Steelers vs. Eagles: Post-Game Analysis
The Steelers scored no rushing touchdowns. The Steelers scored no passing touchdowns. The Steelers only got one rushing 1st down in the entire game. Willie Parker was held to 20 yards rushing. Ben Roethlisberger was sacked 8 times (6 times in the 2nd quarter), and was held to 131 total passing yards. Score: Eagles 15, Steelers 6. Any questions?
I was tempted to end my post-game analysis right there, but that would be taking the easy way out. Writing this report feels just like it felt to watch the Steelers game today; painful.
I tried to think of headlines for this article, but everything that I thought of seemed too negative. “Steelers get their ***es kicked” was the most accurate headline I could think of, but it just sounded…..inappropriate. So I stuck with “Steelers vs. Eagles: Post-Game Analysis” as my headline.
Going into the game, I was expecting a physical contest of titanic proportions between two evenly matched gladiators. What I actually watched looked more like a street fight between Richard Simmons and Kimbo Slice. And unfortunately, the Steelers weren’t Kimbo Slice.
I'm an Eagle.
The Eagles dominated the Steelers in all facets of the game. Let’s take a look at each of them.
Steelers’ Defense:
The Eagles offense seemed to be able to move the ball at will, until Donovan McNabb and Brian Westbrook (the Eagles’ two best offensive players) both suffered injuries. McNabb was a perfect 15/15 passing before throwing his first incomplete pass with just over 2 minutes remaining in the 1st half. Westbrook injured his ankle early in the 1st quarter, and rushed for only 12 total yards before leaving the game for good.
In my pre-game analysis, I said that the Steelers’ defense needed to do two things; contain Westbrook and pressure McNabb. If they weren’t able to do these two things, the steelers were in for a long day. The early injury to Westbrook took care of my first concern. Westbrook was rendered a non-factor. And while McNabb was unstoppable in the 1st half, Dick LeBeau and the Steelers’ defense made adjustments at half-time, and made life difficult for the Eagles the rest of the way. Despite giving up 13 points (two points came on a safety and can’t be charged to the Steelers’ “D”), the Steelers’ Defense played a good game, and they were the only reason that the final score wasn’t 59-3 (although it certainly felt like that was the score).
In particular, LaMarr Woodley and Lawrence Timmons looked good. While neither recorded more than 2 tackles, they both provided good pressure on McNabb. Woodley completely over-powered Eagles tackle John Runyan on his sack of Donovan McNabb. While Timmons did not start for the Steelers, it was very noticeable when Timmons came into the game. He provided key pressure on McNabb at the end of the 1st half that changed the tempo of the game, and ended McNabb’s perfect passing streak.
James Farrior led the team in tackles (with 7 solo tackles), and also forced a fumble. Larry Foote also recorded 1.5 sacks on McNabb.
Troy Polamalu had another good game, and recorded his 3rd interception in as many games. Cornerback Bryant McFadden also recorded an interception (his 2nd in the past 2 games).
Despite a rough 1st half, the Steelers’ defense looked good, and they have no reason to hang their heads.
Steelers’ Offense:
The Steelers’ offense was an entirely different matter. The offense stunk. There’s no other way to put it.
Was it just me, or did it seem like the referees were allowing the Eagles to rush 15 defensive linemen on each play? How else do you explain the constant pressure on Ben Roethlisberger? Even when the Steelers went to their “max protection” formations, they still couldn’t stop the Eagles’ rush. Usain Bolt couldn’t have gotten to Big Ben faster than the Eagles linemen were.
In total, the Offensive Line gave up 9 sacks. That’s right, 9! Eight sacks on Roethlisberger, and one of Byron Leftwich. At one point, the Eagles’ Defense recorded 5 sacks in 6 plays. I’ve seldom seen a defensive line dominate an offensive line so completely. Kendall Simmons was a revolving door. Willie Colon played like a matador. And Chris Kemoeatu showed that he is much better at run blocking than he is at pass blocking.
Worth 1000 words.
I’m not one to call for coaches’ heads, but Steelers Offensive Line Coach Larry Zierlein should hide his face in shame. He had no clue how to stop the Eagles’ rush. He was like a 3rd grader taking a trigonometry exam; completely baffled. While Dick LeBeau made adjustments at half-time, Zierlein and Steelers Offensive Coordinator Bruce Arians apparently made none. The offensive line’s performance was truly an embarrassment.
