The Pittsburgh Steelers and the Philadelphia Eagles battled it out Sunday afternoon in the Battle of Pennsylvania.
The Eagles easily won the battle, crushing the Steelers in a 34-3 victory. Pittsburgh suffered injuries, struggled to drive the ball down the field and had a lackluster pass rush defense.
The loss moves the Steelers to 2-1 and second in the AFC North — the Baltimore Ravens are 3-0.
Without further ado, here are the grades for Pittsburgh’s Week 3 game against Philadelphia.
Quarterback: Ben Roethlisberger was one player who didn’t have a horrible game against the Eagles. He did all he could to help salvage Pittsburgh’s chances of closing the gap in the scoreline. However, with receivers dropping passes and Philadelphia’s strong defensive line stopping any attempts at establishing a running game, there wasn’t much Roethlisberger could do but sit back and watch. Grade: B-
Running Backs: It wasn’t your typical day from DeAngelo Williams. Williams, who had two big rushing games against Washington and the Cincinnati Bengals, had a poor outing in Philadelphia, where the Eagles’ defense held Williams to 21 yards on eight carries. Williams didn’t help much with blocking, either. On the bright side, the Steelers get Le’Veon Bell back for their Week 4 game against the Kansas City Chiefs. Grade: D
Wide Receivers/Tight Ends: Antonio Brown’s 12 receptions for 140 yards showed last week’s performance against the Bengals was a fluke (or a performance by a top-notch secondary). But there’s no ignoring the dismal performance by this group as a whole — especially the horrific play from Markus Wheaton. Wheaton, in his first game this season after recovering from an injury, dropped three passes from Roethlisberger and only had one reception for two yards.
As a whole, Brown, Wheaton, Sammie Coates, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Jesse James and Eli Rogers were all silenced by the Eagles’ secondary. Grade: D
Offensive Line: Luckily for Pittsburgh, the offensive line kept Roethlisberger from being injured in this game. But the Steelers’ offensive line was called for various holding penalties and let Roethlisberger get sacked four times. The offensive line also did next-to-nothing to help the run game. Grade: D
Defensive Line: Once again, the Steelers’ pass rush was non-existent. There got limited pressure on opposing rookie quarterback Carson Wentz and didn’t manage to sack him once. The defensive line also struggled against the rush, allowing Philadelphia to score two rushing touchdowns and giving up 121 total yards to the Eagles’ running back duo of Wendell Smallwood and Kenjon Barner. Grade: F
Linebackers: When Lawrence Timmons and Ryan Shazier left the game with injuries, it seemed like the entire Pittsburgh defense fell apart. The Steelers had to rely on Jarvis Jones (who had four total tackles) and, obviously, that didn’t go as well as defensive coordinator Keith Butler had hoped it would. Grade: D
Secondary: Pittsburgh’s secondary was scorched by Wentz and company. The first two touchdowns of the game came off receptions, with Darren Sproles’ 73-yard catch-and-run being the longest. Wentz threw for 301 yards and exposed rookie safety Sean Davis, who filled in for the injured Robert Golden. Grade: F
Special Teams: Chris Boswell might have had his first field goal attempt blocked, but that’s not on him — it’s on his blockers. Boswell tallied the Steelers’ only points off a 40-yard field goal. Jordan Berry didn’t have a bad day punting, but it wasn’t great either. Berry punted three times and averaged 55 yards, with one punt landing inside the 20-yard line. Grade: B-
What’s next?
The Steelers will host the Kansas City Chiefs at Heinz Field for Sunday Night Football, starting at 8:30 p.m. EDT on NBC.
Image credit: Rich Schultz/Getty Images
