Return of the Maginot Line: Steelers Lose

Get ready to see a lot of this picture.

Before we get to the ugly stuff, we want to give a shout out to Patrick Bailey, who was signed to the team Sunday morning from the practice squad to replace Donovan Woods on special teams. Bailey, an undrafted free agent out of Duke who has a major in biomedical engineering, was the lab partner of one of my high school friends at Duke. Congrats on making the team Patrick!

Bailey got his name in the books by recording a tackle on special teams. He was out there on kickoff and punt returns as well, and I noticed him getting held at least once.

Now on to the ugly stuff…

15
6

Harvey Dent sneers at us as Philly wins the toss.

Reed boots a kickoff into the end zone, but Philly brings it out across the 35.

Philly comes out firing with swing passes to Hank Baskett and Tony Hunt. Westbrook gets stopped twice by Kirschke to force a 3rd and short, but Westbrook was able to grind out the yards. A holding penalty set the Eagles offense back on first down, but they converted a 3rd and 17 on a deep in route to former Michigan boy Jason Avant. Bad sign for the defense not getting off the field there. McNabb hit Hunt on another swing pass, and Hunt got rocked by Farrior, jarring the ball loose. Tomlin throws the challenge flag and…wins his first challenge of his coaching career! Apparently B-Mac came up with the ball in the pile.

The Steelers come out passing as well as Ben hits Heath right off the bat for 9 yards. Willie can’t find a crease on 2nd down, forcing a 3rd and short. Philly gets called for being offsides, giving us a free first down. Ben hits Holmes for 16 and 6 before Santonio drops one over the middle. Like clockwork, Ben goes to Hines to convert and keep the drive alive. Parker goes nowhere again, but Ben is able to find Nate Washington for his first catch of the year and Nasty Nate picks up 16, moving us into field goal range. Parker finds a crease and picks up 6 on first down. The predictability of Arians shines through as we run again, this time for nothing. Guess what’s coming now? Yup, a pass to Hines. But he can’t come up with it and it’s Jeff Reed time.

3-0

Philly comes back out throwing, as McNabb hits Buckhalter for 11 on a swing pass, then DeSean Jackson on a short route. Westbrook gets 4 yards to set up a 3rd and 2, but McNabb converts again by hitting Jackson on a short route. On first down, the defense steps it up and McNabb gets plowed by Kirschke and Foote.

Second Quarter

We came into the second quarter looking hopeful. Their running game wasn’t going anywhere, our offense had produced points on our first drive, and we had sacked McNabb to close out the first quarter. Little did we no at this point that the shit was about to hit the fan.

Westbrook darts around the end and tries to hurdle one of his linemen, but his first foot lands on his lineman’s leg and his other foot comes down awkwardly. It looked ugly, and he was done for the game. In comes Buckhalter. On 3rd and 15, with a real chance to swing the game, the Steelers give up another long conversion on the same deep in pattern, this time to Hank Baskett. Ouch. Buckhalter runs for 9 and McNabb hits Baskett to keep the drive marching. James “Some Kind of Monster” Harrison got excited and jumped offsides, giving the Eagles a 1st and 5. They go to Buckhalter twice for two yards, but once again the D can’t hold and McNabb converts the 3rd down with a short pass. McNabb recognizes the Steelers in man-to-man coverage and dumps a check-down pass to Buckhalter, who outruns Harrison then hurdles Ike Taylor to get into the end zone.

7-3

With the Eagles on the board with the lead, Jim Johnson their defensive coordinator decided to be aggressive. And you know what that means…

Ben is sacked on first down. Parker slices through for 8 on second down to set up 3rd and 4. Philly gets called for a defensive delay of game on 3rd down…I’m not sure how that happens, but hey, it gave us a first down. Maybe a punt would have been better.

Ben is sacked again as he can’t get back to the line to avoid the pressure. Ben hits Nate on second down to get to 3rd and manageable.

Ben is sacked again and fumbles. The Eagles fall on the ball. Let the frustrations begin.

McNabb hits Jackson for 18 to move the Eagles into field goal range. Buckhalter picks up 12 yards on 2 carries to get the ball inside the red zone, but Larry Foote comes up with a huge sack on first down.

McNabb goes back to Jackson, and Willie Gay comes up with a solid tackle to force a 3rd and 8, where McNabb throws his first incompletion of the game after 15 completed passes. Akers knocks it through.

10-3

At this point, you were hoping that the last drive was just a fluke and that the Steelers offense could put together a scoring drive to tie the game before the half.

You were wrong.

After two sacks, even though the second one was a 15-yard facemask, Ben goes deep for Nasty Nate, but Asante Samuel makes a better play on the ball than Nate and takes it right out of his hands.

