PITTSBURGH (AP)—Ryan Clark(notes) remembers the dancing. And the jawing. And the
seemingly countless celebrations.

Did the way the Baltimore Ravens enjoyed their 35-7 mauling of the Steelers
in the season opener bother the veteran safety? Of course.

Then again, there’s not much Clark could do about it.

“People can throw parties when you can’t stop them from scoring, and we
couldn’t stop them from scoring,” Clark said. “They can dance all they want.”

The Steelers turned the beatdown and the ensuing obituaries written from the
critics about who gleefully detailed how the defending champions were “old,
slow and … over” into a rallying cry.

“That was y’all writing us off,” Clark said. “We felt like we had a bad
one. We lost to a good team.”

Funny, Clark said, the Steelers didn’t look old, slow or over while knocking
off Tom Brady(notes) and the New England Patriots 25-17 on Sunday to set up a rematch
the Ravens next weekend.

And they haven’t lost much since.

The team that looked uninspired at best and ill-prepared at worst during a
nightmarish opening month of the season is now the only team in the AFC with a
6-2 record.

It’s the fifth straight year the Steelers have started 6-2. And they acted
like they’ve been there before even after beating Brady for the first time since
2004.

There were no bold proclamations even after limiting the NFL’s top offense
to a paltry 213 yards. The Steelers don’t do proclamations.

Sure, exacting a bit of revenge on Brady for all the times he’s crushed the
franchise’s hopes was nice. It’ll mean nothing if they can’t back it up against
the Ravens (5-2).

It’s why wide receiver Mike Wallace(notes) opted to spend his Sunday night indoors
rather than bask in one of the franchise’s biggest regular season victories in
years.

“I’m not going out,” Wallace said afterward. “I’m going home right now
and lock it. I’m ready for next week. I don’t care about nothing else.”

Neither do his teammates, though the Steelers could be without a couple of
vital parts against the Ravens.

Linebacker LaMarr Woodley(notes) was scheduled to undergo an MRI exam on the
strained hamstring that cut his two-sack day short. Woodley sat out the fourth
quarter but insisted he would be good to go on Sunday night.

“It was one of those sit now so I don’t miss three or four week things,”
Woodley said.

The status of wide receiver Hines Ward(notes) (ankle) and linebacker James Farrior(notes)
(back) is also unclear. Both sat out against the Patriots, as did linebacker
James Harrison(notes), who missed his fourth straight game while recovering from a
fractured right orbital bone.

Harrison hinted he would return in time to play the Ravens, and the Steelers
could use him if Farrior and Woodley can’t go.

Then again, considering the way the patchwork defense has held its own so
far, maybe the Steelers can get by without them.

At one point in the fourth quarter, Lawrence Timmons(notes) was the only normal
starting linebacker on the field, and he was playing out of position at outside
linebacker as Harrison’s replacement.

Pittsburgh survived anyway. If reserve linebackers Larry Foote(notes) and Chris
Carter weren’t making plays, then young defensive linemen Ziggy Hood(notes), Cameron
Heyward(notes) and Steve McClendon were spelling veterans like Brett Keisel(notes) and still
providing enough pressure to make the normally unflappable Brady antsy.

“Those kids have been playing amazing ball for us,” Keisel said. “I can’t
say enough about Ziggy and Steve and Cameron coming in and playing winning
football. We have a great tradition on the line and we expect those guys to step
in and play ball and they’ve done that.”

The defense that struggled stopping the Ravens on Sept. 11 is now ranked
second in the league in yards allowed, right behind the Ravens.

It’s where the Steelers expected to be all along. The biggest makeover in
the last seven weeks has come on the other side of the ball.

The offensive that couldn’t block the Ravens, couldn’t hold onto the ball
and mustered little fight while turning it over seven times suddenly looks as
potent as quarterback Ben Roethlisberger(notes) promised weeks ago.

Roethlisberger lit up the Patriots for 365 yards passing and two touchdowns,
completing 36 of 50 passes and helping the Steelers convert 10 of 16
third-downs. He hit nine different receivers and save for a second quarter
interception rarely forced the ball into tight spaces.

“It definitely gives us momentum,” wide receiver Antonio Brown(notes) said. “We
need to continue to get better, continue to go to work on some plays we left out
there. There are some things we could do better.”

Three times the Steelers pushed inside the New England 20 only to settle for
a Shaun Suisham(notes) field goal instead of a touchdown. Those kinds of opportunities
cannot be missed against the Ravens and the Steelers know it.

“We’ve got to keep pressing,” Wallace said.

