to cover for blitzers. I know he is usually kind of a tool, but I think he might be on to something here. He got scared of giving up big plays, so instead gave up a whole bunch of little ones. Thing is, he actually kept them out of the end zone. If the O had done it's job, that would have worked. Of course, the O went home at halftime, so Butler's scheming went for nothing. But it did work, in a way anyway.

Ok, so what, that philosophy held the ravens to 4 FGs, the offense only needs two TD drives to beat 4 FGs, they stunk, the defense showed some heart at least.

Pappy

[Docosc]

Ok, so what, that philosophy held the ravens to 4 FGs, the offense only needs two TD drives to beat 4 FGs, they stunk, the defense showed some heart at least.

Pappy

That's actually my point. The D is not good enough to actually stop them, but held them to FGs in the second half. Our O should be able to do better tban that and fell on it's face. The D is bad, yes, and (In my opinion) Butler finally faced up to that and switched to a passive "bend but don't break" strategy. They are maybe good enough to do that, but it requires the O to friggin score points. They failed at that.

[papillon]

That's actually my point. The D is not good enough to actually stop them, but held them to FGs in the second half. Our O should be able to do better tban that and fell on it's face. The D is bad, yes, and (In my opinion) Butler finally faced up to that and switched to a passive "bend but don't break" strategy. They are maybe good enough to do that, but it requires the O to friggin score points. They failed at that.

We don't disagree on any point in your comments, in today's NFL giving up FGs instead of TDs is a win for the defense, your offense has to be able to pick up the slack and score points, tonight they couldn't.

Pappy

[pittpete]

Heres a concept......
How about forcing a freaking punt...

[papillon]

Heres a concept......
How about forcing a freaking punt...

That's above their pay grade.

Pappy

[Northern_Blitz]

Collinsworth was talking about Butler trying to protect the secondary by not blitzing. Essentially not trusting the Db's to cover for blitzers. I know he is usually kind of a tool, but I think he might be on to something here. He got scared of giving up big plays, so instead gave up a whole bunch of little ones. Thing is, he actually kept them out of the end zone. If the O had done it's job, that would have worked. Of course, the O went home at halftime, so Butler's scheming went for nothing. But it did work, in a way anyway.

I agree with this assessment.

It sucks, but I think that "only" giving up 26 was an overachievement by the D. But we're expecting them to be bad. We need the O to be above average and they aren't.

The O needs to be able to score... Or at least get some time off possession to keep our d off 5he field.

At least they're bad early enough to know not to get emotionally invested this year. We're close to the point where we're rooting for draft picks. Probably need to win 9 of 12 to make the playoffs.

[SidSmythe]

We've historically haven't been able to run against the Ravens....however we give up on the run too easily.

Joe Haden is good enough to take away his WR .... not sure what the 2 deep stuff was all about. I'd rather see single high and help underneath to take away crossing patterns.
Mike Hilton was replaced by Nat Berhe and that hurt us a few times.

[Steel Maniac]

We've historically haven't been able to run against the Ravens....however we give up on the run too easily.

Joe Haden is good enough to take away his WR .... not sure what the 2 deep stuff was all about. I'd rather see single high and help underneath to take away crossing patterns.
Mike Hilton was replaced by Nat Berhe and that hurt us a few times.

Did you not see Crabtree run free for a 50 yard TD only to have Flacco overthrow him??

Both he and Brown could getvfree vertically. That’s why we kept two safeties deep the rest of the way.

[Steel Maniac]

Our cornerbacks couldn’t keep up with Crabtree. Marinate on that for a minute. When Crabtree is getting free deep, that is a red alert to change coverages.