Stillers 20, Ravens 19 ���. Oct. 31, 2005 ����Game #7
Stillers-Ravens Postgame Analysis and Grades
(Due to the late nature of MNF, this will be a somewhat abbreviated version of my usual postgame analysis.) The Stillers hosted the lowly Ravens on Halloween evening, and opened the game with a textbook 15-play TD march. But instead of treating the home fans to some quality football, the Stillers tricked their fans with a litany of grabass football, only to rescue themselves with a late FG march to eke out a thoroughly uninspiring 20-19 win.
Grades:
QB: BenRoth orchestrated the superb opening march, but took a shot on the knee and wrist on different plays and seemed a bit hampered. He was spotty and erratic thereafter, nearly throwing an INT to McAllister on an out to Ward early in the 2Q; throwing the poor INT to Thomas on a curl to Wilson; and throwing a gimpy lob of an out to Ward in the 4Q that was nearly INT'd. Benji made a huge play in the 3Q, holding off a grasping DB and completing a clutch pass to Miller while falling down, which netted 6 yards instead of a 5-yard loss. 3 plays later, Ben hit Miller for a huge TD. Benji was clutch on the winning drive, hitting El for 14 and then hitting Morgan with nice touch on a wheel route for 23 yards. Roth also had a superb pooch punt in the 2Q, pinning Balt on its own 10-inch line. B-.
RB: Parker got the bulk of the work, toting the pill 14 times for a very solid 63 yards. Park ran with authority and, for the most part, read his blocking pretty well. He also snared 2 passes for 18 yards. Bettis chipped in with 8 rushes for 22 yards, including a clutch 11-yard dash around left end late in the 4Q. Haynes ran the obligatory SG draw for 7 yards. Staley, once again, was not permitted to dress. A-.
FB: Kreider sprung some holes for his mates, although I expected more in this matchup. He dropped a short dumpoff in the 4Q, although it was a low pass. B.
WR: Ward led the way with a stellar, gritty effort on prime time TV. He grabbed 8 passes for 75 yards, and took a boatload of punishment. He had 2 clutch grabs to keep the first drive alive. Morgan had only 2 grabs, but both were huge. On the 1st drive of the 2H, he snared a low out pass on 3d & 4, good for 12 yards. Two plays later, Miller scored his 2nd TD. On the game-winning FG drive, Morgan hauled in a 23-yard reception. El had a drop in the 2Q, but snagged 3 passes and rushed once for 5 yards. Wilson was the target on the Roth INT and was held without a catch for the 2nd consecutive game. B+.
TE: Miller had the 2 TD grabs. He did have a drop late in the 2Q on a short dump. Tuman slogged around in the 2TE set. I can think of no rational reason why Tuman is still on this roster. A.
OL: The line had a rather shabby evening. There was leakage galore in pass pro, such as Hartings getting badly abused on a 3rd & 9 late in the 2Q, which resulted in heavy pressure and a throw-away by Roth. Facing a Ravens defense missing GayRay, Reed, and Weaver, the ground game should have been more effective than it was. C.
DL: An ordinary evening by this crew. Lewis ripped off some nice chunks of yardage, and the pass harassment was feeble. Kimo took a thoroughly asinine, blind, imbecilic pass rush angle on the Ravens' lone TD, allowing Wright to easily roll right and calmly complete the pass to Taylor. Hampton blew the center off the ball and stuffed Taylor for a 3-yard loss. The play o' the game by the defense was the sack by Keisel on the final Balt drive, in which he fought off a blocker and snagged a scrambling Wright for a 3-yard loss. B.
LB: An all too quiet effort from this crew tonight. Facing a team with a joke of a QB and a marginal O-line, this LB corps was far too quiet and humdrum. Farrior made some routine plays but that's about it. Porter spent most of the evening dancing and titty-jousting with Jon Ogden. Porter was in coverage on a deep ball to Heap, but even on that play, Porter did little or nothing; Heap merely failed to come down with the ball. Haggans, in his first game back from groin surgery, was sporadic and vanilla. He did get a finger-nip of Wright, resulting in a 3-yard loss in the 4Q. Foote whiffed weakly after a dump to Taylor, resulting in a 15-yard gain. He did make a rare, but nice, stick of Taylor with 4 minutes left in the 4Q. Harrison was slow in pursuit of Taylor after a short crosser, resulting in a huge RAC and a 16-yard gainer on a 3d & 10 in the 3Q. Jamie did have a hustling pursuit of Lewis and a stop for -4 in the 2Q. Overall, this defense is designed for the LBs to make the big plays, and in this game they made damn few, to go along with a host of sloppy tackling attempts. C.