The Steelers don’t know how to do otherwise. They didn’t panic after getting
crushed in the opener. They just went back to work. It’s what they do.

“We just want to keep flying under the radar,” Clark said.

Can a team that beats New England and Baltimore in consecutive weeks do
that?

“I hope so,” he said.

by David Ginsburg, AP Sports Writer

azfamily.com

Posted on October 31, 2011 at 6:38 AM

Updated
yesterday at 6:48 AM

BALTIMORE (AP)—The Baltimore Ravens got the bounce-back victory they needed, in record-breaking fashion.

After rallying to defeat the Arizona Cardinals 30-27 on Sunday, Baltimore hopes to ride the momentum of its big second half into next week’s AFC North showdown against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Down by 21 points in the second quarter against Arizona, the Ravens (5-2) staged the biggest comeback in franchise history and won the game on Billy Cundiff’s 25-yard field goal as time expired.

The victory eased the sting of their 12-7 defeat at Jacksonville on Monday night and set up Baltimore for its duel on Sunday night in Pittsburgh.

“We still have the Steelers in front of us next week,” coach John Harbaugh said. “We have to get ready for that now. That’s the challenge.”

If the Ravens are to beat Pittsburgh on the road, they can’t afford to fall 21 points behind. Overcoming that kind of deficit at home against Arizona (1-6) is one thing; doing it at Heinz Field is quite another.

On Sunday, however, Baltimore found that one great half of football was good enough for an important win.

“I think we just turned our level up just a little bit,” said linebacker Ray Lewis(notes), who missed a few plays in the first quarter with a right shoulder injury but returned the next series.

Outscored 24-3 in the second half, the Cardinals (1-6) lost their sixth straight. Four of those defeats have been by four points or fewer.

“It’s hard right now,” coach Ken Whisenhunt said. “Our guys are very disappointed after today’s game because it was an opportunity to do something nobody thought we could do. But our guys believe in what we’re doing. If you look at what we did the first half, it shows that if we do it the right way, we can be a good football team.”

In the second half, the Cardinals made only six first downs and were penalized nine times for 87 yards.

The Ravens, on the other hand, played to form.

“Those guys came out in the second half with a different approach,” said Arizona’s Patrick Peterson(notes), who returned a punt 82 yards for a touchdown but was flagged for pass interference prior to the second of Ray Rice’s three touchdown runs.

“They just made more plays than we did in the second half,” Peterson said. “We definitely thought there was a couple of bad calls in the second half, but that’s how the game goes.”

Using a fumble by Joe Flacco and Peterson’s sensational punt return, Arizona scored three touchdowns during a five-minute span of the second quarter to take a 24-3 lead.

Baltimore answered with a 24-point run and moved in front 27-24 when Rice scored on the opening play of the fourth quarter.

Arizona pulled even with a 45-yard field goal by Jay Feely with 8:55 left, but the Ravens won it with a 37-yard, beat-the-clock drive in the final minute.

After the Cardinals were forced to punt from deep in their own territory, Baltimore took over at the Arizona 44 with 52 seconds left. A 36-yard completion from Flacco to rookie Torrey Smith moved the ball to the 5, setting the stage for Cundiff’s game-winner.

The Ravens’ previous biggest comeback was from 19 points down against Tennessee in 2006.

“We woke up, plain and simple,” said former Arizona star Anquan Boldin(notes), who caught seven passes for 145 yards and was a key contributor in the rally.

Flacco went 31 for 51 for 336 yards, and Rice ran for 63 yards on 18 carries. Against Jacksonville, Rice was limited to 28 yards on eight carries.

“We had to get over Monday,” Rice said.

Kevin Kolb threw for 153 yards and a touchdown, and Peterson became the eighth player in Cardinals history to have at least two punt returns for touchdowns in a single season. The last one to do it was Vai Sikahema in 1986.

Down 24-6, the Ravens began the second half with an 80-yard drive in which Flacco went 5 for 5, including a 37-yarder to Boldin that set up a 1-yard touchdown run by Rice to make it 24-13.

“I felt like the way we came out at halftime is what turned it around,” Baltimore linebacker Jameel McClain(notes).

Late in the third quarter, Boldin caught passes 21, 23, 27 and 9 yards during an 88-yard march that ended with another 1-yard TD run by Rice.

The momentum turned even further in Baltimore’s direction immediately after the ensuing kickoff. On first down, Kolb was hit by Terrell Suggs while throwing a pass that was intercepted by McClain and taken 8 yards to the Arizona 22. Three plays later, Rice ran in from the 3.

