Fresh off a crushing defeat at the hands of the Pittsburgh Steelers, most fans are ready to put the blame on Dean Pees. After all, the Ravens surrendered three touchdown drives in the fourth quarter, so all of the fault must fall on the coordinator that called the plays, right? Well, not so fast. How about we break down the big plays in each drive that might have resulted in this devastating loss.

I should preface this by saying I do not have the All-22 available or have DVR access to the game

On the first of the three Pittsburgh defensive drives, there were three particular plays that made a huge impact. The first was a long completion down the middle of the field to Jesse James. The Ravens played in a Tampa 2 defense, which I'm sure is going to draw the ire of fans since it is a zone defense and the corners must be playing off 10 yards with a three man rush. Well, not exactly. The Ravens actually rushed four, as is typical, with Elvis Dumervil and Timmy Jernigan coming off the same side, with Jernigan getting pushed wide outside and Dumervil being forced back and inside to completely nullify their rushes. Wright and Young lined up within three yards of the LoS, with Wright pressing Antonio Brown and forcing him inside. The real failure on the play came when CJ Mosley immediately turned his hips and dropped down the field too deep. The job of the Mike linebacker in the Tampa 2 is to create a three deep look, but first, the linebacker should open his hips to the strong side and carry the tight end down the seam. Typically this is an issue for linebackers because tight ends are much faster, so the linebacker has to create the illusion of running stride for stride with the tight end. However, this shouldn't be an issue because James is one of the bulkier, slower tight ends in the league. Instead of doing his responsibility, Mosley creates a very soft spot in the zone defense and allows for a long completion.

The second of the two plays is the Tavon Young DPI. Was it the correct call? In my eyes, yes, it was. In fact, it was probably the right move because Demarcus Ayers is probably running right under that ball if he isn't interfered with. But wait, did I just say Demarcus Ayers? Who is that? It's the Steelers sixth string, seventh round rookie who probably isn't even on the roster if Martavis Bryant isn't suspended. Oh, wait, he wasn't on the active roster until December 12th because he was on the practice squad. So, it really begs the question of how in the world Tavon Young got flat out beat deep to the point that he needed to interfere. That's a free 35 yards for the Steelers, a probable touchdown had Young not interfered. You don't give free yardage like that to an offense as powerful as the Steelers.

The third play was the seven yard touchdown run by Le'Veon Bell. Bell is one of the most patient runners in the entire NFL. He'll wait until the offensive line gives an opening and won't hesitate to take the cutback lane. With this in mind, it makes it slightly harder to understand the defense's approach. CJ Mosley was aligned on the strong side of the play, the opposite side to which the run was designed to go, yet he completely over-pursued to the outside. Terrell Suggs crashed hard inside, instead of setting contain. Eric Weddle, much like Mosley, aligned on the strong side and over-pursued to the weak side, as did Jerraud Powers. What this did was leave Shareece Wright as the lone man defending the cutback. However, there was still hope. As Bell began to cut the ball back, Brandon Williams knifed his way into the backfield, met Bell with two hands two yards behind the LoS and... whiffed on the tackle.

That drive right there truly felt like the turning point in the game. The Steelers now found themselves down by only three points with almost 12 minutes left to play. They had just effortlessly moved the ball through the air after being met with resistance for the entirety of the game, sans the first drive. The Steelers vaunted offense was beginning to find its groove.

On the second drive, the Ravens had the Steelers right where they wanted them. The Steelers were pinned back on the 10 yard line and had 90 yards to go actually score. Even better yet is that the Steelers called a running play with their two big fatties (Micheal Pierce and Williams) in. With nearly 700 pounds combined between the two, they should both be commanding double teams and handling their blocks, right? Dating back to the Patriots game, this would be entirely wrong. Instead of commanding double teams or even just dominating one on one, Pierce and Williams have been getting manhandled in the run game. What this does is allows a guard to not even look the way of the nose tackle. Instead, he can just head right up to the second level and block his linebacker. That is exactly what happened on the opening run by Bell that went for 23 yards and gave the Steelers comfortable space to work with.

