Mike Preston's report card

Quarterback: D- Joe Flacco looked like a rookie. He was misfiring, as a lot of passes sailed.

[steveg]

I agree pretty much with the grades, but on special teams I sure would have mentioned the punting by Sam Koch, which kept the Steelers in bad field position most of the game.

[Dubby]

I wish we could grade the coaches, too. I would give them a D. Cam contributed to Joe's poor performance. The offense played scared. Afraid of Harrison in particular. Cam let Pittsburgh dictate his game plan. With the excellent field position in the first half, Cam should have let Joe take some shots. Instead he played into the smash-mouth football expectations instead of playing to score points. The offense played not to lose, thinking that the defense could win it. And after seeing the Browns, Patriots, Titans and now Steelers score on the D at the end of games in the past 2 years, can't we lay some of the blame on Rex Ryan. He is making the defensive calls on these final drives isn't he?

[Josh]

i agree, your special teams was the one phase of the game where you dominated the steelers. All those pins, and all that hang time was impressive by koch.

[HayRay52]

How do the special teams not get an A? What does it take?

Why do we only rush 3 guys at the end of games? I hate the prevent defense and once again it killed us. We rushed 3 guys against Tennesse as well. We blitz all game and did a great job, and with 3 minutes to go, we decide to change our game plan. It never works.

[Teapot]

Totally agreed with the grades Mike.

[McGahee_SUX]

Mikey; Flacco hit Mason on one of those passes-he jumped early and missed timed it. he played like a rookie well because he in one with one good receiver to work with. Tell your buddy OZ to draft talent not special ed teamers.

[RolleisTRASH]

We need Corners BADLY!

[Jon]

I agree with Dubby we should also grade the coaches too.

[RolleisTRASH]

Dubby wrote:

I wish we could grade the coaches, too. I would give them a D. Cam contributed to Joe's poor performance. The offense played scared. Afraid of Harrison in particular. Cam let Pittsburgh dictate his game plan. With the excellent field position in the first half, Cam should have let Joe take some shots. Instead he played into the smash-mouth football expectations instead of playing to score points. The offense played not to lose, thinking that the defense could win it. And after seeing the Browns, Patriots, Titans and now Steelers score on the D at the end of games in the past 2 years, can't we lay some of the blame on Rex Ryan. He is making the defensive calls on these final drives isn't he?

AGREED 100%, This is why Rex Ryan does NOT deserve a head coaching job, these types of games show you it's mostly the talent and not his so called great coaching techniques as he makes the most idiotic calls on defense when the game is on the line, this is also the same genius who called timeout and ruined our win over the Undefeated Pats. Rex should be hung

[BmoreRavensLuver]

If Joe Flacco gets a D- then Cam Cameron should get an F!!! It looked like old Billick-style offense...Run, Run, 3-8 Pass PUNT!!! Cam Cameron was scared!! And it showed!

[Annapolitan]

Agre with the direction but not the excessive dramatics of your grades. Flacco had a poor game, he looked too amped up, but not a D minus. He made some good throws and some of his passes could have been caught. Waited too long to release to avoid mistakes. Also, he should know better than to throw 5-yard outlets with 40 seconds left.

Thought some of passsing ineffectiveness was because they insisted on running McLain into a strong defense when a little more passing might have opened things up.

If the special teams don't deserve a decent grade for this game, hard to see they ever would.

Defense always gives up chunks in late game situations. Ryan's strategy frequently fails here. Why won't someone tell him to fix this?

[spy]

Flacco deserved a C , he truly is a rookie but we have a tendency to forget that..........He needs better targets in tough situations , and we need a shutdown corner to beat the better teams , look out for Dallas.........

[Terri]

Mikey:

Come on - Sam Koch and Houshka kept pinning the Steelers inside their 20, Leonard and Figurs did well and the Steelers didn't have any great punt or kickoff returns. Don't they at least get an A-???

[Terri]

I remember seeing a screen pass to Lorenzo Neal that was productive. I would have liked to see more of that type of offense since that is something we haven't seen a whole lot of this year.

[john]

Thanks for reminding us that Stover had 3 field goals (gee really??)- while as usual neglecting to mention Sam Koch? Every week the guy pins teams on their goal line. The Ravens were killing Pittsburgh in the field position battle & managed to lose anyway. Also - I think a little Troy Smith Wildcat might have helped loosen up the Pittsburgh D - especially in the Red Zone.

[Poe]

GHT wrote:

<quoted text>yeah, what happened to that set of plays? We went ultra-billick style conservative yesterday for sure.

Agreed. We had that one screen to Neal that got 10+ yards, and then no more for the rest of the game. If we got 10+ yards with Neal, why not try it with McClain or McGahee? Major let-down yesterday...I'm still stunned.

[Rudi]

The Steelers did not win that game; the Ravens defensice Coordinator & Haed Coach Gave it away. Why, why, why when the defense had controlled Roethlesburger the whole game with a FOUR man line did they decide to rush Three & drop eight into coverage. It's the old prevent defense and the only thing it prevented was Baltimore winning the game. A great big F for that decision!!

[kjhut]

The Steelers own this division.

[kjhut]

Looks like Hines Ward survived the Bounty that they had on his head. The Ravens are soft and the Steelers proved it

[Glenn]

"The Ravens did a nice job of holding outside linebacker James Harrison."

There - typo fixed.