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Believe it or not, the Pittsburgh Steelers failed to convert on Sunday. It might have seemed that the Ravens defense was not able to find a way out of the field in the team's 23-16 loss. In fact, the Ravens stopped the first third of the Pittsburgh game.
At the start of the first quarter, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger took revenge on the shotgun, evaluated his options with a pbad option and pbaded the ball over to James Conner. The point holder has 4 meters; He needed 10 points. The call was a bet on the fact that Conner would take the Steelers to a fourth place and that the match would be manageable, the offensive being too far to allow a shot on goal and too close to the blunder.
The offensive remained on the ground, Roethlisberger and Co. bluffed that they went there. Instead, he executed a kitty that, without the security of Eric Weddle, would probably have pinned the offense deep inside his own territory.
The series lasted six games, totaling 42 yards and gave no points, but the circumstances of its end highlighted the importance of the Ravens game over the previous two tries. When the defense forced the third and long, he had a chance.
When that was not the case, the Ravens simply asked for trouble. Pittsburgh converted 10 of 16 chances into third on Sunday, and many of them came easily. Only seven of these 16 third attempts are third and long, defined here as requiring 7 yards or more. The Steelers averaged 6.2 yards in the third and never had more than 11.
With another defensive defense strategy, Pittsburgh may not have been as effective. But the Ravens are proud of their coverage from man to man in the press, meet a catcher at the line of scrimmage and erase the works by making the release of the game difficult. With good coverage and a reliable pbad, it can make life difficult, even for Roethlisbergers around the world.
Limited by an irregular pbad and exploited by intelligent offensive game designs, the Ravens never managed to do it on Sunday. They played for the first time as Pittsburgh played his third try. They were mistreated during the second part of the Steelers and many other plays to come.
At the end of the first quarter, on the 3rd and 5th of the Ravens, 7, Roethlisberger signaled his opponent Vance McDonald to be on his right, giving the Steelers a game of three receivers at a distance of about five meters. As the room grew, it was fair to wonder if the reception options were serious. They did a good job as lures and obstacles.
At the whistle of the ball, McDonald escapes the defense Za'Darius Smith and Conner, to the left of Roethlisberger, in the formation of shotguns, feign as if he was heading to the left. Linebacker Kenny Young bit into the scythe and, while he was trying to catch Conner, his mark on the line of scrimmage, he had more problems: McDonald's a choice.
The Steelers carabinier's roads occupying the other defenders, no one was wise about Conner's road out of the backfield. Roethlisberger found him wide open in the apartment on the right and Conner was only touched shortly before the goal line. He scored easily.
The 7-yard score was one of Pittsburgh's most complex complexes on Sunday, but even the Steelers' elemental pieces worked.
Previously, McDonald had caused the same problem. In the second and one goal, cornerback Tavon Young was facing JuJu Smith-Schuster. The first wide receiver cut was inside, behind McDonald, who was sewing against linebacker C.J. Mosley.
Young's run in the middle of the field takes him to McDonald's. A player weighs 267 pounds; the other, 185. The collision brought Young back to 5 yards – legally, it should be noted, because McDonald was playing what the NFL considered a game on the ball – leaving Smith-Schuster open for 18 yards. run.
The following quarter, Pittsburgh complicated the task by proposing a motion back and forth before the hour. On the third and second bases, slot machine collector Ryan Switzer was already two meters off the touchline from Young, after starting off effortlessly with a near-sprint at the moment of the shot.
With Smith-Schuster's internal release against cornerback Brandon Carr, both far apart, Young faced many obstacles. At that point, it was too late for the turns to change, and Switzer was able to get up after escaping the stick for an easy first run.
The two Young Ravens were not the only victims of the Pittsburgh à la carte plays.
At the third and seventh starts of the third quarter, Roethlisberger found wide receiver Antonio Brown for 9 yards after another boost from Smith-Schuster, this time with cornerback Marlon Humphrey.
In the Steelers' final race, the Ravens lost seven points and one stop before taking possession of the ball in solid positions, Pittsburgh faced the third and fifth. The qualifying pbad was not technically a road to go, but the concept of "meshing" two receivers, Brown and McDonald, crisscrossing below, was just as successful in giving Brown the fraction of space needed against cornerback Jimmy Smith.
Again, it was not a deep pbad, but with the friendly attack and distance of the offensive, and the clear space for Brown, it was not necessary.
"Their attack is built that way," coach John Harbaugh said Sunday. "These high and low roads above the center, that's what they do. They create a triangle in front of Ben [Roethlisberger]. All their offense is built on that. Virtually every way you can do it, they do it. "
The Ravens were not powerless to stop the games. Sometimes, linebacker Matthew Judon found himself face to face with Roethlisberger before he could find the man discovered cutting across the field. At other times, the Ravens traded their missions against the intersecting receivers, nullifying the advantage of the offense.
But just over a month after blowing the same Steelers offense in a 26-14 win, the Ravens defense was left on a bad day of the season. In the fourth week of the team event, the average of the third Pittsburgh run was almost identical to Sunday's 6.3-yard run. The Ravens arrested them every two thirds and both but 12 out of a total of 12.
The proof of Sunday's match of an elite offensive has found its level? Perhaps But Mosley later stated that the Ravens needed more of a mental break than a physical respite.
"You can try playing zone, but there are so many holes in the area that a guy like Ben [Roethlisberger] can just make it appear there for a first run, "Weddle said Sunday. "So, they have now decided that we are going to be in one, the man, and then you have to manage the selection routes, the lower and upper roads. It's hard to do that kind of thing.
"Give credit, they played an outstanding game today on the road. We had some opportunities to play games, and they made a good team and they made them. "
Note: NFL Game Pbad has all the images shown in the above clips.
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