Anmelden » The Pittsburgh Steelers can't blame their latest loss o

n a struggling defense.The Steelers defense kept Baltimore out of the end zone in the second half Len Dawson Jersey , but Ben Roethlisberger and the offense struggled to find rhythm as Justin Tucker kicked four second-half field goals, leading the Ravens to a 26-14 victory on Sunday night."I just didn't make enough plays," Roethlisberger said. "I'll take ownership on this game. I just wasn't good enough."Roethlisberger led the offense from a 14-point hole and threw for 224 yards in the first half. The Steelers offense managed just 47 yards in the second half, and converted 2 of 12 third downs in the game as Roethlisberger finished 27 of 47 for 274 yards with a touchdown and an interception."I didn't make enough throws and we didn't convert first downs," Roethlisberger said. "We were terrible on third downs and that's on me."The Steeler defense allowed Kansas City's Patrick Mahomes to throw for six touchdowns in Week 2, while Tampa Bay's Ryan Fitzpatrick threw for more than 400 yards last Monday.The Steelers (1-2-1) struggled defensively at the outset against Baltimore (3-1) as the Ravens held a 14-0 lead less than seven minutes into the game. They settled down and allowed four Tucker field goals the rest of the way, but it wasn't enough."We were able to tie it up at half and the score was 0-0 to me," defensive end Cam Heyward said. "We didn't get off the field and our offense didn't score. When we do that and don't get off the field, it's not a good recipe for success."Quarterback Joe Flacco completed 28 of 42 passes for 363 yards, with TD passes to John Brown and Alex Collins as the Ravens ended a three-game losing streak to their AFC North rivals. Tucker accounted for all the scoring after halftime as Baltimore ended Pittsburgh's long run of success on Sunday nights.Pittsburgh came in having won nine straight Sunday night appearances, a streak that included a pair of victories against the Ravens. Baltimore brought Pittsburgh's run to an abrupt end by shutting down Roethlisberger and the Steelers in the second half. The Ravens have allowed just nine points after halftime in four games.Roethlisberger threw for more than 500 yards and led four fourth-quarter scoring drives the last time the Steelers met the Ravens a Heinz Field. He tossed a memorable ball-over-the-goal-line extension touchdown to Antonio Brown that secured a division title for the Steelers on Christmas night in 2016.Flacco and the Ravens started strong on Sunday. Flacco completed his first six passes for 73 yards and two touchdowns, as he led the Ravens on an 8-play, 75-yard scoring drive and quickly capitalized on a Steelers' turnover.Brown caught the Ravens' first touchdown with Joe Haden and Cam Sutton giving chase on the 33-yard deep pass. Ravens' S Tony Jefferson ripped the ball from tight end Vance McDonald's grasp, and Flacco tossed a 3-yard swing pass to Collins three plays later.The Ravens looked like they were going to add to their lead following a Chris Boswell 34-yard field goal.Brown beat Terrell Edmunds on a 71-yard deep ball, but the Steelers' rookie first-round pick recovered a Collins fumble on first-and-goal from the 2-yard line three plays later. It was the first time the Ravens didn't score a touchdown in the red zone this season, going a league record 13-of-13 in four games.It also briefly swung momentum in Pittsburgh's favor as Roethlisberger led the Steelers back from the early deficit.Antonio Brown http://www.chiefslockerroom.com/authentic-marcus-allen-jersey , who caught five passes for 62 yards, scored his second touchdown in as many weeks following a Boswell 39-yard field goal. The 2-point conversion to James Conner evened the score.But then, Flacco and the Ravens took over.Tucker kicked a 47-yard field goal on the Ravens' second possession of the second half, and then ended two clock-churning drives, spanning more than 11 plays and six minutes with field goals of 49 and 28 yards, increasing it to a 23-14 lead with less than four minutes to play."They drained the clock on us," Heyward said. "Whether it was quick passing on the outside or over the middle, we have to get better."Tucker's final field goal, a 31-yarder, came four plays after a Roethlisberger interception."I don't think I'm on the same page as anybody right now because I'm not playing well enough," Roethlisberger said. "Today was just a bad day at the office. We've all had them. I had one today and I promise I'll be back to play better." Defensive lineman Jared Allen retired from the NFL in 2015 and wasn’t ready to give up on the competition he’d come to enjoy as a five-time All-Pro.His solution: The Olympics.The problem: He didn’t compete in any Olympic sports.Less than a year later, Allen and three other former NFL stars — none with any prior experience — are attempting to qualify for the U.S. national curling championships against players who have been throwing stones for most of their lives.It would be the first step toward competing in the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.“Every team in the NFL — whether you’re hot garbage or the defending Super Bowl champions — every coach come August says the same thing: ‘We’re trying to win the Super Bowl,'” Allen said. “We come from that mentality, where we set lofty goals.“Our short term goals are continually to get better: Fundamentals, strategy, sweeping. We know if we master these little things Womens Orlando Scandrick Jersey , it will take us a long way.”A 12-year NFL veteran who spent most of his career with the Chiefs and Vikings, Allen was lamenting the end of his playing days when a friend dared him to try an Olympic sport. Allen toyed with the idea of badminton but rejected it as too taxing.