After a week one outing in which they beat up the Houston Texans, the last two weeks the Steelers offensive line has taken major steps backwards, and today they were slammed by an Eagles defense that took apart Ben Roethlisberger and the Steelers in a 15-6 loss. It was the first loss of the season for the Steelers, as they fall to 2-1. The Eagles improve to 2-1, coming off a setback Monday night in Dallas.
Roethlisberger ran for his life all day, as the Eagles blitzed just about every down. He ended up being sacked 8 times, was rushed all day, and never got the offense in any sort of flow. The team only managed 180 yards of offense, 14 first downs, and 33 yards rushing. Roethlisberger was 13-for-25 for 131 yards and was sacked 8 times for 35 yards. Bryon Leftwich finished up in the final drive for the Steelers, going 4-for-7 for 60 yards and was also sacked.
The defense put forth a good effort, and held the Eagles to just one TD and two field goals. Donovan McNabb started red-hot for the Eagles, and after getting hurt for a portion of the second half, recovered and led the team on a field goal drive after Roethlisberger was called for grounding in the end zone that made it 12-6. The drive that ended with a David Akers 31-yard field goal iced the game with 2:26 to go and made it 15-6.
The only Steelers points came on the foot of Jeff Reed, as he kicked a 37-yard field goal with 2:55 left in the first quarter to make it 3-0, and then bombed a career high 53-yard kick with 0:13 left in the first half that cut the Eagles lead to 10-6. Philly had scored on a McNabb pass to Correll Buckhalter that went for 20 yards and made it 7-3 at the 9:23 mark of the second quarter. Akers hit his first field goal with 2:36 left in the half to make it 10-3.
Both teams were physical, but it was the Eagles that hit just a bit harder, and came after Ben all day and forced him into poor throws and knocked him down too many times to count. The O-line should be ashamed of themselves for this type of outing, and while the Eagles are good on defense, the Steelers today made that unit look flat out great.
Next week the Steelers are at home on Monday night to take on the reborn Ravens, who are 2-0 after trouncing the Browns. The Eagles are at Chicago for Sunday night football to take on the 1-2 Bears.
4 Comments
Leave a Reply
Show Your Team Spirit
Get Your Steelers Tickets
Steelers Gab Newsletter
Sign up to receive our Steelers Gab newsletter, and keep up to date with all the latest Pittsburgh Steelers news.
mark
September 22, 2008 at 4:31 am
Ashamed is the only word I could come up with on this “performance”. This is going to come out bad, but Im glad to see our first 2 picks in this years draft are making such a HUGE contribution for the team!! I guess they were better picks then ANY O-lineman that was available. (sarcasm off now). This was disgusting. I will feel insulted if this isnt addressed immediately and heads roll. How our O-line coach can possibly keep his job after last year and this performance is comical. As a fan I really feel insulted. I also fear for Bens career. How can the front office not demand better from the people protecting their investment? This is Tomlins chance to make a statement. Fire this coach! Cowher fired his special teams coach the day after the debacle in Kansas City after the playoff loss during the 1993 season. C’mon guys, get with it. This is also a bad time to be facing a physical and rejuvinated Ravens team isnt it? 2 seasons ago they had a blast when they almost killed Ben in the 2 games they played. Watch out Steelers!
Jay Sabo
September 22, 2008 at 2:14 pm
I totally agree except I think you turned off your sarcasm too soon and you weren’t harsh enough. AND for any of you whiny liberal do-gooders out there who think we “complainers” don’t got nothin’ better to do than whine and bitch…I’m in a masters program with a baby on the way and am a newly wed who takes care of schizophrenics for a living…I’ve got a life…Football is a hobby AND a passion and I agree with Mark, heads should roll. I’m embarrassed as a fan and I am, most importantly, afraid for Ben’s career! Look, we FINALLY got a REALLY good quarterback now. WHY, oh WHY is he supposed to drop back behind that garbage line? It’s like following up filet mignon with a fucking slurpee from 7-11! We shouldn’t feel that bad as fans, though. We’re only five players away from being indestructible. They are: LT, LG, C, RG and RT…That’s not bad….Please, just please to make us no life havin’, paraphernalia buyin’, (I’d say ticket buying but I happen to fall into that 98% that doesn’t get to see the games), black and gold bleedin’, peeps out here, ya know us, the ones who don’t matter, please fire somebody so I can feel good about my team again…even if it’s the stinkin’ hot dog vendor (you think he’s irrelevant but I saw Keymoyahtoo hanging out with him a little too friendly if ya know what I mean)….Please, when I wake up from this horrible nightmare of pass and run blocking, I want to read someone lost their job! Is that too much to ask!?!
Jay Sabo
September 22, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Oh, btw, why did we go and get mewelde moore? He catches passes out of the backfield yet we never throw it to him. Hmmm. Ben dumping down to him could alleviate some of the pass rush. I didn’t see a single screen or draw against philly either. It’s like we say we’re gonna do some fun things offensively (i.e., single back sets with handoffs A LOT of the time, dumping down to the running back, using our second big tight end in the redzone, etc.) but we never see any of this stuff from Arians. Rather we get the same old conservative, up the middle with Willie and throw to the receivers. Either Ben really is that bad at seeing and/or reading defenses OR and more probably, Arians is just plain bad at calling plays. Changes need to be made.
MARK FARESSA
September 23, 2008 at 7:17 am
thanks for the vote of confidence! I knew I would not be alone on this. Good point on not being a lberal-do-gooder with nothing better to do. I am a big part of a $12 million dollar a year company, so I also have a good job, education and even though football is a hobby, my Steelers are a passion!! they have been for 35 years!