Ravens 13, Stillers 10 ……. Nov. 18, 2012 …………Game # 10
Stillers-Ravens Postgame Analysis and Grades
The Roeth-less Stillers slopped around against the hated PoeBirds, and fell just short, burned once again by a spec teams fiasco that put 7 points on the board for the Ravens.
Due to the late-nite nature of this game, this summary will be a bit shorter and more terse than usual.
Grades:
QB:
Leftwich - threw deep on 1st play and drew a long PI flag. 2 plays later, he took off on a scramble and defetly eluded a DB, and then stumbled into the EZ for an early score. On the play, Leftwich literally tripped over the paint on the goal line and stumbled into the EZ, landing on his shoulder. From that point on, he did this pussyfied hunching and grimacing, as though he’d been hit by a freight train. That was the highwater mark of the game. From that point on, Leftwich was timid, hesitant, confused, and scattershot. Finished the 1H 7 of 17 for 85 yards.
On 3d & 8 early in the 3Q on a rare, promising drive, Leftwich threw a late, shifty pass that was INTd at the Balt 18.
Burned not 1, but 2 TOs deep in Balt territory late in the 3Q, all of which produced nothing more than a pissfuk FG.
Lefty made a Ben-like play on 3d & 8 early in the 4Q, push-shoveling a lil’ dump pass to Dwyer that gained the 1st down yardage. He had a chance to show off his big arm late in the game on an impromptu rollout in which he was able to get all of his momentum into the pass, yet he feebly fired a pass that traveled all of about 38 yards downfield.
Ben - did not dress. D-
RB:
Redman - . taken to the locker room in the 1Q for a possible concussion.
Dwyer - failed to plow for a 1st down on 3d & 1 late in the 2Q. Didn’t hit the hole low or hard enough. Good RAC on a screen play on 2d & 14, gaining 15 and the 1st down at 5:40 3Q. he tehn rushed for 7 yards on the next play, and then 11 yards on the ensuing play. Good 7 yard run mid 4Q. Finished with a very solid 55 yards on only 12 carries, which was about 10 fewer than he should have had.
Rainey - late in the 1H, was targeted on a simple crosser, and instead of trying to, you know, catch the ball, he literally DUCKED DOWN to avoid the ball. The ball would have been INTd, were it not for the Balt LB having not one, but two broken thumbs.
Baron Batch - good low plunge on 3d & 1 late in the 3Q, gaining 2.
Socrates Mendenhall: finally dressed and played after weeks of inactivity. Did little and was clearly outplayed by Dwyer. Good thing he was taken so quickly off the PUP (sic). Like a complete stupidfuk, foolishly to get OOB on a late dumpoff with less than a minute on the clock, wasting 18 secs in the process. Very sophomoric and stupid. Dwyer: A-. Mendy: C Rainey: D-
FB:
Johnson - good block on end around early in game. Okay overall blocking. B-
WR:
Wally - Mister Holdout caught an early 3rd down pass, and then proceeded to (cough cough) cough up the ball and give the Ravens the ball deep in Pit territory. What a complete pile o’ shit. Quick -- let’s rush out and lavish this gutless pussy with a $70M contract ! Then, on a 3d & 2 at the Balt 4 late in the 3Q, Wally was open on an EZ lob, and caught the well-thrown pass. Only 1 thing -- the lazy, careless fuck that he is, Wally failed to even come close to getting his 2nd foot in-bounds, and the result was a harmless inc pass. Quick -- let’s lavish this stiff with a $68M contact ! Said Wally after he game in a feeble attempt at an excuse, “"It was close," Wallace said. "I couldn't look down to see where my feet were because I was looking for the ball." No shit. Neither could Tonio Holmes on his Sup Bowl game-winning TD grab. Nor can any receiver on plays that happen, oh, about 37 times each Sunday at this level of football. This is just another example of the lack of football and reeivikngh instincts that Wally has. Larry Fitz money?? Ha ! Fitzgerald makes this play in his sleep, and actually gets THREE feet in bounds just to be sure. Then, on a 2d & 11 pass in the 4Q in Raven territory, Wally made no effort at all to make a hard stab at a low pass, instead just lazily stooping over like a fat old lady reaching down for the newspaper on her front stoop. What a gutless fuking pussy. Imagine Hines Ward lazily stooping over on this kind of play, as though he were afraid of getting some grass stains on his uniform. I’ll literally go ape-shit if Colbert lavishes this sorry fuck to a big contract in the offseason.