With just under 2 minutes, the Eagles looked poised to drive down the field and score again. But the defense stopped Buckhalter, forced an incompletion, and then….

B-Mac comes up with a huge interception. Philly challenged that he was touched down so the 15-yard run-back didn’t count, but at least we got the ball back.

With a minute and a half to go and a short field, the Steelers took advantage. Ben to Hines for 8. Mewelde Moore dashes up the gut for 6 as the clock rolls down to a minute.

Again, really? Yup. Ben is sacked on first down, pushing the ball back to the 42. Ben goes to Nasty Nate again on 2nd down for 8 yards, then can’t find Hines on 3rd down. The ball is on the 36 and Tomlin sends out the field goal team after a timeout to think about it. Philly gives him a chance to re-think the decision by taking another timeout, but Tomlin sticks with it.

And Reed is money from 53 yards. He had enough to hit it from 60.

10-6

Reed hits a pop-up kick and Patrick Bailey gets the tackle on special teams. McNabb kneels to end the half.

Third Quarter

That good feeling you had after the first quarter was gone. But you were also a little hopeful and thought that maybe, just maybe, the coaches would be smart enough to make some halftime adjustments. Plus, we were only down by 4, so a touchdown would put us right back in the thick of things.

The Steelers get the opening kickoff and decide they’re going to try to establish the running game, since Parker had only 5 carries in the first half. Willie picks up 4 on first down to get us to 2nd and manageable. Ben can’t hook up with Hines and 3rd down rolls around. They can’t get the play off, resulting in a delay of game, followed by a false start on Kemoeatu. 3rd and 6 just turned into 3rd and 16. Philly brings the heat but Ben scrambles across the line for 2 yards, so it’s not technically a sack. Punt.

McNabb, who got a little dinged up on the first sack, didn’t come out at the start of the second half, so Kevin Kolb took the reigns of the Philly offense. Kirschke came up with a stop on a running play. Kolb went to pass on second down and the ball was tipped into the air. Troy gave it a Superman-like dive and snagged the ball just before it hit the ground. Philly challenged, but the interception was upheld. I bet if this had been in Indy or New England, it would have been overturned….

Steelers ball at midfield, you would think we’d do something with it. But Arians rolls out the motif offense. Run-run-pass-punt. The only difference was, with all the pressure the “Pass” was actually Ben scrambling for his life again, barely picking up 1 yard.

Kolb comes back out and turns to short passes to Jackson and Baskett to move the ball out across the 30. McNabb comes back in and hands off to Buckhalter who dashes for 7. McNabb goes to the air and hits Buckhalter for a short gain and another first down. After runs of 5 and 11 yards, McNabb throws an incomplete pass on first down. The Run D comes up with a stop on second down and McNabb throws another incompletion on 3rd down that Willie Gay almost picks off. Big Snack was hurt on the play apparently.

From deep in their own zone, the Steelers came out…throwing! To Heath! It’s about time. Witten killed Philly last week, the Steelers really should have utilized their tight ends more. First down, and we’re back to the motif offense. Run-run-trytopassbuthavetoSCRAMBLE-punt. Berger booms a 53-yarder, pinning Philly back inside their 20.

Timmons stops Buckhalter on a swing pass on first down, then Kirschke gets in on the act on second down, plugging up the run again. LaMarr “Big Stick” Woodley brings the heat and takes McNabb down on 3rd down. Punt.

The Steelers get the ball around midfield again and come out throwing. Ben can’t find Holmes or Hines on first and second down, but then hooks up with Hines for a big 3rd down conversion to keep the drive alive. Parker goes nowhere twice as the quarter winds to a close.

Fourth Quarter

The Steelers could have taken a lesson from the French and just signed an appeasement treaty. Sadly, they had to come out and play the 4th quarter, which brings us to our favorite graphic…

Ben is sacked on the first play of the 4th quarter. Colon got called for holding the guy that made the sack. Let me repeat that. Colon held the guy…and he still made the sack. Actually, the guy just blew by Colon on the outside and Colon tried to grab on to protect Ben, but still got smoked.

Berger pins them down at the 10, and you start to get the feeling the defense is going to have to score if we want to win this game.

Philly’s offense stalls and has to punt, but their punter booms a 64-yarder to flip the field on us, setting us back to the 30, which feels like the 10 for our offense.

Ben can’t hook up with Holmes…again, but hits Hines for 4 yards on 2nd down. Philly brings the heat, but Ben is able to scramble for 2 yards. Punt. Frustration city.

