Last night, Sunday November 18th, the Steelers took on the Ravens in one of the best football rivalries in game today.
When these two teams come together to play one another, it's nothing less than a heavy weight bought that last 15 rounds. Last night was no different. The only difference was, there was no Ben Roethlisberger. The Steelers star QB was out with a shoulder injury as well as a rib injury.
In his place the Steelers went with back up QB Byron Leftwhich, instead of Charlie Batch. Batch as been labeled the 3rd string QB rather than the back up as he's been for many years. Both QB's are long time veterans of the league, and more than capable to replace Ben. That being said, lets talk about the game.
The game got off to a rocky start for the Steelers WR Mike Wallace in the first quarter. Just minutes into the game the speedy receiver fumbled and gave the Ravens an chance to jump out early, had the Steelers not recovered the fumble. After that Leftwhich wanted to try and air it out, and drew a pass interference call putting the Steelers in great field position. The very next play, Bryon Leftwhich takes off after a busted play and took the ball 32 yards for the first touchdown of the game. This was also the longest rush of Leftwhich's career. The Steelers D would hold the Ravens on their first possession, and that would be the tail of the take for the rest of this game. The next Steelers possession tragedy would strike again for Wallace, as he fumbles again but this time the Ravens were able to recover the fumble. On the Ravens next Offensive possession they were only able to get a field goal out of the drive, making the score 7-3 in favor of the Steelers. The rest of the game would be like this, a defensive game. The Steelers would go 3 and out of the next possession, and would make the biggest mistake of the game. The Steelers would kick to dangerous return make Jacobi Jones, who would take the kick 63 yards for the only touchdown of the game making the score 10-7 in favor of the Ravens. This would be how the quarter would end.
The second quarter would have little to no excitement, but would have a lot of things go wrong for the Ravens. The Ravens would loss their main Tight End Denis Pitta, who would leave the game with a concussion. There would be no offense from either team in this quarter at all. The only other scoring chance would come from the Ravens, and it would be a missed field goal from 41 yards. This would be the end of the half with the score 10-7 Ravens.
In the second half, it would be the same thing that went on in the first half, NO OFFENSE. Neither team would be able to produce any type of offense at all. There would only be two more scores and they would both be field goals one from the Ravens from 39 yards, and the other from the Steelers Shaun Suisham from 22 yards out. The only other action that happened in this half, was an interception from Leftwhich, but other than that, nothing.
My take on this game would have to be that the Steelers blew this game. They gave it away. It was clear to everyone who could see, that Bryon Leftwhich was hurt, and in pain throughout the game. He hurt himself when he scored the only offensive touchdown of the game. He tripped and fell awkwardly in the end zone. He instantly reached up and grabbed his shoulder. If I was the coach, I would have had the medical staff check him out completely and make sure that he was okay to return to the game. They have a capable back up to him in Charlie Batch, so why no bring him in and make sure that Leftwhich could finish the game, yet that did not happen. Why it didn't happen? I have no idea. This was the dumbest thing that the Steelers could have done in this game. Leftwhich was missing throws that he is able to make, winsing in pain after every throw, and not willing to run the ball at all. Given, he was taking so many shots in this game. The line didn't protect him at all. If they would have been able to give him a little more time, he may have made some throws, and not get hit as much.
All in all, it doesn't matter how much I bitch about this game. The Steelers lost, and that's that. Can't take it back, can't have a do over for this game, and they fell 2 games back from the Ravens in the Division. They only thing that they can do, is wait 2 weeks until they play them again in Baltimore. This would be a rematch of the heavy weight bought that we saw Sunday night. The only thing I think that can save the Steelers chances to win this game would be to get Ben healthy and have him play instead of Leftwhich or Batch.
Until next time,
You keep doing what you do, and I'll keep you up to date with everything sports.
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