Brown - .did not dress, due to the ankle injury.
Sanders - made a superb grab on 3d & 2 aerly in the 3Q on a post for 37 yards. Caught a deep crosser late in the 3Q and held on despite a helmet to helmet hit that was flagged.
Cotch - failed to hold onto the ball late in the game on a deep flag that could have setup the Stillers with a 1st down at the Balt 49. Committed 2 penalties -- a false start, and a block in the back on a bubble screen.
Gilreath - took an end around on 2nd play of game and gained 7. Sanders: B Cotch: C+ Wally: F
TE:
Miller - targeted only once in the 1H, and gained 16 yards. Apparently, Haley felt this was too easy to take advantage of more often. Strong effort on a 3d & 6 dumpoff in the 4Q, stretching out and getting the 1D.
Paulson - grabbed a short dumpoff late in the 1Q. B+
OL:
Starks: facing a jailhouse blitz on 3d & 9 in the 4Q, Starks elected to block neither of the rushers, which got Lefty sacked. Mostly fended off the blind side decently.
Adams - got abused by Kruger for a 3rd down sack in the 1Q. A really sorry, pitiful attempt. . On the next series, on 3d & 10, Adams got shoved aside by Kruger, who then nipped Leftwich’s arm as he threw, forcing a harmless inc pass. On the next series, on 3d and a short 2, Adams got tooled badly to the outside, barely getting a hand on Kruger. Struggled some in the 2H as well.
Colon - called for holding on Dwyer’s 10-yard run, 1Q. Failed to read the blitz on the late 3rd down, blocking to the inside on a rusher that Pouncey clearly picked up and allowing a Raven DB to run full steam and nearly decapitate Leftwich for the sack. Some run blocking in the 2H was adequate, while some sucked.
Foster - quietly efficient. Had some struggles as well in run blocking.
Pouncey - Fairly solid overall effort.
Gilbert - did not dress. Adams: D All others: C-
DL:
Keisel - delivered a lick onto Jacco on the first pass of the game, which was woefully off target. Did very little after that, aside from going offsides on a 3d & 8 at 2:04 4Q, like a completely stupid, beard-faced assfucker.
Hood - got injured in the 1Q and did not play the last 3 quarters.
Hampton - got a fingernail grab on Rice for a 2-yard loss, 1Q. Fought off a legal cut-block and blew up a plunge late in the 2Q.
Heyward - finally applied pressure on the QB on a 3d & 7 late in the 2Q. With Hood injured, he got his most extensive PT of his career, and did okay.
McLendon - played sparingly. B-
LB:
Foote - on a 3d & 6 in the 3Q, Foote was stupidly in pass coverage, and then got juked out of his jock after a 3-yard dumpoff to Rice, which gained 7 yards and a 1st down. A shit play by a pile of shit LB. Flagged for a ridiculous tripping call late in the game, when he came diving in at an awkward angle. Neither of his feet or legs came in ANY contact with the ballcarrier. You can’t throw a flag because “maybe it looks like maybe the guy was trying to trip.” He clearly didn’t trip the ballcarrier, period.
Timmons - Whiffed on Boldin late in the 2Q on a 3d & 10. Had only 3 solos, which is hardly impressive.
Woodley - Faced rookie starting RT Kelechi Osemele. Got sealed inside on a wide Rice run in the 1Q. Then, on the next play, he lost track of Rice, who slipped down the sideline and was wide open for a 31-yard lob pass. Got sealed in at 11:07 2Q and allowed the RB to skirt wide. At 7:58 2Q, got sealed inside on a Rice run, which gained 6 yards (but was negated by a ticky tack holding flag on the TE, who had easily manhandled Big LaMarr on the play). SOLO blocked by a TE (Dickson), LaMarr actually held his own on a 3d & 1 plunge early in the 3Q, which the PIT defense managed to stop and force a punt. Big LaMarr got a Dong/coverage sack on a 3d & 8 early in the 4Q, when he looped around the Horn of Africa while being SOLO blocked by a rookie RT, and Jacco held the ball for nearly forever. Right after getting praised by Collinsworth, Big LaMarr got ridden way wide on a stretch play that gained an easy 4.
Worilds - rarely played, if at all.
Harrison - failed to make a crisp tackle on a late out pass, allowing an extra 3 yards. Got a Dong Sack on a coverage sack after the 2MW in the 4Q. Flagged for an offsides on a 2d & 10 inc pass in the 1Q. Had 6 solos in a strong effort against the Balt ground gamek, especially in pursuit as the Ravens continually tried to attack the soft spot of the PIT defense by running up RT almost every single run.