McNabb hits Baskett for 12 yards to get the ball across the 35, but an offensive holding penalty on the next play sets Philly’s offense back. McNabb converts two short passes to get back to 3rd and 8, but Big Stick brings the pressure, forcing a bad pass. Another great punt pins us back inside the 10.

1st down, 94 yards away from the end zone, I wonder what we’re going to do? That’s right, motif offense time. Parker loses 2. Davis around the outside for 1.

You knew it was coming. Philly brings the heat and Ben tries to get a pass off as he’s being dragged down but he’s called for some sort of grounding/his knee was down before he got rid of the ball penalty that results in a safety.

12-6

After the free kick, Philly gets some good starting field position. McNabb is throwing it all over the field and converts a 3rd and 6 to get the ball across midfield. Buckhalter goes nowhere, then McNabb throws 2 incompletions, forcing a punt. Another great punt by the Eagles pins the Steelers down at the 7.

I guess we learned our lesson last time, because they came out throwing this time, and Holmes finally pulls one down for 10 yards to get the ball out to the 17. Mendenhall comes in and drops a short pass, but comes back with a reception that he busts for 11 yards. Ben feels the heat and can’t find Holmes or Ward and another false start on Kemoeatu sets them back in another 3rd and long.

This time it’s Brian Dawkins who dives in and swats the ball out of Ben’s hand then falls on the loose ball. Ben got his hand stepped on diving for the fumble and didn’t return to the game. X-rays were negative.

With the ball already in the red zone, Philly’s offense didn’t have to do anything except waste time. They did a good job of it and Akers made another field goal, stretching the lead to 2 scores.

15-6

With Ben out, Leftwich comes in to try and rally the troops. He hits Nasty Nate on first down for a big gain to keep the faintest bit of hope alive. Two-minute warning.

Nasty Nate can’t come up with a pass as Byron feels the heat, but Byron comes right back with a big pass to Heath for 21 yards. Off of no-huddle, Byron goes right back to Heath for 17 more and the Steelers use their second timeout. Byron goes to the end zone for Nate, but Nasty Nate can’t pull it in. Byron goes right back to him and Nate picks up 9 yards, but doesn’t go out of bounds, forcing the Steelers to use their last timeout.

You knew it was coming. Byron isn’t mobile and Philly was blitzing hardcore. On 4th down, instead of kicking the field goal and giving the team a chance to stay in the game, Tomlin and Arians decide to go for it on 4th and long. Why? I don’t know…you kick the field goal here and put your team within 1 score. Then at least you can try the onside kick.

But to keep with the WWII motif we’ve got going here, Tomlin raises the white flag by going for it. Philly brings the heat and Leftwich throws a pass into the dirt short of Holmes (who would have been short of the sticks anyways). Terrible coaching decision.

McNabb comes in for the kneel-down to end the game.

These two pictures probably say it best.

We just didn’t know what hit us.

Players of the Game:
Offensive Game Ball: Jeff Reed. He hit a career-long 53-yard field goal. That was about the only highlight on offense.
Defensive Game Ball: Bryant McFadden. Filling in for Deshea, he has an interception (his 2nd in as many games) and came up with a fumble recovery.

As much as this may surprise you, the Mr. Yuck Sticker of the Game does not go to the offensive line. This one goes to the Coaching Staff. Their inability to call plays in max-protect packages that would keep their franchise quarterback out of harms way resulted in Ben getting beat up and injured. You’re paying the guy over $100 million over 8 years. Don’t get him hurt in the first year. To make a spin-off of a French joke….

How many Frenchmen blockers does it take to defend Paris Roethlisberger?
Noone knows Arians doesn’t know, it’s never been tried.

The scary thing is, you know Baltimore is going to come after us next week on Monday night. Hopefully the extra day will give the coaches time to come up with a blocking scheme that can protect Ben.

On the bright side. This is the NFL, and as the Patriots proved last year, you’re not going to win every game. And if you’re going to lose, it’s best to lose to a non-conference opponent because then it doesn’t hurt you in any tiebreaker situations.

Than being said, we really need to come up with something better on Monday night.

Potential solution(s): Heath and Mendenhall. Heath is the most under-utilized player on the team. He has the 2nd best set of hands (behind Hines) and he’s tough to bring down in the open field. We need to use him more. Mendenhall provides a great alternative to Parker. He can run hard and run through tackles and wear down a defense. It would be nice to see more of him.

The defense played great, but it was an ugly day on the offensive side of the ball. Hopefully we turn things around for next week. We’ll end with a quote from Coach.

“We didn’t deal with it. We didn’t recognize pressure, we didn’t identify hots, we didn’t run hots, we didn’t get them thrown and caught, etc”