What a doozy of a game for the Ravens and Steelers tonight. I’m still wound up and still emotional about it all… it’s been just minutes since the final kick crossed over… So here’s what I see…

• First, in Joe Flacco’s national debut and his road debut, he did a fine job. It was far from a perfect game. His two fumbles and holding onto the ball really cost the Ravens when it counted. But he also made some serious passes in clutch situations. Tony Kornheiser was right when he said that most Ravens teams in the last 10 years could never have made the kind of game-tying drive that this team made in the 4th quarter. Joe hit his targets and managed the unit beautifully through 95% of the game.

• This team still desperately needs some help at receiving positions. Todd Heap was invisible all game - perhaps because of his struggles in the first two weeks - and aside from Derrick Mason, I don’t remember who else Joe Flacco even looked at. Even our check downs were MIA.

• Le’Ron McClain is still bowling ball. Did he remind anyone else of Jerome Bettis, only wearing purple? And I couldn’t mean that in a more complimentary way…

• I am still not sure why this team didn’t at least try to move the ball before the end of regulation. What is there to lose? Scratch that, I know what we could lose. But really, we didn’t need a TD; we needed three points. We needed to more 60 yards in 1:40. Totally possible. Let Flacco run this offense, Johnny Boy!

• Ben Roethlisberger is flat out wrong in saying that the Steelers offense was ‘really able to move’ in the 2nd half. They managed two worthwhile drives and neither was particularly fantastic… both, in fact, were helped greatly by a freak play or two. The Ravens D did its job. The no-huddle changed things up, but it did not win the Steelers this game.

• The Ravens defense failed in one major way: making the tackles when they mattered. Ray Lewis showed this team how it should be done with his pair of goalline tackles in te 4th quarter. But our linebackers and lineman consistently let Roethlisberger slip out of their grasp, and our defensive backs gave up some serious yardage by over-running or just plain missing their receivers. Guys, we love you, but sometimes it’s better to take the ’sure thing’ than to go for the ‘hit stick’ on defense. Imagine how this game changes if Bart Scott can hold onto Big Ben a few times?

• And finally… I’m still not sure. This game was either lost by Jarrett Johnson or won by Hines Ward. Johnson certainly screwed up. There’s no questioning it. But at a certain point, we have to start crediting Hines Ward for his ability to get under the skin of our players. I really want to know what he says that makes our guys go off like that. You could feel it building the entire game… there was plenty of pushing without Ward being involved. So you just knew that a flag was coming down on a Raven in the 2nd half. That15 seconds changed the game. You knew it would before it happened.

• Speaking of flags… I hate to sound bitter… but I always have to wonder… it’s the Baltimorean in me… Why is it that on every meaningful Ravens play, we see yellow, but it never seems to show up when other QBs are dancing around? There’s not one instance of holding by that Steelers line in ALL the times our DL was closing in on him?

• Finally… we can’t walk away feeling too bad about this loss. I’m sure everyone’s saying that, but it’s true. We were on the road, with rookies at coach and quarterback, playing a highly favored team with vets all around, and did I mention that we were on the road? The 4th quarter touchdown, forcing overtime: that proved something to everyone in this league about our team - even if we couldn’t walk away with a W.

Say your piece…