Two holding penalties against the Ravens extended the Cardinals’ drive that ended with a field goal that tied it at 27.

Mistakes by Baltimore also played a big part in Arizona’s big second quarter. But the Cardinals couldn’t hold on.

Asked to assess the mood at halftime, running back Beanie Wells said, “We just didn’t want to let up. We wanted to keep on fighting. We wanted to go out there and prove that we’re a good football team. We came up short, unfortunately.”

Notes: The Cardinals placed TE Todd Heap (hamstring) on the inactive list. Heap played 10 seasons in Baltimore before signing with Arizona as a free agent this year. … It was McClain’s first career INT. … The loss dropped Arizona into a last-place tie with St. Louis in the NFC West.

BALTIMORE – The word “finish” isn’t supposed to be an ugly “F” word, but the Cardinals have turned it into one this season. The only thing they’ve polished off is the season.

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Photos from the game | Cardinals fans | Box score | NFL scoreboard

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The latest fiasco came Sunday at M&T Bank Stadium. The Cardinals led the Ravens by 21 points in the second quarter, by 18 at halftime and were tied with possession of the ball late. But they couldn’t finish and went home with a 30-27 loss when kicker Billy Cundiff made a 25-yard field goal as time expired.

It was the sixth consecutive loss for the Cardinals (1-6) and the fourth in which they’ve blown a lead in the second half.

“A lot of us are in disbelief,” receiver Larry Fitzgerald said. “Coming up short like this is getting frustrating, and it’s getting old.”

It’s also become familiar, as much a part of the 2011 Cardinals as the birds on their helmets.

The Cardinals did so much right in the first half, and nearly everything wrong in the second.

Patrick Peterson returned a punt 82 yards for a touchdown. The defense forced two turnovers, and the offense, though hardly spectacular, did enough to help give the Cardinals a 24-6 lead at halftime.

“I thought we were in good shape,” quarterback Kevin Kolb said. “Things were going our way. We knew what was coming in the second half. You can’t let down in this league, especially against a team like this. It wasn’t a lack of focus; it was a lack of execution.”

All the Cardinals did in the first half, as it turns out, was get the Ravens’ attention.

“We woke up, plain and simple,” said receiver Anquan Boldin, a former Cardinals player.

The Ravens did anything they wanted in the second half. Quarterback Joe Flacco continually threw to Boldin, and the Cardinals went through three cornerbacks trying to shut him down.

Boldin finished with seven catches for 145 yards; five of them and 117 yards came in the third quarter. In addition, he drew three pass-interference calls against three cornerbacks: A.J. Jefferson, Richard Marshall and Peterson.

Boldin didn’t score, but his performance in the third quarter set up three short touchdown runs by Ray Rice, the last of which gave the Ravens a three-point lead early in the fourth quarter.

A handful of Cardinals implied afterward that Boldin initiated his share of the contact, too.

“There was a lot of pushing and shoving going on, on both sides of the ball,” coach Ken Whisenhunt said. “Unfortunately, we got called for some big plays. He (Boldin) made some good catches.”

The Cardinals offense never responded in kind. Kolb was sacked six times and completed just 10 of 21 passes. Fitzgerald had a 66-yard reception but just two other catches as he again went long periods without being targeted.

Not that Kolb had much time to look for him. The Ravens applied constant pressure, mostly because they had the wisdom to draft Terrell Suggs in 2003 and the Cardinals didn’t.

The Cardinals have been searching for an elite rusher ever since.

Suggs, who played at Arizona State, had 13 tackles, a sack, four tackles for a loss and two more hits on the quarterback. Left tackle Levi Brown and right tackle Brandon Keith did nothing to make Suggs look ordinary.

Not that Suggs was satisfied.

“I left some things on the field,” Suggs said.

It had to be a watch, or a wallet or a mouthpiece, because it’s hard to imagine Suggs having a bigger impact on a game than he did Sunday.

The Cardinals responded just once in the second half. After the Ravens went ahead by three, the Cardinals drove 53 yards to the 27. Jay Feely’s 45-yard field goal tied the score with 8:55 remaining.

The defense forced punts on the next two possessions, but the offense was overwhelmed and couldn’t respond.

Finally, the Ravens took over at the Arizona 44 with 52 seconds remaining. A 36-yard pass to Torrey Smith set up the winning field goal, which gave the Ravens the biggest comeback victory in franchise history.

The Cardinals left town muttering, again, about their inability to, well, you know.

“We just have to learn how to finish,” Cardinals safety Adrian Wilson said. “We don’t have a lights-out mentality to finish teams off.”

