(10-3)Pittsburgh Steelers vs (9-4) Baltimore Ravens

[jumpoffthegod]

Its going to be a great game and a bloodbath!!!

 

[misterp0315]

Ravens by 13

 

[jumpoffthegod]

No one shows the AFC North any love

 

[pacers31]

Ravens by 10

 

[derrock]

Should be a great game. Pittsburgh by 3.

 

[craftsy21]

Not to nitpick, but there's an H on the end of PittsburgH...

And i think the steelers come out and handle business, clinch the division and then lose 3 straight to end the season

 

[outacontrol music]

This is going to be a great game to watch.

 

[dmxfury]

Game of the week, and a huge one. The two best defenses in the game. Pittsburgh hasn't won in Baltimore in 4-5 years, so it is tough. Heck, it was theironly loss in 2004 for the regular season. Hard hits, and if the Steelers win the division crown is locked up. Not a must win for Pittsburgh, if they win 2 oftheir last 3 they will still win the title, but again, really big game. I'm predicting a 10-9 type game.

 

[craftsy21]

Wow... Baltimore a 3 point favorite... we've been favored in 7 of the last 8 matchups with these jokers.. It's just really weird to see us not favoredagainst a division opponent, we usually get a ton of respect against our rivals from vegas.

I would take that as a bad sign.. especially considering the line has actually moved to 3 from 2 or so... I would've definitely guessed it moved closer toa pick'em throughout the week, but i guess people are really buying into Baltimore (or it's sharp as hell)... I'm not really buying them stillpersonally, the way a father doesn't believe his 12 year old son is good enough to beat him 1 v 1 in the driveway yet. And I believe the line is a bitsharppppppppp....

We'll see though - good luck ratbird fans.

 

[dmxfury]

This is the type of game that Ben needs to come up big. This is why he got the big contract. Time to step it up

 

[guerrilla warfare]

Pittsburgh D aint f**king around...I expect flacco to throw 3-4 Int's....Steelers by 28

 

[dmxfury]

You're absolutely right to about Ben..he's been playin' like trash..but
He did have some down games, but that seemed to be related to his injury and not practicing for 4-5 weeks with it. He seems healthier and hasplayed much better. Still, stats aside, he almost always finds ways to win games. This is a game that he needs to come up big and win (and seal the divisioncrown). Going to be nasty!

 

[dmxfury]

Baltimore is the only division opponent that puts a quality team on the field year after year (with a few exceptions of course). If it wasn't for them,this division would be so freakin' boring.

 

[craftsy21]

Originally Posted by K8be wan Kenobi

Wow... Baltimore a 3 point favorite... we've been favored in 7 of the last 8 matchups with these jokers.. It's just really weird to see us not favored against a division opponent, we usually get a ton of respect against our rivals from vegas.

The Steelers have lost 5 straight in Baltimore... yeah, you guys should be favored

christ, b-more fans are so up tight.

I"m just pointing out, we've been favored a lot more often than not in games vs Baltimore - so in a year when we have a better record, you'd thinkwe'd be favored again.

 

[craftsy21]

Flacco's story is reading an awful lot like another rookie quarterback's you might remember

Sunday, December 14, 2008

By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Associated Press photo top/Peter Diana/Post-Gazette bottom

Baltimore quarterback Joe Flacco, the next Ben Roethlisberger or the next Charlie Frye?

Flacco, who left an unappreciative Pitt to find his fame and fortune through the University of Delaware Blue Hens, is the latest "franchise" quarterback to hit the AFC North Division.

Some, like Roethlisberger and Cincinnati's Carson Palmer, have panned out. Others, such as Frye, Derek Anderson and Kyle Boller, have not.

Today at 4:15 p.m. in Baltimore, Flacco can put himself and the Ravens in the kind of position that Roethlisberger also accomplished as a rookie -- in the playoffs. If it weren't for Flacco, the Ravens would not have had a chance, just as without Roethlisberger the 2004 Steelers would have been a different story.

Both were thrust into the job because of injuries; both thrived once it was theirs. Roethlisberger's success, of course, continued, while Flacco's is yet to be determined.

The comparison between Flacco and Roethlisberger was made early in the season by none other than Baltimore linebacker Ray Lewis. He told his rookie quarterback he could do for the Ravens what Roethlisberger did for the Steelers.

"Yes, Ray said that," Flacco acknowledged. "Ray has said many things to me. It is all to give me the confidence to go out there and play football; that is what I took out of it. He has confidence in me, and the rest of the team has confidence in me. I just have to play the way that I know how to and let it loose. That is what I have tried to do the past 13 weeks. I think that I have done pretty well for us."

[table][tr][td]A comparison[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Joe Flacco's rookie numbers vs. Ben Roethlisberger's:[/td] [/tr][tr][td]
Flacco*
[/td] [td]
Category
[/td] [td]
Big Ben**
[/td] [/tr][tr][td]
2,410
[/td] [td]
Passing yards
[/td] [td]
2,621
[/td] [/tr][tr][td]
60.2
[/td] [td]
Completion percentage
[/td] [td]
66.4
[/td] [/tr][tr][td]
13
[/td] [td]
Touchdown passes
[/td] [td]
17
[/td] [/tr][tr][td]
81.3
[/td] [td]
QB Rating
[/td] [td]
98.1
[/td] [/tr][tr][td]*-13 games **-14 games in 2004[/td] [/tr][/table]

Flacco ranks as the hottest rookie quarterback in the league, and it would not be a stretch to remove "rookie" from that equation. His overall statistics while leading Baltimore to a 9-4 record are Roethlisberger rookie-like: 13 touchdowns, 10 interceptions, 23 sacks, a 60.2 completion rate. But he has improved as the season has progressed.

