And my Dad threw his McGahee jersey in a trash can.

man did Joe look rookie tonight..gotta get that ball out quick..maybe the routes were too long??? who knows just very sad.

I am a big Steelers fan and member of Behind The Steel Curtain. I must say I have been very impressed with the Ravens fans who have come over onto that site, particularly you two. Obviously, I have a ton of respect for your team. You guys have always played very physical ball, just like us. I think if our teams played 5 times, one team would win 3 and the other 2. Anyways, hope we don’t meet in the playoffs, because you guys are tough. I’m getting distracted from the main message of my post which was to express my gratitude towards Ravens fans in general for their classy behavior on BTSC. If some of our fans have been coming on Beatdown talking shit, then I apologize on behalf of the rest of Steeler nation.

I was going to write a long story this morning, but when I read this posting, it said everything I was going to focus on:
-The first drive when we ran on third and eight set the tone.
-The last drive when we ran on 1st and 2nd downs, then tried to pass on 3rd, when we should have ran and kicked the FG, or thrown on 2nd down instead of 3rd.
-The way they sit back in the secondary and only rush three at crunch time.
Great job, raven and mad props to you from the Steelers’ fans as well!

Very impressed with ravens fandom (even the baltimore sun) for laying the blame primarily on the ravens and not the poor officiating.

I have to agree with raven. I thought your offensive coordinator completely dropped the ball. Your running game was frustrating to watch as a steelers fan, McClain was just bowling over our defense so frequently and getting consistent yardage. Most importantly, our defense is usually so good at getting stuffs, and I don’t know that we even stuffed one run against the ravens. I thought that on sunday it was clear that our pass defense was better than our run defense. It seemed like Cam didn’t get the memo that this isn’t the old steelers defense with a great run D and a suspect pass D. When the run was working, he went pass. The passes were predictable, you could see the play action coming 2 minutes in the future. Flacco had plenty of time a lot but the coverage was too consistent.

Steelers nation was expecting trick plays, where were they? They needed the spark and cam didn’t allow it to come. Even a failed trick play would have lit the offense up a bit.

Basically, I’d agree with raven.
Ran the ball at the wrong times.
When the run was working, predictably shifted away from it for the pass.

Part of the reason the run game was working was that the steelers refused to stack the box and mcclain was a beast. It seems that Cam somehow decided the steelers were biting on the run and that play-action would be fruitful. He wasn’t paying attention.

In the very end, your defense lost you the game. But the loss is on your offense. As we lament in steelers nation with our horrible offense v. philly, if you can’t win a game when your opponent is held to 13 (or 15) points, then you don’t deserve the win. That being said, this game could have gone either way.

Reed returns fumble for a touchdown, Holmes punt return fumble doesn’t go for a 30 yard gain, etc. Tight game, could have gone either way.

thanks everyone. i wrote this out of pure misery late last night after getting back from the game. some of my facts might be a little off because this was from the gut and it’s just a culmination of how i felt. i will watch the game on Tivo today with a coldie i’m sure there will be bright spots and a different factual perspective. anyway, it was a beautiful game and worth every penny and $7.50 beer (almost). rothlesberger was the difference. he creates time and space. when flacco had us at the 13 of pitt he threw it away under pressure. when ben had the steelers in a similar spot, he created time and won the game. he was “Joe Cool” today. Now let’s kick the hell out of the Cowboys and get this ship righted! Playoffs here we come. W.I.N.

I know one of you guys likes to keep tracks of the rankings, and I admit to reading them out of amusement. Look at the respect the ravens get after losing this last sunday. Bandwagon would have been real heavy if you guys won.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/writers/peter_king/12/14/Week15/1.html

yeah, me too. does TO own a gun we could get him a leg holster for..or maybe he could tie his sweat pants string to the trigger and tuck it in his pants like Burris (my theory)

the more Cam plans for a team the worse we do…he should treat every game like the Browns.

After finally being able to watch the DVRed game( I couldnt bring myself to until last night) I felt Flacco didnt have many check downs available. The one time he did, he instead through to Mike Smith for an interception. Maybe because he was afraid McGahee would drop it. (Wonder why…) I guess having “Number 79 is eligble receiver, I repeat for the 49th time, number 79 is an eligble receiver” gave us less options to throw to.

Maybe Adam Terry should have shed a block and broke out for a pass.

I also would have liked to see what would have happened had McClain not dropped the pass on the 2 yard line after Reed’s fumble recovery.

I thought it was funny how obvious the first challenge with the spot on 3rd down was and we still didnt get it. Was Paul Tagliabue in attendance?

just aweful officiating from day one with the Chargers….i sincerely think the speed of the game and all its rules are too much for senior citizen refs…they aren’t always on the same page about what their reviewing under the curtain. i am still convinced the ref was looking at his feet in the endzone/possession and not the across the plain rule. CYA.

My fault on the number… I think I also called Marcus Smith Mike…

Agreed with Reed.. After watching, he had a crowd to get through, but you never know with Ed.

Think the refs will help us out against America’s team?

ed had the whole right side open but ran into the fatest guy on the field : )