Steelers - 16 / Eagles -14 - Thoughts and Reactions




This was a familiar sight on Sunday. Colon's Rough
Day in Pass Protection just Highlights the Steelers Issues

 
I wrote yesterday how it seemed that some Steelers fans weren't happy enough with just a win, but want every performance to be flawless.  Sure, in a perfect world, the Steelers would dominate both offensively and defensively every weekend.  However, it wasn't perfect, but it was still a Win.  I'm going to break down the game into the 5 big story lines coming out of the HUGE Steelers win vs the Eagles on Sunday.

- Penalty Issues - Lets not just talk about the 9 penalties for 106 yds against the Steelers vs the Eagles.  Lets talk about the "complete body of work" (as Mike Tomlin would say).  So far, after 4 games the Steelers rank amongst the top in the league for one of the worst statistics possible....penalties and penalty yardage.  Sure, the Steelers get the occasional 5 yarder, but they enjoy getting the big ones.  Those pass interference calls down the field, the 15 yard unsportsmanlike / unnessecarry roughness penalties, the 10 yard holdings....I could go on and on.  Look, every team is going to have an infraction here and there, but some of the Steelers penalties were downright awful.  Antonio Brown's false start, Mike Wallace's illegal formation, Willie Colon's Holding, Willie Colon's Holding, Willie Colon's Holding, Willie Colon's Holding...wait a second, that last one was declined.  It was just 3 against Colon...my bad.  The penalties need to get calmed down or else its going to be extremely hard for the Steelers to win.  Penalties did more than just put the team in a hole vs the Eagles, it negated several big plays, and THAT can be a back breaker.

- Running Game / Offensive Balance - Don't look twice, but the Steelers showed they could actually run the ball, and it wasn't against a powder puff team!  The Steelers showed a great willingness to stick to the run, and why not when you end up averaging over 4.4 yds per carry?!  This was the first game the Steelers were balanced offensively, but did anyone else notice the passing attack looked out of sync?  Was it because they weren't leaning towards the pass as much, or did the lay off have anything to do with that?  I'd venture to say that the latter is the biggest cause since the passing game got rolling in the late portions of the game.  Almost as if they were finding their stride.  Rashard Mendnehall is a difference maker on this team.  I know its just one game, but the running game looked completely different, and Isaac Redman looked comfortable in his typical backup roll.  Don't look now, but the Steelers might have just found a running game vs the Eagles.

- Miscues Can Be Killers  - Receivers dropping passes, players tripping on their way to the endzone, and even all-pro center / QB exchanges going south.  All of these can be bad signs of things to come, but the Steelers were able to persevere.  To me, the fact that they played as poorly as they did in the first half and still were able to win the game was a defining moment for this team.  Sure, it might have been luck that Michael Vick fumbled into the endzone, but the Steelers forced the fumble.  Vick didn't just throw it out there.  Needless to say, on a short week against a team that is just waiting to upset SOMEONE...the miscues have to stop.

- HUGE WIN - Did I mention that this Sunday's game was a huge win?   No one, including myself, wanted to admit that this was a must win game for Pittsburgh, but in the back of everyone's mind we all knew that was the case.  If Pittsburgh fell to 1-3 and were behind 3-2 and 4-1 Cincy and Baltimore...there would be issues clawing out of that hole.  My theory has always been to stay at least within 2 games of those teams...you get to control your own destiny that way by beating each team twice.  With the win, the Steelers are only 1 game behind Cincy and 2 behind Baltimore (both of those teams still have to go through their bye week).  This win was as big as a 4th game victory could get for the black n gold!

- Perfect at Home - With the narrow victory over the Eagles, the Steelers remained 2-0 at home.  Thats great news if you are following my formula to a 12-4 season.  Win all of your games at home (8 games) and split on the road (4 wins / 4 losses) and you have yourself a 12-4 season.  The Steelers only losses came on the road, but both were on the West Coast.  Staying perfect at home is huge because you don't want to lay an egg in front of your home crowd, but you want to have that confidence that people coming into your house are going to have a rough go at it to leave with a 'W'.  Lets hope they stay hot at Heinz Field, but start to heat up on the road as well.

Look for more coverage on the Steelers upcoming game vs the Tennessee Titans on the short week today and everyday this week!