Entering Sunday’s showdown with the Ravens, the Steelers had committed just 11 penalties on the season, and none of them were key to the point where they had changed the game. Total yards in the penalties – 80 yards.
Sunday they committed 11 penalties for 88 yards, including some late when they were trying to burn up the clock leading 14-10.
They were unable to do it, and therefore ended up on the short end of a hard to swallow 17-14 setback in a game most if not all Steelers fans and players felt was theirs for the taking.
“That’s Steelers beating Steelers, but through the entire game, too many penalties,” Mike Tomlin said. “We didn’t play clean enough to earn a victory. And that’s just black and white.”
What was black and white as well was the fact the team never got much into a rhythm because of the penalties, including a key one late on the final punt of the game that put the Ravens in striking distance at the Steelers 40.
That penalty was on Keyaron Fox, and shortened the field for the Ravens to drive for the winning score. In the Steelers drive to try and wrap up the game running the ball, they right away put themselves behind the 8-ball with false starts by both Chris Kemoeatu and Matt Spaeth.
“Some games go like that. I don’t know if we were too excited or what was going on, but we made some mistakes,” Ryan Clark said. “You can’t beat yourself. Not taking anything away from them [by] saying that they didn’t play well, but penalties are what you do to yourself. Those are things that we can control that they don’t force us into – kind of unforced errors.”
You can always learn from a loss, but watching the Steelers make mistake after mistake and commit penalties that cost them this game was tough to see. They have quite awhile to think about it, as they won’t play another game till October 17th at home against the Browns.
“We like to win. We don’t look at it as a positive thing because we always like to finish,” Lawrence Timmons said. “But you can’t win them all. We just have to learn from our mistakes here and, hopefully, let them make us stronger.”
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mark
October 4, 2010 at 6:48 am
No one wants to say it, but werent those penalties a bit “excessive”? Besides, the Ravens left tackle,Michael Oher(sp?) stood up a half-second early on just about every pass play and was hardly called for a false-start. Watching at home I kept screaming “thats a false start”. Yet, it wasnt called. My naked eye saw it, the refs didnt. But they did see 11 penalties on the Steelers, at Heinz field though. Penalties dictate the pace and success of the game. 11 for 90 yards, at home against a bitter rival,especially when trying to close out the game was “interesting” to say the least. Guess where Im going with that?
mark
October 4, 2010 at 10:40 am
Steelers had 11 penalties combined in the previous 3 games. Like I said to another blogger, Steelers are 3-0 but basically home ‘dogs yesterday. Money starts pouring in on the Steelers and POOF! 11 flags for 90 yards. How convenient. Sucker bet guys. Football remains a business and Ill argue all day with anyone who thinks these games arent manipulated. I would go into greater detail, but I do NOT have the typing patience nor the audience to believe me.
The Tony
October 4, 2010 at 1:35 pm
Mark I have to agree with you anout Oher and how was comitting false starts one after another without being called, as well as how Oher held Harrison on almost every blitz. However there is no excuse to let the Ravens go 40 yards for a touchdown. My friends and I were completely dumbfounded watching the Steelers go into prevent defense with only 40 yards to go. Honestly the prevent defense only prevents us from playing any defense at all. During that drive we only sent one blitz, which is completely unexcusable. In the end the penalties did kill us, especially on third down. Watching Jeef Reed miss two field goals made me completely irate, granted the one from 49 out is a tough kick, but Reed really needs to make those, especially against Baltimore. The second kick was a high snap and Reed had to take an extra stutter step, however there is still no excuse. Reed should have the mental capacity to not worry about important fieldgoals. Hopefully this being a contract year for Reed, he decides to earn his money and not worry about not receiving a contract. Our defense did everything possible to win the game yet again. Twice they created turnovers inside the Ravens 35 yard line, and our offense was only able to net 2 yards… absolutely pathetic. Have we had Ben under center then I am completely confident we walk away from that game victorious.
DrGeorge
October 5, 2010 at 7:48 am
Even without Ben, we should have won this game. Given the Ravens superior offense, solid defense, and the benefit of 11 Steelers penalities, the Ravens should have won by at least 14. If I were the Ravens coaches, I wouldn’t be happy with this win.
If I were Tomlin, I would praise the improved play on special teams and Sepulveda’s punting, forgive Reed for missing two long field goals into a nasty wind, and quietly celebrate the return of Big Ben. Then I would take a hard look at an offense that still can’t run the ball on demand and get one last first down to win the game. And I would take another hard look at a defense that remains vulnerable to the run, commits 11 penalties because they are being outplayed, and a secondary that continues to surrender big plays and easy first downs, repeatedly; in other words, the same defensive deficiencies we discussed here in 2009. When Ben is healthy, his play tends to mask our deficiencies on defense and gives that unit more rest; but the problems haven’t gone away. The Ravens were simply a good enough team to expose them. And the rest of the NFL is smart enough to plan accordingly.