Cardinals report

Key player: Ravens outside linebacker Terrell Suggs spent the day in the Cardinals backfield. He had 13 tackles, including four for a loss. He had a sack and four quarterback hits.

Key moment: The Cardinals led 24-20 late in the third quarter when Kevin Kolb dropped back to pass on first down. He was hit by Suggs, and the ball was intercepted and returned to the Arizona 22. Baltimore scored to go ahead.

Injury report: Kolb (right foot), FB Anthony Sherman (left ankle), TE Rob Housler (groin). All we be evaluated Monday.

Quote: “I’m not stunned. It wasn’t like they made a miraculous Hail Mary catch. They adjusted their game plan, and they executed, and we have to get better at finishing.” – Cardinals linebacker Paris Lenon

Up next: Rams (1-6) at Cardinals (1-6), 2:15 p.m. Sunday, University of Phoenix Stadium.

View from the press box

After each loss, the Cardinals have reminded us that there is plenty of football left to be played. That has sounded more ominous each week. There are nine games left, and this team hasn’t given anyone reasons to plan their Sundays around watching it. Sure, the Cardinals still are playing hard, as if people should give them credit for that. Even amateurs should play hard every week. All Cardinals fans are asking at this point is for their team to show improvement. And they are still waiting.

“What are you going to say after a half like that?” said linebacker Jarret Johnson

The Ravens responded to the adversity in the best possible manner, scoring 24 second-half points and beating the Arizona Cardinals, 30-27, on Sunday when Billy Cundiff booted a 25-yard field goal as time expired.

The emotion of the announced crowd of 71,022 went from anger and frustration to exhilaration as the Ravens, who trailed 24-3 with less than four minutes left in the second quarter and 24-6 at halftime, completed their biggest comeback in team history to improve to 5-2 on the season.

“We woke up, plain and simple,” said Anquan Boldin, who Coach John Harbaugh called the catalyst of the comeback after the wide receiver caught seven passes for 145 yards and drew a couple of key pass interference penalties that led to touchdowns against his former team.

“We know we played poor as an offense in the first half, and we felt like this team wasn’t better than us, point-blank. Even though they were up 24-3, we felt like we were able to go out and put drives together and put points on the board.”

Cundiff’s decisive three points were set up by quarterback Joe Flacco’s 36-yard pass down the right sideline to rookie Torrey Smith with just 48 seconds to play. Smith, who beat Richard Marshall, had bobbled a pass in the second quarter that was intercepted by Marshall, leading to Early Doucet’s 10-yard touchdown catch and the Ravens’ 21-point deficit.

The play represented redemption not only for Smith, but also for Flacco, who shook off a shaky first half and a consistent Cardinals pass rush to complete 31 of 51 passes for 336 yards. Operating in the no-huddle offense for the majority of the second half, Flacco directed scoring drives on four of the Ravens’ seven second-half drives.

Running back Ray Rice ended three of those with touchdowns, getting in from the 1-yard line twice, and from the 3 once. Along with his career-high three touchdowns, Rice, who had only eight carries in the Ravens’ dreadful 12-7 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars last Monday, rushed 18 times for 63 yards and caught seven passes for 36 yards.

It was his three-yard touchdown run five seconds into the fourth quarter that gave the Ravens’ 24 consecutive points and a 27-24 lead. Jay Feely tied the score with a 45-yard field goal with six minutes remaining, but after getting the ball at midfield in Cardinals’ territory with less than a minute to go, the Ravens answered with the game-winning field goal.

“We just kept believing, kept believing,” said Ravens middle linebacker Ray Lewis who said that he had no problem with the booing from the home crowd. “They are the same fans that are going to switch around and start cheering as soon as we put some points on the board. And it happened. You have to truly respect them for saying, ‘This ain’t what we’re used to,’ and it’s not.

“For us to come out and give the ball away and let a team get up on us, that’s just not us. For them to show their displeasure, that’s okay. We’re man enough to come back and say, ‘We know how to come back and get you back in the game.’ That’s to drive and create spots and put points on the board, and we did that.”

But after taking the 24-3 lead late in the third quarter, the Cardinals, who have now lost six in a row to fall to 1-6, managed only three points the rest of the game.

