After a having the week off, the Steelers had themselves a tough opponent today, the Philadelphia Eagles. Both teams opened up looking fairly sloppy. The Eagles had a huge chance to strike early in the first quarter, but blew the opportunity. On a first and goal play, a designed quarterback draw resulted in Michael Vick fumbling in the end zone, which Larry Foote was able to recover.
The Steelers, despite playing an unimpressive first quarter, were able to strike first. Rashard Mendenhall, in his first game of the season, had a 13-yard rushing touchdown, on a lateral type of play. Mendenhall finished the afternoon with over 100 all purpose yards and played a key role in the teams victory.
The Steelers would be able to tack three more points on before half time, on a 20-yard Shaun Suisham field goal, which made the score 10-0.
After the Steelers received to open the second half and were unable to do anything, the Eagles responded with their first points of the game. On a drive that featured two personal foul penalties, from Ryan Clark and Ryan Mundy, the Eagles would eventually punch it in on a 15-yard LeSean McCoy touchdown pass.
Not much offense was brought to the table until the later minutes of the game. Suisham hit his second field goal early in the fourth to make it 13-7 game, but that was really it until the Michael Vick was able to lead the Eagles on a successful, touchdown scoring drive late in the fourth.
The drive was easily the most impressive one all day by both teams, as it took 17 plays, and chewed up over eight minutes of clock. Two fourth down and one plays were converted by McCoy to keep the drive alive, and it would finally end on a Brent Celek two yard touchdown catch.
The Steelers would get the ball back with 6:33 left, and Ben Roethlisberger used every second of that to lead the team to victory. Mendenhall and Redman did a great job killing the clock, along with a huge third down conversion. The Steelers faced a third and four at the Eagles 38-yard line and Roethlisberger was able to find Emmanuel Sanders for the first down. Mendenhall and Redman combined 39 yards altogether on the drive, and helped set up the game winning field goal for Suisham, which came on a 34-yard field goal with no time left on the clock.
Nice win for the Steelers as they were able to squeak it out at the end. The team has a short week and plays Thursday night against the Tennessee Titans.
Photo Credits: Getty Images