“We thought about curling. It was chill, and the winners have to buy the losers beer,” he said. “We thought it was a win-win.”He rounded up former Rams quarterback Marc Bulger and Titans linebacker Keith Bulluck and tackle Michael Roos to form a team; all were Pro Bowl selections during their NFL career, and living near Nashville, Tennessee.Adopting the name All-Pro Curling Team, they started from scratch in March and kept their plans under wraps until they felt like they had made enough progress.“We wanted the reaction when we got on the ice to be ‘Oh, how long have you guys been doing this?” Allen said in a telephone interview after practicing on a converted hockey rink in Nashville. “We were serious. We didn’t want it to seem like it was just some media hype, or just trying to stay relevant.”The first test was in November, when Allen and Bulger — with two “regular” curlers — competed in the Curl Mesabi Classic in Northern Minnesota. Their first opponent: The gold medal-winning team from Pyeongchang led by four-time Olympian John Shuster.They lost 11-3, giving up five points in the sixth end.“Honestly, they were a little better than I had expected,” said Matt Hamilton, the second on that team. “All in all, Jared was technically pretty sound. But at the end of the day, I’ve seen thousands of curling shots and situations and that is ultimately going to win us more games.”Although curling matches are often conceded when they are out of reach Reggie Ragland Jersey , the Olympians kept playing through the eighth (of 10) ends, to help the football players gain the experience they’ll need if they are going to be more competitive. (If it’s any consolation for Allen’s crew, Shuster’s rink also scored a five-ender against Sweden in the gold-medal match.)“We had one bad end, and we just kept playing with them. We just wanted to be a sponge,” Bulger said. “The key was they knew we were taking it seriously. It wasn’t just us saying ‘We’re going to take over curling,’ kind of as a gimmick.“We hope to play them again,” he said, “when we’re better.”The All-Pros are back at it at the USA Men’s Challenge Round this weekend in Blaine, Minnesota, where they are competing for one of four remaining spots in next month’s national championships. (Top teams like Shuster’s have already qualified.)They got off to a rough start in their first match, falling 10-1 to Steve Birklid’s Seattle-based rink on Thursday night. But, by hopping into the sport early in the Olympic cycle, they have almost three more years before the team for the 2022 Games is chosen.Hamilton confessed he was put off at first about newcomers thinking they could reach the Olympics in a sport he’d worked a lifetime to master. But he also realized the publicity will be good for curling, which has struggled to break out of its niche as an every-four-years curiosity.“If I really think I’m that good, I should be like ‘Bring it on!'” Hamilton said in an email to The Associated Press from a competition in Japan. “How much they respected the game, though http://www.chiefslockerroom.com/authentic-spencer-ware-jersey , is what made me realize they aren’t making a mockery. We just have some extremely athletic individuals who respect sport but have a need to compete in their blood. Can’t disrespect that!”All four football players agreed the reception they’ve received from lifetime curlers is decidedly different from a curler trying to break into the hyper-competitive NFL.“Oh, he’d get smashed,” Allen said. “We’d go out of our way to test his mettle, for sure.”Instead, they found the tight-knit but friendly community of curlers was eager to accept them. In their match against the Olympians, there was trash-talking — or banter, depending on whom you ask — and Hamilton even gave them some of his old curling gear.“I looked at their broom heads and I was disgusted. I was wondering why these former pro football players couldn’t afford new broom heads,” he said. “So I went into my curling bag and gave them some gently used ones before the game. That really surprised Jared, claiming nothing like that would ever fly in football.”Like many of those who only experience curling every four years on TV, the football players saw the sweeping and the shouting and underestimated how hard it is. “We played football, but it’s a lot of muscles we didn’t use,” Bulger said.Sliding on the ice was also an adjustment, but the biggest challenge has been the strategy.When he first started watching, Bulger said, he would see curlers setting up protective stones called guards and thought they were missing their shots.“We just assumed that you throw to the button every time, and we learned that is not the game Womens Carlos Hyde Jersey ,” he said. “It’s like a novice chess player going against” a grandmaster.But their NFL experience did help in other ways, priming them with not just physical fitness but also good practice habits, making decisions on the fly and improving through film study and coaching.“Like any other sport, you have to learn, try to figure out how to get better,” Bulluck said. “Playing football at a very high level, being one of the best at the position once upon a time, to get to that level in anything you do you have to be able to take coaching.”And, of course, they’re competitive.“The message is: We want to bring attention to it. We want to have fun with it,” Allen said. “But we’re dead serious about what we’re trying to accomplish.”