— Baltimore Sun

The Arizona Cardinals could have sulked over debatable calls or blamed an offense that went stone cold in the second half.
Instead, after falling to the Baltimore Ravens 30-27 on Sunday, the Cardinals acknowledged that they’re simply going to have play better to win close games.
Arizona soared to a 24-3 lead late in the first half, but the Ravens staged the biggest comeback in their history and won on a 25-yard field goal by Billy Cundiff as time expired.
Outscored by three touchdowns in the second half, the Cardinals (1-6) lost their sixth straight. Four of those defeats have been by four points or fewer.
“It’s hard right now,” coach Ken Whisenhunt said. “Our guys are very disappointed after today’s game because it was an opportunity to do something nobody thought we could do. But our guys believe in what we’re doing. If you look at what we did the first half, it shows that if we do it the right way, we can be a good football team.”
In the second half, the Cardinals made only six first downs and were penalized nine times for 87 yards.
The Ravens, on the other hand, played to form.
“Those guys came out in the second half with a different approach,” said Patrick Peterson, who returned a punt 82 yards for a touchdown but was flagged for pass interference prior to Ray Rice’s second touchdown run.
“They just made more plays than we did in the second half,” Peterson said. “We definitely thought there was a couple of bad calls in the second half, but that’s how the game goes.”
Using a fumble by Joe Flacco and Peterson’s sensational punt return, Arizona scored three touchdowns during a five-minute span of the second quarter to take a 24-3 lead.
Baltimore (5-2) answered with a 24-point run and moved in front 27-24 when Rice scored his third touchdown on the opening play of the fourth quarter.
Arizona pulled even with a 45-yard field goal by Jay Feely with 8:55 left, but the Ravens won it with a 37-yard, beat-the-clock drive in the final minute.
After the Cardinals were forced to punt from deep in their own territory, Baltimore took over at the Arizona 44 with 52 seconds left. A 36-yard completion from Flacco to rookie Torrey Smith moved the ball to the 5, setting the stage for Cundiff’s game-winner.
The Ravens’ previous biggest comeback was from 19 points down against Tennessee in 2006.
“We woke up, plain and simple,” said former Arizona star Anquan Boldin, who caught seven passes for 145 yards and was a key contributor in the rally.
Flacco went 31 for 51 for 336 yards, and Rice ran for 63 yards on 18 carries. In a 12-7 loss to Jacksonville on Monday night, the 5-foot-8 running back was limited to 28 yards on eight carries.
Kevin Kolb threw for 153 yards and a touchdown, and Peterson became the eighth player in Cardinals history to have at least two punt returns for touchdowns in a single season. The last one to do it was Vai Sikahema in 1986.
“Once I got past the first surge, I pretty much knew it was going to be me and the kicker, and I didn’t know where he was,” Peterson said. “Once I broke the last tackle, I just saw nothing but the end zone.”
The Ravens began the second half with an 80-yard drive in which Flacco went 5 for 5, including a 37-yarder to Boldin that set up a 1-yard touchdown run by Rice to make it 24-13.
“I felt like the way we came out at halftime is what turned it around,” Baltimore linebacker Jameel McClain.
Late in the third quarter, Boldin caught passes 21, 23, 27 and 9 yards during an 88-yard march that ended with another 1-yard TD run by Rice.
The momentum turned even further in Baltimore’s direction immediately after the ensuing kickoff.
On first down, Kolb was hit by Terrell Suggs while throwing a pass that was intercepted by McClain and taken 8 yards to the Arizona 22. Three plays later, Rice ran in from the 3.
Two holding penalties against the Ravens extended the Cardinals’ bounce-back drive that ended with a field goal.
Mistakes by Baltimore also played a big part in Arizona’s big second quarter.
With the game tied at 3, the Ravens’ five-minute misadventure began when Flacco fumbled upon being sacked by O’Brien Schofield. Darnell Dockett recovered at the Baltimore 2, setting up a 1-yard scoring run by Beanie Wells.
Peterson then broke six tackles on his punt return. Thirteen seconds later, Richard Marshall picked off a pass that bounced off Smith’s chest. That led to a 10-yard touchdown pass from Kolb to Early Doucet for a 24-3 lead with 3:46 remaining in the second quarter.
A field goal by Cundiff cut the gap to 18 points at halftime.
Asked to assess the mood at halftime, Wells said, “We just didn’t want to let up. We wanted to keep on fighting. We wanted to go out there and prove that we’re a good football team. We came up short, unfortunately.”
Notes: The Cardinals placed TE Todd Heap (hamstring) on the inactive list. Heap played 10 seasons in Baltimore before signing with Arizona as a free agent this year. … Ravens LB Ray Lewis missed a few plays in the first half with a right shoulder injury. … Baltimore has won six straight at home. … It was McClain’s first career INT. … The loss dropped Arizona into a last-place tie with St. Louis in the NFC West.