No Ben Roethlisberger? No Troy Polamalu? Heck…no Charlie Batch? No problem, right?

Um…not exactly.

Our love for driving long distances in the middle of the night before a workday is so strong that we opted to go to the Ravens/Steelers game on Sunday night in Baltimore. When the news that Roethlisberger was going to be riding the pines came to our attention Saturday, Steelers fans seemed to have a serious reason to worry. With Charlie Batch out with a broken wrist, and third-string former Oregon standout, Dennis Dixon, as their only option, many thought this game was going to be an easy out for the Ravens.

Of course…this is still the Ravens and Steelers, and even without Troy for half of their games, the Steelers came into the game as the league’s top-ranked defense. Sorry, but even without their starting QB, the Steelers are a formidable opponent. Just ask the Vikings who surrendered two 90-plus yard TD returns to the Steelers defense. You can stuff the Steelers offense as much as you want, but the defense is just plain unstoppable and can change a game at any moment. After this game, I’m standing by the fact that Ben might be a very good QB, but nearly ANY QB in the league can “win” games when they have a defense like that to back him up.

The reality last night was that the Steelers would’ve probably lost by a much larger margin had their defense not stepped up and forced two key turnovers. The first major turnover happened on the opening drive of the second half, with the Ravens driving. After catching a long pass, Mark Clayton was stripped of the ball for a momentum-killing turnover. The Steelers’ pass rush got to Flacco, twice forcing a fumbles – once when the Ravens were driving in the fourth quarter on the Steelers side of the field, and the other right at the end of the game. Although the one at the end of the game was recovered by Ben Grubbs, the Ravens couldn’t stop the clock to try to edge their potential game-winning field goal try closer.

While the Steelers running game did well, their passing attack wasn’t very effective outside of the play-action-based TD drive. The Ravens did a decent job of keeping the ball out of Hines Ward and Heath Miller’s hands, but their lack of pass rush allowed Dixon to keep his composure for most of the game. Regardless, the Steelers offense was as stale and safely played as you would expect for the most part. It was nice to see them draw up a play for their mobile QB on Dixon’s touchdown run.

The Ravens, on the other hand, actually moved the ball really well. Their running game was working against the Steelers, and with Flacco spreading the ball around a little more, the passing game was successful. The real problems began in the second half when the Ravens started dropping back and not focusing on the run as much. When you’re averaging 4.5 yards a carry, keep running. It’s not often that you can move the ball like that on their defense. Enjoy the moment. McClain, Rice, and McGahee were all getting some touches with positive effect. The Steelers have a great pass rush, and I don’t think the Ravens did a good enough job designing plays to get the ball out fast enough in the second half. The Steelers clearly made an adjustment at halftime, and the Ravens didn’t.

All-in-all, the game was excellent…especially since the Ravens won, but I’m weary of being too optimistic. I’m convinced that the Ravens have the raw talent to go far, but they lack the discipline and experience right now. Flacco is going to have to continue using ALL of his receivers if they’re going to keep winning down the stretch. The Ray Rice & Derrick Mason show might have a good ring to it if it’s the next Ravens radio show, but it’s going to kill them down the stretch (like it did against the Colts). Both are extremely talented, and Rice blows my mind every game, but the rest of the offense has to step up.

Special teams were moving the ball, but the penalties are woeful and becoming so consistent that any positive yardage results in me scanning the green fields for yellow cloth. This game, against one of the worst special teams coverage unit in the league, killed potentially great field position with stupid blocks in the back penalties. Billy Cundiff, though, might just be the man (shown above hitting the game winner in OT). After two games, I already have more faith in his leg than I had in Hauschka. With Hauschka you prayed…with Cundiff, you have faith.

The defense is actually playing pretty well for the most part, with Lardarius Webb looking like a future impact player, but Dominique Foxworth has to find a way to improve before Monday. Aaron Rodgers will go after him all game, just like every other QB this year. It’s time for this team to step up, or the end of the season could be a heartbreaker. I have a feeling the Ravens are going to have to win out to get a wild card spot. I guess the hope continues Monday night at Lambeau…

Go Ravens!!!

