The Pittsburgh Steelers dropped to 1-1 on the young season Thursday night thanks to them losing on the road to the Baltimore Ravens 26-6.
The Steelers defense looked just like the one that gave up 24 second half points o the Cleveland Browns in Week 1 as the Ravens rushed for 157 yards on 36 carries.
The Steelers offense didn’t look much better as quarterback Ben Roethlisberger finished the game 22-of-37 passing for 217 yards and one interception. The offense also turned the football over two times in the game as second-year wide receiver Justin Brown fumbled on the opening possession and tight end Heath Miller fumbled on the first possession of the fourth quarter.
If that wasn’t enough, the Steelers were also penalized nine times for 75 yards in the game. Safeties Troy Polamalu and Mike Mitchell were both flagged for unnecessary roughness for hits just two plays apart from one another late in the third quarter. Mitchell also picked up a face mask penalty on the Ravens next possession.
After the game, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said the self-inflicted wounds were too tough to overcome.
“We turned the ball over too often, we we’re highly penalized, particularly on the drives that they were able to manufacture and produce points,” said Tomlin during his post game press conference. “Those two things are lethal combinations.”
The Steelers now have a lot of time to fix all that has gone wrong over the course of the last six quarters as they will next play the Carolina Panthers a week from Sunday night on the road.
