Ravens Shoot Themselves in Feet Again and Again vs. Steelers

PITTSBURGH -- There are so many ways to consider how the Baltimore Ravens gave away a playoff game Saturday. And the Ravens understood all of them.

"We've got nobody to blame but ourselves," said Terrell Suggs after Pittsburgh somehow turned a 21-7 halftime deficit into a 31-24 win and Baltimore loss.

"I didn't feel like the game had to be close," said Ravens wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh. "They're a good team, but I didn't think the game had to be close."

It might be fitting that Houshmandzadeh was saying that, because Houshmandzadeh made the final mistake. His drop on fourth down ended the Ravens final effort, and epitomized Baltimore's second half. The chance was there, but the Ravens dropped it.

How many chances? As a famous bard might say, let us count the ways.

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• Baltimore had minus four yards in offense in the third quarter, and the Ravens turned the ball over three times. A Ray Rice fumble came first, followed by a Joe Flacco interception, followed by Flacco dropping a snap. Those turnovers led to two Pittsburgh touchdowns and a field goal that turned a 21-7 halftime deficit into a 24-21 Steelers lead with 12:15 left.

"Short field," Suggs said. "We didn't do it once. We didn't do it twice. We did it three times. In this league if I was quarterback, I could make you pay."

• Baltimore appeared to take the lead in the fourth quarter when Lardarius Webb returned a punt 55 yards for a touchdown. Except late in the return, Marcus Smith was flagged for holding Will Allen. It was one of many flags thrown by Jeff Triplette's flag-happy crew.

"Short field. We didn't do it once. We didn't do it twice. We did it three times. In this league if I was quarterback, I could make you pay."
- Terrell Suggs "Their judgment," Webb said. "They were giving weird calls all night, but you can't blame it on that."

Smith did not appreciate the call.

"(Webb) beats the first wave, I see him come up the field," Smith said. "I look up. I see 26, the only man left basically. I lock up, drive and move my feet, try and keep my hands inside, work the technique we work on every day in practice, everything we've been doing since OTAs, running my feet.

"I thought it was clean. The referee throws a flag. I think it's a clean block. I'm talking trash, thinking it's effective, thinking we ran the kick back. And there's a flag on the field. I didn't think it was on me. I thought no way could it be on me."

• Baltimore could have overcome that call, though, and had a chance, moving to first-and-goal at the 8-yard line. But on third down, Anquan Boldin could not come up with a pass thrown to his chest.

"It was a low ball," Boldin said.

It was, but receivers like Boldin often make that catch. And the ball hit Boldin in the chest as he fell to the ground.

"Just a low throw," Boldin said. "I tried to come up with it."

Boldin, whom the Ravens acquired in March and gave a three-year, $25 million contract extension, caught one pass for a 2-yard loss the entire game.

• The Ravens did tie the game on a field goal on the next play, and their defense forced the Steelers to third-and-19 with 2:07 left. Baltimore dropped eight and rushed three, which makes sense even though the Ravens pass rush had sacked Ben Roethlisberger six times.

"We were fully confident our three-man rush could get there," Suggs said.

It didn't, and Roethlisberger was able to complete a 58-yard pass to rookie Antonio Brown, the one play the Ravens knew they could not give up.

"Third-and-19," Suggs said, "you can give up 18."

But not 58, as Brown beat Webb down the sideline and made the catch on his shoulder.

"He just got a step," Webb said, later adding over and over: "I just didn't make the play."

• That put the ball at the 4, and on first down Pittsburgh threw incomplete. Inexplicably (this game was great for its intensity, not for its quality of play). On second down, the Steelers ran, but Ravens defensive tackle Terrence Cody was called for defensive holding, an unusual call to say the least and a call that had the Ravens shaking their heads. That gave Pittsburgh a first down and more time to try to score a touchdown, which it did with 1:33 left.

• Then on the Ravens last possession, which started on Pittsburgh's 48 thanks to a short kickoff, Flacco threw incomplete twice and then took a sack on third down when he had to get rid of the ball. On fourth down, he found Houshmandzadeh on the sidelines for a first down, except he dropped the pass. And it was right in his hands.

"I was just indecisive on how I wanted to catch it," Houshmandzadeh said. "It was so stupid of me. I don't like to catch the ball with my body. I don't like to and I jumped up to catch it with my body, and at the last minute I realized I didn't need to and I reached up for it with my hands but the ball was already on me. And I lost track of it."

To his credit Houshmandzadeh did not say the ball was high or low (as Boldin did). He blamed himself.

"Nine times out of 10, 10 times out of 10, I make that play," he said.

The lament was familiar in the Ravens locker room, as they again came up just short against the Steelers, and just short in the playoffs. This time, though, they were as responsible for the loss as Pittsburgh was for the win.

"They get to play for the AFC championship game, they get to play for the Super Bowl," Suggs said. "We go to the couch."

Where they might be in need of some serious psychoanalysis.

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