It’s pretty obvious that I skipped blogging about bowling this session, but frankly, this session sucked. Everyone on our team saw significant drops in average compared to the summer session, and we all sort of mailed it in the minute we knew we couldn’t participate in the playoffs or Kingpin/Queenpin competition due to PSL rescheduling our playoffs for the weekend 3/4 of our team was out of town. Don’t get me wrong…we all tried to bowl well, but you could just tell that no one really cared like our previous sessions.

Megan finished 6th on the Queenpin list, and I finished 7th on the Kingpin list, but that’s not exactly impressive when everyone on our team finished top-10 last session and Megan won the whole thing. Our 10-11 record gave us a 5th place finish on Thursday, but our 640, which was 56 pins higher than any other Thursday team average, got us into the hypothetical playoffs. Sense the bitterness? Maybe a little…

While we like playing with a lot of the teams in our Thursday night league, we’re going to be taking the winter session off and explore our other options…aka, the search for a new league is on. Hopefully some change will reinvigorate our drive to be the biggest handicapped fish in this small Western PA pond. Tap. Tap. Tap.

The best part about the Browns being awful? Cheap seats.

Meadows and I picked up tickets to the Monday Night Football “showdown” between the Ravens and Browns for $50/ticket…3 rows off of the field! While I had originally planned to watch the game at home, the cheap seats were too much to pass up. Unfortunately, the game was probably only worth about $50 total to watch, but it was still a good time.

At 4-4, the game was a must-win for the Ravens as they tried to make a push, ANY push, for a successful second half of the season. For the Browns…well, sometimes getting that second win of the year has to come at some point, right?

The Browns defense actually played really well. In fact, if the Browns had any semblance of a NFL-caliber quarterback, I think they could’ve pulled off the win. With the Ravens playing uninspired – as if they knew that an average game would be enough against the Brady Quinn-led Browns – the Browns defense was able to keep their team in the game until the second half. The scoreless first half, with the sole highlight being what I had to assume at the time was Steven Hauschka’s last field goal miss in a Ravens uniform, consisted of some of the stalest football I’ve seen. There was just nothing going on. Two teams playing it safe, as if they knew the only real separation would be in the turnover column. I saw more punts than canine-related costumes, and other than the two drunken morons that kept rousing Meadows, the crowd aspect of the game failed to inspire.

Fortunately, the NFL came up with the brilliant idea of a second half. With the way the Ravens have been sleepwalking through the first half for the last few weeks, I was optimistic things would pick up during the final 30 minutes. After the Ravens got a big play from Derrick Mason, Ray Rice took advantage of the Browns only having 10 men on the field and put the Ravens up 7-0.

The one thing that I had to assume coming into the game was that the Ravens would be taking out pigskin loans from the Quinn interception reserve. While Quinn was off in the first half, none of his passes made it into the right hands…until the ensuing drive after the Ravens first TD. Quinn’s pass met the hands of Robert Royal, who clearly didn’t want anything to do with it, and the ball deflected into the hands of a surging Dawan Landry for a nice pick-six. After that score, though, Hauschka decided to cement his lack of a future with the Ravens by missing the PAT. I immediately wanted to drive to Owings Mills to tryout.

Of course, Quinn decided that his highlight-reel night wasn’t complete when his pass slightly behind his receiver resulted in another deflected interception by Chris Carr on the following possession. In frustration, though, Quinn’s found his lone success…a low block on Carr’s short return that was quite effective in the spraining of Terrell Suggs’ knee. Great…just in time for the important games. I guess even Quinn wanted to finally see Paul Kruger in action after he hear that the rookie was suited up for the game.

We stuck around until the end of the game, but it was definitely one of those match-ups that we should’ve stayed home for. It was a game that I had to assume the Ravens would win, and despite the soft score line, the Ravens were never at-risk of losing. Regardless, we did have a good time, and the win will keep the hopes alive for the Ravens. They’re going to have to play better with the Colts coming to town this weekend, though, because the Colts DON’T have Brady Quinn behind center.

Go Ravens!!!

