Went to the game Sunday and
Heinz Field was rocking. Hank Williams Jr. sang the national anthem and then
did his customary �Are you ready for some football.� The Stillers were ready
and the Ravens looked like they never got off the bus. For anyone who has been
to Heinz Field you realize the parking situation is not great. I did not get
back to Baltimore until 11:00PM and combined with the partying I did Saturday
night and the lack of sleep, that explains the tardiness of this post game
report. One of the shirts I saw that was pretty funny said �Where was Ray Lewis
when Joey Porter got shot.� All in all, the weather was great and you could not
ask for a better opening day.
QB:
Tommy Maddox was on, nothing
else to say. In the preseason, starters on starters the Ravens� d-side
dominated Buffalo and Atlanta. The Ravens seemed to be the chic pick to win the
AFCN. They also talked all week about how tough their �D� is and how they where
going to shut down the Stillers. Well, they did not even come close to shutting
down the Stillers passing attack. Tommy Gun was 21 of 29 for 260 yards and
three touchdowns, compiling a passer rating of 134. Tommy reads were near
perfect and three of his incomplete passes came off of deflections. Grade: A+.
RB:
Amos Zereoue started off
strong and seemed to tail off a little as the game went on. This was mostly due
to the fact that Baltimore was shooting the gaps hard and did a commendable job
of stopping the run. He rushed 15 times for 57 yards and had a nice 8 yard TD
run in the 4th quarter. The Bus had 4 carries for 15 yards and did
little except an 11 yard run through a huge hole. Verron Haynes had one nice
catch for nine yards but did very little running the football. 11 rushes for 18
yards needs to be improved upon. In his defense, most of his rushes came after
the game was getting out of hand and the Ravens were expecting Cowher to turtle
and run the ball. Dan Kreider had a couple of nice blocks but was taken out of
the game a lot due to the frequent use of 1 back sets. Grade C
WR & TE:
Plex and Hines Ward had
career days. Hines had 91 yards and 2 TD�s. Whereas, Plex had 6 catches for 116
yards including a 47 yard beauty that set up the Stillers first touchdown. In
short, Plex and Hines toasted the Ravens secondary all day and all the Ravens
DB�s could do is trash talk and tell the Stillers had bad they sucked with the
score at 34-7. Jay Riemersma looked awesome, especially on a wide open 20 yard TD.
Mark Bruener will not be missed with Riem and Tuman opening up the middle of
the field. Plex needs to stop getting flagged for childish personal fouls.
Grade: A+
O-line:
For the most part the o-line
protected Tommy. The push needs to get better for the B&G to run the
football, but all in all it was a solid performance. The downside being the play
of the right side of the line. Fordham got beat badly on an inside move by
Ravens 1st round pick Terrell Suggs. This was a key breakdown
because the play occurred on 3rd and goal. Simmons was lethargic
most of the day but will get better each week as he regains his strength.
Faneca and Hartings played well and Marvel Smith was solid, but not spectacular.
Grade: B-
D-Line:
The
d-line gave up 4.6 yards a carry to Jamal Lewis, one of the better backs in the
league IMO. That was the only knock on the line today. Aaron Smith played
really well, getting penetration and applying pressure on the QB all day.
Hampton was solid and did a good job of doing what he does best, clogging the
middle. Kimo had a sack and was almost as disruptive as Aaron Smith. Bailey
played OK getting some work late in the game, but Clancy looked weak at the
nose on the Jamal Lewis TD run. Grade B+
LB:
This
unit was very solid. Clark Haggans had a sack and more importantly applied
pressure all day going against an all-world OT. He was very active and showed
he could easily take Gildon�s spot at LOLB. Haggans was also solid in coverage and
good against stopping the run. James Farrior was sideline to sideline and made
a case for keeping Porter�s spot in the dime and letting Porter take Bell�s spot
as the right rush end. Make that move and let Haggans take Gildon�s spot, and
the dime may actually apply consistent pressure on the QB. Bell made a nice 1st
Q INT on a critical 3rd and 2 that seemed to set the tone for the
game. Gildon had one nice pressure when he was completely untouched. Other than
that, you can read the weekly Gildong Report for an analysis of the rest of
Gildon�s play. The grade of this unit will not include Big Jay�s performance,
you can see the Gildong Report for that grade. Grade: A
Secondary:
This
unit was not tested by an average group of Raven receivers and a rookie QB.
When Boller did start airing it out in the 2nd half CS and DW both
were beaten by these very average receivers and had to resort to interfering
with the receivers to stop these long completions. The crowd at Heinz Field
booed and hissed but they really should have been booing DW and CS as the calls
were correct. CS got the benefit of a close offensive pass interference call in
the beginning of the 3rd quarter. Mike Logan played well and was
very active all day. Polamula did not look lost when he was in and should
improve as he gets more and more game experience. DW did have some nice solo
tackles, however, he needs to improve against the longball or DT needs a long
look. One last note, CS needs to stop dropping easy INT�s like the gift Boller
tossed up in the 1st Q. Grade: B
Special
Teams:
Reed
was 2 for 2 on field goal attempts and Josh Miller had a couple of booming
punts. One was like 67 yards, hopefully this is a sign of things to come from
him. In the 3rd quarter, Reed kicked the ball OOB on a kick off and
gave the Ravens the ball on the 40 yard line. Of course, the Ravens punter one
upped Reed when he punted the ball only 26 yards. Kriedwaldt was the only guy
on the coverage units that seemed to stand out, however, the kick off coverage
still needs to improve. Grade: B
Coaching:
This
opponent is supposed to be the main roadblock in the Stillers� quest to repeat
as AFCN champions. They were picked by some to win this game and were the chic
pick to win the division with their supposed revamped defense. Mike Mularkey
was the star of the staff, his play calling kept the Ravens on their heels the
whole day and he never went into turtle mode. Grade A. Tim Lewis did a good job
of zone blitzing the rookie QB from every direction but needs his secondary to
improve or change the starting personnel. His defense was not challenged,
however, we will see what happens next week against the Chiefs. Grade: B. Bill
Cowher�s team had some sloppy moments Sunday, however, they destroyed their
main rival for the division title and dominated an opponent on opening day. It
is not Bill�s fault the Brian Billick started Kyle Boller. Bill will be tested
by a far superior opponent next Sunday. But this was his day. Grade: A.
I
will be in KC this weekend for the game and will be representing Stillers.com
at the Pittsburgh Steelers fan club of Kansas City tailgate. I will have the Stillers.com
banner up and a keg of beer to offer any Stillers� fan who attends. Can�t wait
for the game, go Steelers!!!!