Over the past eight games, Flacco has a 95.6 passer rating, has thrown for 12 touchdowns and three interceptions, and his team has won seven of those.

"Flacco at quarterback just continues to look more and more comfortable," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. "He's proven time and again that the stage isn't too big for him."

The Ravens' rookie made an early impression on those who will try to knock his block off today.

"That was the thing that surprised me the most about him," Steelers linebacker James Farrior said. "In our first game, he didn't look flustered at all. He stayed with everything, didn't really look rattled at all. We tried to show him a lot of different looks but really didn't confuse him."

It was only his third game, it was a Monday night and it was in Heinz Field, where he rode the Pitt bench as a backup to Tyler Palko.

It seemed a perfect spot for a rookie quarterback meltdown. Instead, Flacco threw for one touchdown and no interceptions and engineered a 76-yard touchdown drive that tied the game with 4:02 left to send it into overtime.

"No question, he's a talent," Tomlin said. "Shoot, he showed what he was capable of when he drove them the length of the field in the fourth quarter to tie that game up against us. I think he's used that experience and just continued to move forward. It looks like they're just as comfortable with him as he is playing."

It took an injury to Boller and a case of tonsillitis for Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith to clear a path for Flacco to start as a rookie. It was in Baltimore in the second game of 2004 that Roethlisberger got his chance, after a preseason knee injury to Charlie Batch moved him to No. 2. An injury to starter Tommy Maddox gave him his opportunity.

Batch, who became the starter for the Detroit Lions the third game of his rookie season, said the Ravens are treating Flacco the way the Steelers did Roethlisberger, and the Lions with him. They reduced the playbook, then expanded it as his experience and knowledge grew.

"They're opening it up a little bit as he gets more and more comfortable with it," Batch said. "You can kind of see him maturing as the year goes on.

"That's basically how it goes: Just don't put the defense in a bad situation at the beginning and as it goes through, they open it up. If something happens negatively, they bring it right back down."

The Steelers would like to provide some negatives for him today, but, after searching long and hard since they moved to Baltimore, the Ravens finally seem to have found their longterm quarterback.

Ed Bouchette can be reached at [email protected].

 

[dmxfury]

These two teams are VERY similar. Amazing how Flacco starting like Ben as well (though Ben started off 16-0 until meeting New England in the AFC championship).But good article by Ed

 

[N41D]

Gonna be GREAT to watch... Can't wait.

 

[jordanxi2001]

[color= rgb(255, 255, 0)]GO STEELERS![/color] beating the Ravens would be much appreciated by Randy and company.

 

[dmxfury]

The Pro Football Hall of Fame needs to overhaul how it elects candidates, a process that now keeps men such as @!%% LeBeau out.

As it stands, a 44-person board of selectors, in a series of votes by mail, eventually reduces the number of modern-day finalists to 15. A seniors committee, comprised of some of those same 40 selectors, picks two seniors candidates who already have been bypassed during their 25 years of eligibility as modern day candidates. They join the 15 modern day men to form 17 finalists.

The day before the Super Bowl, the board of selectors -- I am one of them -- gathers in a meeting room and elects the new hall class. A minimum of four and a maximum of seven can be elected, and everyone is lumped together.

A player or a coach is eligible five years after he retires; contributors are eligible any time. Anyone can call the Hall of Fame in Canton and nominate someone, modern candidates or seniors -- there normally are more than 100 candidates on our first ballot before we cut the list to 25.

There are flaws, mainly the elections of seniors and contributors. Baseball has separate committees that elect seniors and contributors. Baseball writers vote strictly on players as modern candidates.

The Hall would be better served if they followed suit. An example is that Bob Hayes again is one of the two seniors candidates. Hayes was rejected as a modern-day candidate, then rejected again for the 2004 class as a seniors nominee. Yet five years later, he again is a seniors nominee for the 2009 class and faces rejection again.

So, Bob Hayes is presented twice by the seniors in the past five years while men like LeBeau, Andy Russell and Jack Butler never are presented.

There's also the matter of contributors. There are some great men in this game who have not played. Coaches, owners and commissioners get their due, but legendary personnel men such as Bill Nunn and Art Rooney Jr. should at least have a chance without making a voter decide between them and a player such as Rod Woodson or Bruce Smith.

Then there's LeBeau. When he retired as a player after the 1972 season, he ranked fourth in NFL history with 62 interceptions. Thirty-six years later, he's still tied for seventh. LeBeau was not a safety but a cornerback, where it's tougher to intercept passes. He also started in 171 consecutive games, which remains an NFL record for a cornerback.

That's a Hall of Fame career in its own; he has spent the past 36 seasons building one as an assistant coach. He's the father of the zone-blitz defense that has become prevalent throughout the year.

Combining his playing and coaching career, LeBeau should be a shoo-in. But that's not how it works in the Hall of Fame voting. His accomplishments are considered separately. It's time to change that.



Have to put my usual support for Lebeau and the HOF. From the Post Gazette

 

[dmxfury]

Getting close to game time, c'mon Steelers!

 

[craftsy21]

He should be in as a coach AND a player... the fact that he's done both? Forget about it.

Anyways - i may not be around the computer for the entire game, so don't go thinking that means i'm hiding out (as the cowboys fans were sure i wasdoing when i took a 10 minute break last week

).

Let's get 'em steelers!

 

[behemothcoa]

Go Ravens

 

[dmxfury]

Whoa, huge punt. Where is my HD?!?!

 

[nycknicks105]

I dislike the Steelers so, lets go Ravens!

 

[dmxfury]

Nate has made some plays this year, but he has a LOT of drops as well