Steelers look super in bringing down Eagles
PITTSBURGH – The Steelers set NFL history with a 27-3 win over the Philadelphia Eagles Sunday at Heinz Field. Now, it’s on to more important things, like winning the AFC North Division and getting into the playoffs. Pittsburgh became the first team in league history to beat previously undefeated teams this late in the season with Sunday’s win. It came on the heels of an equally lopsided win over the New England Patriots and left the Steelers at 7-1 through the first half of the season.
As a result, the Steelers now are perceived as perhaps the best team in the league. Rightfully so, according to coach Bill Cowher. He said the spotlight is something the team should be getting used to.
“I think it did even coming into this week,” Cowher said when asked about being a target. “But we’re heading into two tough division road games and that’s where our focus has to be.”
“The hype is all behind New England and Philadelphia,” linebacker Joey Porter said. “But the hype should be Cleveland. This is a rivalry game and it’s a conference game. For us to have success, that makes them gear up more to come after us. So we are going to get their best shot.”
The Steelers travel to Cleveland Sunday before heading to Cincinnati. They go to each of those NFC North Division cities knowing they can play with the best the league has to offer.
“It gives us a lot of confidence that we can go out and play our brand of football against some of the best teams in the league,” running back Jerome Bettis said after getting 149 of the team’s 252 rushing yards. “We’ve got to stay as hungry as we’ve been to keep this going.”
The Steelers satisfied their hunger with a heavy dose of Bettis, who subbed for Duce Staley, but it was more a case of the offensive line dominating than anything else.
“I can’t say enough about our offensive line,” Cowher said. “For the second week in a row, they came through for us.”
“It wasn’t about me, it was about this team,” Bettis said.
The Steelers ran all the way to the end zone with the fist possession of the game. Hines Ward capped the 11-play, 80-yard drive with a 16-yard run on a reverse for the touchdown that gave Pittsburgh a 7-0 lead with 8:56 remaining in the first quarter.
Bettis ran five times for 34 yards on the drive, while quarterback Ben Roethlisberger also had a 16-yard run. The only pass was a 12-yard completion to fullback Dan Kreider. Philadelphia sacked Roethlisberger on his only other attempted pass on the drive.
The Steelers defense also played a large role in making this game seem a lot more lopsided the even a 27-3 score would indicate. The Steelers limited the Eagles to 113 yards of total offense, sacked Donovan McNabb four times and limited Terrell Owens to 7 catches for 53 yards. In the process, the Steelers limited Brian Westbrook to 17 yards rushing and the Eagles all told to 23.
“Donovan is one of those guys we knew we wanted to pressure,” Cowher said. “You can’t let him sit in the pocket or he’ll pick you apart. “And we wanted to be aware of where Terrell was at all times. We didn’t want to let them get in a rhythm because that is where a team like that can hurt you.”
Larry Foote sacked McNabb to end Philadelphia’s first possession and Pittsburgh took over again at its 36-yard line. Roethlisberger kept Pittsburgh moving with an 18-yard completion to Verron Haynes on third-and-13. He capped the drive with a 20-yard TD pass to Ward to extend Pittsburgh’s lead to 14-0 with 2:27 remaining in the first. The drive covered 64 yards in 9 plays.
Pittsburgh limited the Eagles’ offense to 2:34 of possession time in the first quarter, when Philadelphia managed only a pair of three-and-out possessions.
Roethlisberger put the Steelers ahead, 21-0, with a 2-yard TD pass to Jay Riemersma 10:51 before halftime. The score capped a 10-play, 62-yard drive that featured more running. To that point, the Steelers had run 19 times for 121 yards. Also, Pittsburgh had run 30 plays to Philadelphia’s six.
“Our best defense was our offense,” Cowher said. “When we scored on our first three possessions, there was no tendency at all to relax or let down.”
“They were better than we were in all phases,” Philadelphia coach Andy Reid said after watching his team fall to 7-1 on the season.
McNabb got the Philadelphia offense moving on its next possession, boosted by Jeff Reed’s kickoff out of bounds. The Eagles got to Pittsburgh’s 15-yard line, but had to settle for David Akers’ 33-yard field goal that cut Pittsburgh’s lead to 21-3 6:14 before intermission.
Two Pittsburgh players – Plaxico Burress and Reed – squandered a scoring opportunity midway through the third quarter, but they were bailed out by the defense.
Burress was off toward the end zone on what would have been a 68-yard scoring reception, but dropped the ball and recovered it at the Eagles’ 22-yard line while going out of bounds. Reed then missed a 33-yard field goal attempt.
The Eagles were moving downfield when McNabb was trapped and tried to unload the ball. Instead, James Farrior intercepted and returned it to the Eagles’ 38-yard line. Pittsburgh moved to the Eagles’ 24-yard line and Reed connected from 42 yards out to make it 24-3 with 2:36 remaining in the third quarter.
“That was a messed up play from the get-go,” Farrior said. “We didn’t have a defense called. I just anticipated him trying to dump it off because he doesn’t like to take sacks and I just jumped in front of it.”
Farrior limited the Eagles to another three-and-out with a second-down sack of McNabb before Haynes got a weird 5-yard punt return when an Eagles’ punt bounced back to him. The Steelers took over at the Eagles’ 43-yard line, but two plays later Roethlisberger fumbled when he ran into Bettis and Dhani Jones recovered for Philadelphia.
Reed’s 31-yard field goal made it 27-3 with 7:58 remaining and capped a 10-play, 63-yard scoring drive.