Just when I thought my weekend couldn’t get any better, the Ravens proved me wrong. After an amazing Pearl Jam show on Saturday, I shunned the idea of sleeping in and woke up early to make the relatively short drive from Philly to Baltimore for the Ravens game versus the Broncos.

After the tough loss in Minnesota two weeks prior, this game against the undefeated Broncos (6-0) was a game the Ravens needed desperately to stop their 3-game skid, and they took to the field with a serious desire to win. If anyone thought the Ravens were the underdogs, the Ravens weren’t buying what they were selling. On the first play of the game, Jarrett Johnson leveled Kyle Orton to set a tone, and there was no looking back.

With the rowdy crowd backing the team, the Ravens dominated the Broncos all over the field. While the Ravens couldn’t find the endzone in the first half, you could tell it was only a matter of time before the Ravens would take control of not only the play on the field, but the scoreboard as well. In fact, the only scoring drive the Broncos could muster was aided by stupid penalties committed by the Ravens…including a 45-yard pass interference call, a 5-yard offsides penalty after the Ravens stopped the Broncos on a 4th-and-1 AND another pass interference call that gave the Broncos a first-and-goal from the one. It was ridiculous, but exactly the type of stuff that kills the Ravens week-after-week. I guess we could also point to the stupid personal foul penalty on Michael Oher that erased a long Ray Rice run in the first half that would’ve give the Ravens a first down at the 8-yard line. The Ravens would truly be scary if they could be a little more disciplined.

Fortunately, Steve Hauschka rebounded from his missed game-winner in the Metrodome to hit all 3 of his field goal attempts, 2 of which helped buy the Ravens time and a 6-point lead going into the second half, where, much to my enjoyment, Ravens rookie Lardarius Webb returned the opening kickoff to the house to extend the lead to 13. Once the Ravens started clicking, it was all over. Flacco tied a club record with an 80% completion percentage, including 14 straight completed passes. They took control all over the field and it was a great game to watch…especially from our awesome seats in section 118! I just hope this confidence spills over into next week’s game.

Go Ravens!!!

We were fortunate enough to make it down to Philadelphia for the final event at the Philly Spectrum on Saturday – a three-and-a-half hour marathon Pearl Jam concert that I won’t soon forget. Witnessing a show like last night’s killed any remorse I had for missing the first three shows of their four-show stand at the legendary Broad Street venue. The Rocky music lead-in that the band came out to was the perfect introduction to a match that was about to go until the final bell, leaving both fighters – the band and the fans – completely drained.

A show on Halloween night, paired with the World Series being in town and knowing that it was the last event in the Spectrum gave us more than enough optimism for something different. With a new album worth of material to play, I knew I’d hear some songs that I had never heard live before, but Pearl Jam really threw a couple of punches that none of us expected. After the one encore, Pearl Jam acknowledged Halloween by coming out onto the stage dressed as Devo and playing Whip It. I guess the Devo shirt that Eddie was wearing earlier in the night foreshadowed the moment, but seriously, who would’ve expected such a funny sight. The cover was actually really good, but I don’t think my laughter subsided until about halfway through the song. Great moment.

Another surprise was when Eddie took the stage…which an accordion. Pretty much anyone who owns, or owned, Vitalogy knew what was coming. While Bugs isn’t exactly the song that you get excited about hearing for the quality, it’s surprise inclusion in the set helped set the night apart from the twenty-plus shows I’d attended. Of course, two surprises aren’t really that crazy at a Pearl Jam show, so to make the night even more unique, the band played Sweet Lew for the first time, Out of My Mind for only the third time, and songs like Pilate, Crown of Thorns, Rats, and Satan’s Bed; all of which are the antitheses of the Cordoroys and Even Flows heard show after show.

The band was clearly having a blast on stage and just when you thought the show was coming close to an end, they kept going…and going…and going…until the confetti shot up into the air and the balloons dropped from the rafters. Of course, even that didn’t represent the end. While I could go a lifetime without hearing Yellow Ledbetter send us home, closing the Spectrum with a song that signaled the beginning of so many events at the soon-to-be-demolished venue – The Star-Spangled Banner – seemed fitting.

All-in-all, the only show that I can confidently say rivaled this one was State College in ’03. I’ll call it a split decision.