Well, that sucked. There is some behind-the-scenes stuff happening with the blog and the servers it is hosted on and the platform and lots of technical stuff. Long story short, I’m not sure when this will actually go up because there will be some publishing delays. Not that you want to re-live this disaster any more than I do. Maybe we’d all be better off if we pretend like it didn’t happen.
First Quarter
The Steelers got the ball first and Ben was able to convert a 3rd down with a deep out to Eli Rogers to move into Eagles territory then AB takes a WR screen to get us into field goal range. Ben uses his legs on third down to move the chains again and get us into the red zone. The drive would stall out from there when Wheaton dropped a pass in the back of the end zone that hit him right in the chest and Boswell’s field goal got blocked.
That sequence pretty much set the tone for the entire afternoon. The Steelers were in the red zone and could’ve taken an early lead, but failed to put points on the board.
On the Eagles second play, Wentz hit Brent Celek short and in what would become an unfortunate motif for the afternoon, the Steelers missed a tackle and Celek got a bunch of extra yards. Shazier hut his knee on the play and without a fast linebacker in the game, Wentz found Darren Sproles on a screen who just ran past nearly the entire defense all the way down into the red zone. The Eagles didn’t do much else but got a field goal out of it.
0-3
In another trend that would emerge, the only way the offense could move the ball was to get it to AB. No one else seemed capable of getting more than a handful of yards against the Eagles defense. Ben was under great duress and floated one over Eli’s head on 3rd down.
The Eagles got a gift first down when Timmons got flagged for a late hit that even Phil Simms said wasn’t late. Wentz kept the drive alive when the Steelers got no pressure on 3rd and long and he gunned one to Green-Beckham on a deep in at midfield.
Second Quarter
For quite a while, the Steelers weakness has been defending passes to running backs and tight ends. The Eagles exploited that and the Steelers continued to miss tackles and the Eagles marched into the red zone. More players continued to leave the game with injuries as Shazier went out again, Timmons went to the locker room, Jarvis twisted his ankle, and Robert Golden pulled a hamstring. Oh yeah, and Carson Wentz hit Jordan Matthews on a quick slant wide open at the goal line.
0-10
Ben finally decided to take a shot down the field and hit Coates for a big gain down the left sideline, fitting the ball right in the window between the corner and the safety. Ben went to AB on a backshoulder throw and it looked like things were rolling with the ball in the red zone. Unfortunately things stalled out from there and Ben was “sacked” (in the grasp) on 3rd down which brought out the field goal team.
3-10
The defense continued to falter, missing tackles and taking a pass interference penalty on 3rd down at midfield. Once again, the Eagles got a flag and Phil Simms claimed he didn’t see a penalty, for what that’s worth.
The Eagles continued to just march right down the field. with Wentz scrambling for a first down into field goal range. The defense was able to keep some small semblance of hope alive by holding them to a field goal.
3-13
The Steelers can’t do anything with it and unfortunately have to punt it away with a minute and a half left on the clock. Tomlin tries to use his timeouts to get the ball back but, giant surprise, it backfires and the Eagles get a first down thanks to some terrible tackling on a tight end screen. The defense was able to come up with a stop thanks to two strong rushes from Harrison around the corner where he almost got to Wentz.
Third Quarter
The Eagles got the ball to start the half and Wentz does his Big Ben impression on 3rd down, stepping away from Tuitt and scrambling out to the right then flipping the ball over Shazier’s head to Sproles on the sideline. From there, Sproles just out runs and out-maneuvers the Steelers secondary, making them all look like fools as he takes it 70 yards to the house untouched.
3-20
Ben got things moving with a backshoulder throw to AB and Philly wasted all of our time by challenging if AB’s feet were down. LOL of course they were, it’s AB. Ben missed on a few throws, including sailing one over a wide open Jesse James and the Steelers had to punt. Eli Rogers got hurt as well.
Berry got run into on the punt so Tomlin elected to take the penalty and go for it on 4th and 5. Ben tried to hit AB on a shallow cross and it nearly got picked off but was a turnover on downs anyways.
Will Gay gives away 15 yards on a facemask penalty then Wentz goes right to the tight end on a deep out to move them into field goal range. In a story we’ve seen many times before, after gouging the Steelers through the air and spreading them out, the Eagles went to the zone read runs and Wendell Smallwood sliced right through the defense. Two carries got the Eagles to the goal line and two more shots for Smallwood punched it in.
3-27
The Steelers get a pass interference call and Ben is still out there gunslinging, hitting AB on a deep in to get across midfield. From there, the Eagles defensive line starts to take over. Ben gets sacked then on the next play gets sacked again and fumbles and the Eagles recover.
The Steelers continued to give away free yardage by taking a roughing the passer penalty when Wentz took a deep shot and got his facemask brushed. The Eagles went back to the ground from there and Kenjon Barner tore up the Steelers getting to the outside on one run then scoring on the next.
3-34
It was still the third quarter, and at this point if you stuck with the game you had to be some kind of masochist. It was a beautiful day on Sunday and there were a lot better things to do with your time than watch this slaughter. I don’t blame you at all if you turned it off at this point.
The Steelers went 3-and-out, because they wanted to get out of Philly as fast as possible, but unfortunately there was still a whole nother quarter to play.
Fourth Quarter
The Steelers actually managed to force a punt. How about that.
Ben to AB, the only way we can move the ball, gets us into Eagles territory and a facemask sets us up in field goal range. Unfortunately, it falls apart again from there as Ben gets sacked and resigns to throwing only short passes, including a short pass to AB on 4th and 14.
The defense gets off the field again, mostly because the Eagles are just trying to run out the clock so they weren’t throwing the ball.
Once again, the Steelers were able to move it out to midfield (mostly thanks to AB), but couldn’t get any further. As the cherry on top of this shit sundae, Ben threw an interception when he tried to go long.
The Eagles basically just ran out the clock with Smallwood runing to the outside and getting to the corner. The Eagles mercifully ran about 4 minutes off the clock and that was pretty much it.
No game balls this week, this game was balls.
See you Sunday Night at Heinz to take on the Chiefs, who are basically just like the Eagles as Doug Pederson was Andy Reid’s protege.
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