DB: After shutting down the vaunted Cinci offense last week, these guys apparently rested on their laurels. Facing a horrible QB and a sub-par passing attack, they got shredded like a Freddie Krueger victim. The coverage was soft and lax, and ditto for the tackling on RAC yardage. Ike Taylor, after 2 stellar games the past 2 weeks, was overtly poor in this one. He and Hope were oafish and clumsy in pursuit of Mason in the 1Q after a crosser, resulting in a huge RAC and a 31-yard gain. Ike and Town were soft and meek on the Taylor TD, failing to stop the RB from scoring despite having the sideline and an easy angle to stop the Raven well short of the GL. Ike was picked on incessantly by the Ravens. Town was flagged for a costly hold on an incomplete 3d & 4 that fell incomplete. Town, beaten badly, actually flailed and missed on his hold attempt, but was flagged anyway. Town also was credited with a FF on a bizarre play in which Lewis was rumbling over and steamrolling Lil' Deshea, but somehow Lewis simply dropped the football as though it were a bar of soap inside a prison shower facility. Hope had a good play on his INT; first by not getting fooled on the flea flicker and then making a good play to pick the pass. Pola was disruptive with his blitzes against the ground game. McFadden was clumsy and mistimed his jump on a late, deep lob to Mason that fortunately was caught with just 1 foot IB. Wee Willie fortunately did not dress. Facing a WR corps that had just 1 proven, studly WR, this was a poor all-around effort by the secondary. C.
Spec teams: Reed had a solid night, getting decent depth on his KOs and nailing a 42-yard FG and a game-winning 37-yarder. Morgan had a big KO return of 59 yards in the 1Q. Colclough fumbled away a KO return in the 2Q, and then was timid on a KOR in the 4Q. Morey was flagged for being in the neutral zone on a Raven punt, and then followed up that boner by apparently meandering into the line of snap and having Warren's punt snap bounce off his leg in the 4Q. Perhaps Warren was also at fault, but it seemed to me that Morey has got to stay out of the snap's line of trajectory lest a fiasco occur just like the one we observed. The KO coverage was soft on the final KO, which allowed Sams to return the ball to the Raven 30. Leading the STs was backup LB Andre Frazier, who put 2 huge hits on Raven returner BJ Sams. Frazier head-hunted and hauled down the dangerous Sams after the opening KO of the 2H, and a short while later, lit the piss out of Sams with a brutal hit in KO coverage. A couple more plays like this, and I'll be buying my own Frazier jersey. Very impressive on an otherwise dull, unimpressive evening. C+.
OC: I thought last week's success of having Ben take the snap UNDER center, rather than in the shitgun, on 3d & short was a sign of things to come. Instead, Wise Hunt reverted back to his stupid ways, putting Ben back in the SG on 3rd & 2/3d & 3 on several occasions. On the Stillers' 2nd drive, they faced a 3rd & 2 at the Balt 29. Benji was sacked, and the loss pushed them out of FG range and forced a Benji punt.
Parker caught a rare dumpoff on the 1st drive of the game, netting 7 yards. Hooray!! Maybe this play will allow WiseHunt to see some light! Of course, aside from a quick-screen, he never touched the ball again in the passing game.
The overt lack of verticality in the passing game was very annoying and disturbing. If you never take the deep shot you rarely ever get the big play. Lastly, the offense was a lowly 4-12 on 3Ds -- not good at all. C-.
DC: A sorry, shameful evening for Dick. He faced a feeble, lethargic offense that should have been overwhelmed. Instead, he made Anthony Wright look like Johnny Unitas. Wright went 25-44 for 252 yards, with 1 of his 2 INTs coming on a Hail Mary lob at the end of the 1H. On far too many plays, Wright had ALL day back in the pocket, and only Wright's gross ineptitude -- failing to see WIDE open receivers & scattering passes around like a Kordell Stewart -- prevented the Ravens from scoring 30-35 points.
Take a look at the Ravens' scoring drives -- 10 plays, TD. 8 plays, FG. 17 plays, FG. 7 plays, FG. 5 plays, FG. Far, far too many time-consuming marches, especially considering the sack o' shit QB the Ravens had to employ. And to add salt in the wound, Dick's defense was flagged for 12-men on the field on a 3d & 8 in the 4Q, helping to prolong that 17-play FG march. Very, very poor. D.
HC: Prior to the game, Cowhard was essentially given a gift win on a silver platter, what with Weaver, Lewis, and Reed sitting out and with the Stillers playing at home on prime time TV. Instead, after the textbook, methodical opening march, Cowhard allowed the team to play grabass and keep a weak, undermanned, overmatched Ravens team in the ballgame. And then there was the TO taken after a short 3D completion in the middle of the field that made it a 4th & 3 late in the 2Q, with the Ravens out of TOs. Instead of the clock running out or the Ravens rushing an uncoordinated play, the Stillers, led by their supreme head coach, called a TO with 8 seconds remaining, which allowed the Ravens to regroup and take a stab at the EZ as the half expired. Very, very stupid, but that's par for the course for Bilbo Cowher. D.
Synopsis: Any win over the hated Ratbirds is nice indeed, but this one still has to be kept in perspective. This win was basically like beating your kid sister in a game of hoops, which is a nice moral victory in terms of inter-family gloating but not something that ya go around the 'hood and brag about. For a team with supposed championship aspirations, this was a sloppy, assgrabbing kind of effort that, if replicated, simply won't come close to getting it done come playoff time.