Steelers Massively Failed in One Key Aspect vs. Eagles
PHILADELPHIA — The Pittsburgh Steelers inability to win the weighty downs were one of the biggest downfalls in Sunday’s 27-13 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles at Lincoln Financial Field.
The Steelers were 3 of 10 on third down, while the Eagles were an efficient 10 of 17 on third down. The Eagles out-gained the Steelers, 401-163, and out-possessed Pittsburgh, 39:52-20:08.
The Steelers struggled mightily on first and second down. The inability to set up manageable down and distances on third down really hindered Pittsburgh’s offense.
“In the first half, we had way too many third-and-longs,” Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson said after the game. “It’s hard to try to play winning football that way. We weren’t successful on first or second down. That’s why we had so many third-and-longs. We’ve got to be successful on first and second down to get positive plays. They did a good job. That’s a good football team. We have to tip our hats to them. They played way better than us tonight. It’s unacceptable how we played. I think we’ve got to be sharper. We’ve just got to stay the course and know that obviously we got a big week coming up. We’ve got to respond, and we’ve got to get ready to go. And that’s where our focus has to be.”
Prior to Steelers’ 11-play, 70-yard touchdown drive in the second quarter, the Steelers were 0 for 5 on third down. The Steelers went 3 of 3 on the drive on third down, which included Pat Freiermuth’s 9-yard touchdown reception from Russell Wilson.
“We were able to get a first down, I think we had like five (straight) three-and-outs. Can’t win many games doing that. Freiermuth said when asked about what changed on the second-quarter touchdown drive.
Freiermuth thought it was all about a lack of execution.
“We just didn’t execute,” he said when asked about the Steelers rushing for only 56 yards on 17 carries (3.3 average). “We just shot ourselves in the foot too many times tonight. They really didn’t do anything special against us. We just didn’t execute for some reason, early on especially. We’ll get it fixed and go into Baltimore.”
Overall, Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin thought the Steelers were below the standard in multiple facets of the game.
“First, I want to compliment the Eagles on a hard-fought victory. But as I just told the team in there tonight, we didn’t coach as well as we’d like, and we didn’t play as well as we’d like,” Tomlin said. “It’s such a fine line at this level. If you just look at this game, we had a penalty going in that forced us to settle for a field goal. We turned the ball over on the short field and got no points. There were several possessions downs on defense where we had opportunities to tackle ball carriers in the flat and we missed those tackles and that produced extended drives and those points. And so, that’s life in our business. It’s not anything mystical. It’s very fundamental. We’ve got to play disciplined. We’ve got to secure the ball. We’ve got to tackle. And we didn’t do some of those fundamental things well enough tonight to secure victory. Although it stinks, we learn, and we proceed and move forward.”
Tomlin also mentioned the inability to convert on third down was a big reason for why his unit failed to pullout a win in Philadelphia.
“I just thought that we didn’t win enough possession downs,” Tomlin said. “They possessed the ball. Like I mentioned, we didn’t tackle well enough and that’s life.”
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