Beyond the constant pressure that he was getting from the Eagles defense, Ben Roethlisberger didn’t look like himself. His passes weren’t accurate, and he looked rattled. Perhaps his shoulder was hurting worse than he let on. In fact, the only time the Steelers were able to establish a viable passing game was when Byron Leftwich came on in relief after Roethlisberger injured his hand.
To make matters worse, the Steelers offense was never able to establish the running game. The Eagles came into the game with the NFL’s #1 ranked defense against the run. I said in my pre-game analysis that the match-up of Willie Parker vs. the Eagles Defense would determine the game. Unfortunately, my prediction proved to be true.
Willie Parker was never able to get the running game going. He ended up with only 20 yards rushing on 13 carries. But even that number is deceiving. Parker got 8 yards on one play. If you eliminate that play, Parker got only 12 yards on his remaining 12 carries. That’s 1 yard per carry. Even I could do that.
On a positive note (there weren’t many), did anyone else notice Jeff Reed’s 53 yard field goal that looked like it would have been good from 73 yards? That guy has got to be one of the best field goal kickers in the league. He is consistently accurate, even in the mud bowl called Heinz Field. Not many kickers could do that.
Special Teams:
The Eagles’ punter actually outplayed the Steelers. Need I say more?
Summary:
History was not on our side going into this game. The Steelers had not beaten the Eagles in Philadelphia since 1965. That’s 43 years. Philadelphia is one of the toughest places in the NFL for any visiting team to play. Perhaps a loss was inevitable.
What bothers me is the way we lost. The Eagles were more physical than the Steelers. They played “Steeler football” better than the Steelers did. That can’t happen.
It’s probably going to be a long, quiet ride back to Pittsburgh. But the team can’t dwell on this. They have to get back on the practice field and fix these problems. They play the Baltimore Ravens next week on Monday Night Football. I’m sure the Ravens are going to use today’s game as a blueprint for how to beat the Steelers.
It all starts with the o line if they fail the offense fails, if they don’t fix the problems the hole season is lost. The coaches should make them run 9 miles one for each sack. Eric
1The offensive line is definitely a problem. I don’t know if we need to panic yet, but Mike Tomlin should be having a serious conversation with Bruce Arians and Larry Zierlein. Those two did some of the worst coaching that I’ve ever seen.
2If this does not change, then maybe, i know this sounds crazy, but is cohwer still out there? I have not seen our team not make any adjustments at the half. Like this team. Now i might not have agreed with everything cowher did, and some of the calls. But this was truley bull. It was like they gave up. I mean what did they think. If they kept doing the same thing, something was going to change.
Let’s look at part of the problem. You throw only 1 deep pass, and it was not to holmes, who is suppose to be our deep threat, it was to washington. Our number 3 reciever, who was covered buy who? Just one of the best defenders in the league samuels. I mean it was a joke. Can some one tell me why throw it to his side? When you have a team blitzing like that you have to be in the shotgun, and throw deep passes, and timing passes. Not reaction passes. And 1 more thing. Why do we have heath, and spaeth on our team. I kept screaming at the TV. If the recievers are covered, throw the amm ball to heath. The best way to get them to stop blitzing is throw quick timing passes, and use the tight end. The sad part to this story was i was asking for byron to come in the game, because i said Ben was gun shy, from all of the heat. And i knew that if byron came in he will not care. He is throwing bullets. Now it might get picked off, but he is not going to stand there like a pinata. He is going to break fingers.
So my conclusion. Arians and Zierlein must go. Our offense stinks, and so does our o line. And if tomlin is not smart enough to see that this garbage will not win us a superbowl, and Cowher in 2010.
3I watched, in horror, at the horrendous play of the entire offense. Certainly, I thought, under the constant and successful pressure of the Eagles D-line, something would be done to try and counter this by the coaches. Yet, all we see is the same drop-back style of play from Ben and running plays that feature FWPR FWPL and FWPUTM (Fast Willie Parker Right, Fast Willie Parker Left and Fast Willie Parker Up the Middle).
