Did WE stomp on a Terrible Towel recently?

We didn't lose because of Dixon. That's the first and most obvious point to cover. Ben would have played a different game, but not necessarily a more productive one. Over his history with the Ravens, Roethlisberger has thrown 14 TDs and 9 picks in 9 games, averaging 176.7 passing yards in those games. For Dennis Dixon to produce 14 points against this team in his starting debut, while also protecting the ball for 4 quarters, that's pretty much as good of a performance as we can expect. His passer rating for the night is 60.8, while Joe Flacco's is 100.8; to this I say: whatever.

We rushed for 153 yards and they rushed for 132. I cannot believe that.

Mendenhall looked very good, and Dixon's run was beautiful, but our D-line was swiss cheese against their running backs. If there was any major divergence from previous Steelers-Ravens matchups, it would have to be the ease at which both teams were running. Here, have a look at recent history:

September 29, 2008:
Pit-69
Bal-103

December 14, 2008:
Pit-91
Bal-112

January 18, 2009:
Pit-52
Bal-73

Terrell Suggs and Aaron Smith are kind of a big deal.

The biggest play of the game was the 44-yard reception by Ray Rice on 4th and 5. We allowed them to go from 3rd and 22 on their own 29, to 1st and 10 on our 10 yard line in two plays. The missed tackles and sloppy coverage was mystifying, and I have no answers on that subject. Obviously we'd be better with Troy, but his absence doesn't begin to explain how every other defensive back has forgotten how to tackle. It's simply shocking, and has everything to do with why we're losing.

I feel like I let you down by not providing a scouting report. In retrospect, I'll say these things about the dirty birds:
-Ray Rice is a small, tough sonofabitch who bounces off tackles like a pinball. What I didn't realize before tonight, is that he's also one of their top receivers. In fact, he's runner-up to lead wideout, Derrick Mason in receiving yards. We saw everything he does tonight, and can't help but say he's legit. Fuck that guy.
-Todd Heap is a very good receiving TE, in fact he straddles the line between WR and TE. Tonight he did very little. Surprising.
-Mark Clayton is the Santonio who never really broke out; tonight we let him break out for 129 yards. That's weak stuff.
-Baltimore's D-Line is in transition. Since losing Rex Ryan to the Jets, they've moved closer to a 4-3 than a 3-4 (they switch back and forth every couple of years), with Suggs playing DE, and Haloti Ngata being more of a DT than a pure NT, and Trevor Pryce playing DE instead of DT. This is slightly more than semantics, as it does change the composition of their pass rush. For the most part, the pressure now comes from LOLB, Jarret Johnson. Tonight was an impressive display by our O-line to not let that pressure show.

I don't think it's a run of bad luck we're hitting. I don't think it's a complex system of things building to these losses. No, I think we're just killing ourselves by not playing hard and well on every snap. Last year our defense and special teams played well on every single down. It was unreasonable, yes; but it set the bar, and we're obviously failing to reach it now.

I'll write some more tomorrow when I'm supposed to be at work.