Carter - did not dress, because he’s a complete pussy. C-
DB:
Ike - Good coverage on a deep post at 6:05 1Q, and nearly made a miraculous INT. Saved a ton of yardage by coming up on run support and dropping a RB who had skirted wide of Big LaMarr and had an acre of open grass. Feebly flailed on Boldin on a 3rd & 10 late in the 2Q, allowing a 1st down when a mediocre tackle grab drops the WR 2 yards short of the sticks.
Lewis - played surprisingly well. Am somewhat stunned. Flagged for a hold that was declined when the WR grabbed the 11-yard pass anyway. Led the team with 8 solos and had good, consistent plays on balls as they arrives, something that Taylor, Clark, and Will Gay all struggle(d) with.
Mundy - had a chance for an INT in the 1H and instead fought the ball off as though it were a rabid porcupine.
Cortez Allen - timid as shit on a 3d & 4 dumpoff to Rice in the 2Q, which allowed Rice to garner ahead for 5 yards. A soft, shit play by a soft, shit player.
Clark - delivered a big hit on Rice near the s-line and forced a fumble that went OOB, late 1Q. Good run support on a Rice run, mid 3Q.
Pola - did not dress. A-
Spec teams:
The coverage teams sucked elephant gonad all evening long. Shitty KO after early TD, to the 7, and then sloppy coverage allowed the return to the 34. Later in the 1Q, Paulson pussed out like a complete pansie, and Jacoby Jones took the punt return to the house. Mundy plays this return like a compltepile of dung. Perhaps Momlin should fire the spec teams coach. Shitty KO coverage on the opening KO of the 2H.
Meanwhile, the kick returns teams were worthless. Rainey tried to return a KO in the 2H, only to be engulfed at the 11-yard line due to a lack of any blocking combined with Rainey’s feeble tenativeness.
Butler punted okay. Suisham booted a chippie FG. D-
OC:
The overall gameplan and playcalling sucked rhino balls. We heard all week about how Haley was going to adjust the offense to enable Leftwich to succeed. Instead, all we got was a watered down version of Ben’s offense. Safe pop passes to the TE? NONE. Quick flares to the RBs? Few, and not until the 2H. Hot reads to quickly get the ball to a pass-catcher on a jailhouse blitz? NONE. Deep stabs to Wally to create a spark? Just ONE, on the first play of the game.
On the 3rd series, Lefty hit Sanders on the first play for 25 yards. In love with this success, Haley then went pass-happy, calling for passes on 1st & 2nd down that fell inc. Facing a 3rd and 10, the offense got engulfed and Lefty was sacked. This isn’t the ’86 Bear defense, and we have no idea what Galey was going pass-happy here.
3rd and a long 1, late 1Q, and Haley not only refuses to go UC, but then calls for a 18-yard pass to Sanders that was off target and incomplete. A plunge, perhaps? Or a quick, easy pass to Miller ? Nope, not Haley.
In the 2Q, the Stillers took over after a missed FG. A rare pass to Miller gained 16 yards. Then Dwyer blasted for 6 on 1st down, setting up 2d & 4. This is the prime time to start establishing our will against what actually is a barf-laden, 27th ranked defense. What does fuking Haley do ? He calls for his favorite faggot-fuk play, the bubble screen, which was stopped for a 1-yard loss and Cotch was flagged for an illegal block to the back. Just like that, what appeared to be a promising drive gets sabotaged, in large part to an OC who is too fuking cute for his own good.
Taking away runs by Lefty and Gilreath, the PIT RBs carried the ball all of 9 times in the entire 1H. The longest drive, play-wise, of the 1H was all of 6 plays, in what became a punt-fest. One completed pass to a RB the entire 1H.
Dwyer was stopped on his 7-yard run at the Balt 3 at 1:24 3Q. Haley then took fuking FOREVER to get the play in. By the time Lefty looked up and realized the playclock was running down, the game clock was at 0:44 and we had to burn our 2nd timeout of the half and 2nd TO in the prior 3 plays.
After taking over at the 30-yard line early in the 4Q, the offense got a 1st down. Then Haley went pass happy again, gaining 2 yards on 1st and 2nd down. Dwyer got the 1st down on a miraculous dumpoff and run on 3d & 10, and then after the 8-minute replay challenge, Dwyer -- by far the most effective RB on the night -- was pulled from the field. Then, a clever 35-yard lob down the sideline to the slow-footed FB, Johnson. Brilliant !!