On the next play, the Ravens again called Cover 2. What should have been the correct coverage to stop a crossing Antonio Brown turned out to be terrible execution by the players that allowed for a long gain of 21 yards. In Cover 2 when facing a slot formation look, the slot cornerback does not follow their defender like in a man look. Instead, he is responsible for dropping to defend the inside seam. Instead of doing this, Powers came across the formation and followed the slot receiver, completely voiding his zone and creating a massive space due to Shareece Wright incorrectly carried his man down the sideline with absolutely no reaction to the threat of a pass to the flat. Would the play have still been a decent catch and run had both Wright and Powers executed their responsibilities? Probably so. Is it a first down still? Maybe, but with sure tackling, there's a chance it isn't. Would the Steelers have picked up over 20 yards? Most definitely not.

The next play was a well designed play to beat Cover 3, which seems to be a foreign concept to fans. Believe it or not, sometimes, the other offenses get paid to make plays and they do make plays.

However, on the very next play on a goal to go situation, Ben Roethlisberger improvised and found Bell for a seven yard touchdown pass. What truly bothers me the most about this play is that Brandon Williams and Matt Judon had an opportunity to hold up Bell and not allow him to leak outside for a catch. Brandon Williams literally had Bell within arms reach to push him down as a blocker or to simply engage to not allow him to leak outside. Matt Judon had an opportunity to come wide and, much like Williams, engage Bell or shove him down as a blocker, but instead chose to come inside in pursuit of Roethlisberger. Now, if I told you that you had the choice to have Ben Roethlisberger try to run the ball in or you could have Bell catch the ball and try to run it in, which are you taking? If it's me, I'm taking Bell. I understand these scramble drill situations are very difficult to defend, but I'm still more worried about the possible threat of Le'Veon Bell than I am of Roethlisberger scrambling.

The final drive had a lot going on, so I'm not going to try to point to every big gain or every play that happened and dissect what went wrong because it'd be a huge TL;DR scenario. So instead, I'm going to point to four plays that I believe had a huge impact. The first was a three yard pass to Jesse James. Lardarius Webb was in good position to tackle James in bounds, but instead fails to bring his man down and instead swings him out of bounds. The second is the very next play; a quick completion for eight yards to Antonio Brown. Brown catches the ball with around three or so yards to go to get out of bounds with Jerraud Powers and Shareece Wright right there and ready to make a tackle. Instead, Brown spins to the outside and easily finds his way out of bounds. The third was a nine yard pass to Demarcus Ayers. Ayers caught the ball at the numbers and had Tavon Young driving downhill to make the stop. However, instead of tackling Ayers in bounds, Young takes a nasty stiff arm to the face and allows Ayers to scoot out of bounds.

Those three plays took off a combined 0:14 seconds from the clock. Instead of forcing the Steelers to burn their final two timeouts, the Ravens allowed the Steelers to stop the clock on their own terms. The Ravens just needed 0:14 more seconds off the clock and this comeback doesn't happen. That touchdown pass to Antonio Brown isn't a magical moment for the Steelers hopeful.

Speaking of that touchdown pass, it still should not have been a touchdown had the Ravens players simply tackled. Antonio Brown stands a whole 5'10" tall and weighs a whopping 186 pounds. You really want to convince me that Powers, Weddle, and Mosley shouldn't have been able to drive him backwards? Brown had a lot of heart and determination on that play, but in no way, shape, or form should be able to fight through two defenders and take a blow from a third and still be able to have the power and effort to be standing.

Another huge issue I have with this game is that the Ravens can put out Elvis Dumervil, Timmy Jernigan, and Matt Judon, but still can't get pressure. If you were told that the top three pass rushers of the Ravens couldn't get it done against the Steelers offensive line, would you think the Ravens would win? No reasonable fan thinks the Ravens would win under those circumstances, yet that's exactly what happened. The Ravens registered a grand total of four pressured on Roesthlisberger all night. That's mind blowing to know that Pees essentially had no pass rush. He was playing with a hand behind his back all game because no matter what he did (rush four, loop and stunt his lineman, blitz Powers off the edge and drop a lineman; all things he did on the final drive), nothing hit home. Roethlisberger could have had Christmas dinner back there on most plays because the defense was so ineffective at getting pressure.

But please, tell me more about how this loss should fall completely on the shoulders of Dean Pees.