Connor Turner Flickr
People are normally about drama, but I am a guy who loves happy endings. Tonight was nowhere near the end for the Baltimore Ravens but it was a great start to turning around the negativity surrounding this team.
NFL Network’s Hall of Fame Receiver, Michael Irvin said, “this team needed this victory for this city and they went out and took it.”
I couldn’t have said it better myself. The last game against the Cincinnati Bengals was absolutely terrible and they managed to make up for it tonight. Consistency and being able to sustain drives was key in tonight’s win against the Pittsburgh Steelers. That consistency was Steve Smith and Bernard Pierce.
Smith was about that work tonight as I’m sure after his 6 reception, 71-yard performance, the Steelers’ secondary knew they needed to “Ice Up SON!” Smith has such a dominating presence and he has taken over as Joe Flacco’s favorite target. Dennis Pitta was quiet while Smith played LOUD! Sorry Dennis Pitta, Joe has a new best friend, on the field at least. I feel like I am watching the second coming of Baltimore favorite, Derrick Mason when he and Flacco hooked up constantly back in the day.
The O-line looked superb tonight, as the Joe was kept clean the entire night. Rick Wagner and Eugene Monroe serves a great bookend pass protectors. There was another player who helped in pass protection and may have redeemed himself with his performance tonight. Bernard Pierce was solid in helping the line and almost managed to hit the century mark in rushing yards. I am very happy that Baltimore reinstated their confidence in third year player by going to him 22 times.
Justin Forsett however, did show more explosiveness than Pierce, as he went 8 for 56-yards and almost saw paydirt tonight. Good thing this is a team sport, because they work well together as change of pace runners.
The Offense came to life today and Gary Kubiak should sleep well tonight knowing he was masterful in his execution. There were some snags in the redzone but I don’t think that will be much of an issue going forward. Pierce and Forsett will get better with every touch and as along as Kubiak continues to use the two-TE sets, things will begin to open up. Now that I’ve blown enough smoke up the Offense’s butt, let’s move over to the D.
Even in the win, this Defense still looked very unfamiliar as they were vanilla in the blitzes but the stars still managed to make things happen. Kudos to Elvis Dumervil, as he racked up the teams’ first two sacks tonight on “Big” Ben Roethlisberger.
Daryl Smith while quiet, managed to blanket one of Ben’s long-time favorite targets in D. Smith also caused a fumble; one of 3 turnovers on the evening for the Defense. Asa Jackson left the game early but Chykie Brown did what he could against Marcus Wheaton as Jimmy Smith took on Antonio Brown. No huge complaints except I would like to see more pressure on the signal caller and the team has to make the first attempt to tackle count.
Well folks it was a happy day in Baltimore as the Ravens cruised past the Steelers 26-6 and have now put their record back to .500. Now having avoided the dreaded 0-2 start, I can’t wait to see what they’ll do in week 3.
Jermaine Lockett is the CEO and a Writer for Couch Rider Report. Follow us on twitter and like us on Facebook.