2 catches on 2 targets for Heath Miller, the guy who should have been Lefty’s security blanket all nite long.
RT Mike Adams was getting eaten alive by Freddie Kruger right from the get-go, and Haley, as dumb as a box of rocks, took about 2 quarters to finally figure out that it just might be a good idea to give Adams some help.
In all, a dogshit evening for Haley, who should be run out of town on a rail. F-
DC:
Dick had his usual weekly luxury of fortuitous circumstances. Balt was missing starting LG Bobbie Williams, and Dick got to face a rookie starting RT, Osemele. TE Dennis Pitta, the Ravens’ best receiving TE, got a concussion late in the 1Q and did not return.
Late in the 1Q/early in the 2Q, Dick allowed a 9-play march from the BALT 30 to set up a routine 41-yard FG, but the Balt PK, Tucker, shanked it to the right; no good.
Once again, ZERO TURNOVERS by this over-rated defense -- the fourth time this season -- in a game that they were in desperate need of at least one. The incessant, stupid-assed offsides flags on DE/LBs are unacceptable.
It needs to be asked, repeatedly no less -- WHY is Larry Foote anywhere near the field, much less ON it, in an obvious passing down like 3d & 6? He’s the slowest ILB on the team, and perhaps in the entire NFL. He’s short, with short arms, and offers nothing on the pass rush should he blitz. He couldn’t cover a toddler in a phone booth. This guy should automatically be yanked from the game in these kind of passing downs, yet LeBeau, the complete dumbfuk that he is, insists on keeping him in there. No wonder this defense generates no turnovers.
Very late in the game, the defense HAD to get a 3-and-out in order to give the ball back to the offense with some time and some kind of half-decent FP. Instead, Balt began at its own 13, at 4:13 4Q. 2 plays later, they got an easy 1st down to keep the clock moving and retain the ball. As it was, the RatBirds managed to run 7 plays and nudge the ball from their 13 to their 40, before finally punting. Bu the time PIT got the ball on their own 16 no less, there was only 1:05 remaining. #1 defense, my ass. C
HC:
I despised the playcall on 3d & a short 3 at the Balt 4 late in the 3Q, trailing by 6. With how feeble-fuk the offense had been all night, THIS, right here, was your chance to score a TD. Leftwich was (hold your laughter, please) 8 for 19 at that point, his eight completions gaining just 122 yards, and had thrown 1 INT. At this point, was Tomlin expecting the brittle, rusty, achy scattershot Leftwich to march up and down the field the rest of the 4Q?? This was very clearly 4-down territory against a defense that was getting shoved around and with Dwyer lighting it up on the ground. Instead, after the PIT timeout, the Stillers try a high-risk, low probability lob to the EZ (to Wally, of all people, who has the worst hands and footwork on the team) and then settled for a pussyfuk FG that still enabled Balt to hold the LEAD. With how feeble the Raven offense was playing, even if you fail to score a TD, the Ravens get the ball at their own 3 and you can get golden FP on a punt. Myopic, and oh-so-typical of Momlin, who talks all kinds of brash bravado but is so timid and conservative that he squeaks when he bends over to wipe his ass.
Is Tomlin going to fire his spec teams coach now?? After all, that was the difference between winning and losing tonite.
Also, how many injuries did Leftwich need to sustain before Momlin, the complete fuking dullard that he is, decides to replace him ?? This was almost as bad as the 49er game last season, in which BenRoth was beaten to a pulp, and with the team down by multiple scores, still kept getting sent back into the game late in the 4Q. I have never seen a modern NFL coach so utterly terrified at inserting a backup QB. For Momlin, once a QB starts the game, he’s locked into playing unless 4 physicians demand the guy be pulled, or unless the guy throws 7 INTs.
Momlin failed to have his team ready to hunrt bear, at home, in what truly was a must-win game. D+
Synopsis: A shit loss against a shit RatBird team. Letdown alert ! Pull money out of the bank and bet all of it on Cleve plus the points next week. This Steeler team has been slovenly on the road all season, and enjoys playing down to its competition, plus they’ll already be looking ahead to a rematch versus Balt in 2 weeks. For Clev, this will be their Super Bowl. Anticipate a nail-biting slopfest against the lowly Brownies.
(Still Mill and Stillers.com -- when it comes to the analysis of the Pittsburgh Stillers, no one else comes close….)
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