4Heck, I’m no coach, but I know that there are ways to offset a D-line thats manhandling your O-Line (and entire offense). Do any of these sound familiar? The no-huddle, the direct snap to someone other than Ben, short (outside) passes (heck, short inside passes) and, perhaps tell your QB not to get past the first wave of defenders and run right into the second wave of defenders and, lastly, tell your QB to get rid of the ball!
The Eagles exposed our offense and, much like everything else in the NFL, everyone will copy. With Baltimore on the horizon, will we be treated to another inept performance by the Steelers offense and coaching or will everyone do their share of soul-searching and concoct a scheme that actually utilizes our strengths instead of trying to fit everyone into a system that is not working?
Well it is real easy to say the o-line was bad but take your blinders off and pay attention. Ben and airens was mostly the fault for the sacks. First of all we didnt run any draws wich once was a mainstay for this team ran very few slants, and quick hitches, 3step drops, rb screens………..or any type of play that would counter the blitz. Deep ins and outs, post and flags dont work on that type pf blitzing. Airens is an idiot. Then lets talk about ben He new the blitz was comming “GET RID OF THE DAMN BALL” i believe i screamed it 20 to 30 times. He refuses to dump the ball off to a rb or just fire a quick slant he want to run around like an idiot. It is his job to audible into a good play once he reconizes the blitz he is not doing it. Look at what leftwich did he was firing the ball we all know ben can do that. so i looked at all the sacks on six of the nine ben had plenty time to get rid of the ball in some way or just throw it away. I only credit 3 sacks to the o-line. so lets not blame them totaly.
5Crusader,
I feel your pain. However, I have to disagree with you on Cowher. Players and coaches always seem better than they were in retrospect. But if you think back, you’ll remember that Cowher was NEVER a good X’s and O’x coach. Cowher was a motivator, and players seemed to respond to that (although we learned after the fact that many of them, like Big Ben, didn’t enjoy playing for him).
I agree that Cowher would have probably yelled and screamed a lot more in the locker room at half-time. But I don’t think that he would have had any answers. I do find myself wishing that Russ Grimm were still our Offensive Line Coach, though.
6Ding, ding, ding!! We have a winner! Nicholas wins the “comment of the day” award.
Good thoughts, Nicholas. I agree with you completely. The Steelers did none of the classic things that are supposed to be done to counter an all-out blitz. Correction, they did keep two backs in the backfield to help in protection, but that was completely ineffectual.
7Brian Wyke,
Why so hostile? I don’t have blinders on. I agree with you, Bro. We’re on the same side on this one. Read what Nicholas wrote, and my comments back to him.
I am in complete agreement with you that part of the fault lies with Big Ben. Ben has taken 90+ sacks in 2006-20007, and a good portion of those were his own fault. Ben holds the ball too long. There’s no doubt about that. Sometimes, he buys extra time with his scrambling and turns a potential loss into a great play. But other times, in trying to be a playmaker, Ben gives up unnecessary sacks.
Ben is our $100 million dollar man, so I guess we are just going to have to live with that.
8admin i was hostile too all the espn and cbsportslines that read the box score and say our offensive line is terrible. I think we have a middle rate offensiveline not a bottom 5 like all the so called experts say. Thats the point i was trying to cross.
9MY EAGLES D IS TOPS IN SPEED,THATS WHAT IS NEEDED TO WIN IN TODAYS NFL,I BELIEVE THE TOP THREE TEAMS ALL HAVE FAST-FAST DEFENSES AND ARE IN OUR DIVISION. MY EAGLES,COWBOYS AND GIANTS.OUR DIVISION IS SIMPLY TOUGH AS NAILS AND IN IT SITS YOUR NEXT SB CHAMP. GOOD LUCK NEXT WEEK AGAINST THE RAVENS. WITH ALL RESPECT,KEVIN FROM PHILLY
10Kevin,
I have to give the Iggles credit. Their D is impressive.
I can’t say whether the next SB champ will come from the NFC East, but that certainly is one tough division.
11I agree with “admin” the Eagles “D” is tough, but it’s becoming quite apparent losing Faneca was a lot bigger deal than the Front Office let on.
12