PHILADELPHIA (93.7 The Fan) – It was on both sides of the ball, whether they couldn’t sustain drives on offense or couldn’t get off the field on defense, Philly took it to the Steelers 27-13 Sunday night.
“We didn’t coach as well as we’d like and we didn’t play as well as we’d like,” said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. “It’s such a fine line at this level. If you 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 a short field and got no points. There were several possession downs on defense where we had opportunities to tackle ballcarriers in the flat and we missed those tackles and that produced extended drives and thus points.”
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“That’s life in our business. It’s not anything that’s mystical, it’s very fundamental. We got to play disciplined. We got to secure the ball. We got to tackle. We didn’t do some of those fundamental things well enough tonight to secure victory.”
The stats back up what could have been a more lopsided loss. Eagles were 59% on third down, had it for nearly 20 minutes more than the Steelers, gained 7.7 yards per pass play and punted one time. Individually, AJ Brown and DeVonta Smith each had 100 yards receiving and Jalen Hurts was nearly flawless.
“Defense and offense below the line,” said Steelers captain Cam Heyward. “We got to learn from it. We aren’t afforded a lot of time. We have to have a memory like a goldfish. We have to move on. The clock is ticking.”
“We got to tip our hats to them, they played way better than us tonight,” said Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson. “It’s unacceptable how we played. We got to be sharper. We got a big week coming up, we got to respond.”
Wilson said they got behind the sticks too often leading to too many third and longs Sunday. Steelers were only 3-10 on third down and didn’t get a first down until a 17-yard pass play on a first down in the second quarter.
“Getting behind the sticks a lot, you are playing losing football that we,” said receiver Calvin Austin. “If we don’t beat ourselves, it’s a different game.”
“We got to stop kicking ourselves in the foot offensively,” said tight end Pat Freiermuth. “We didn’t execute well enough.”
“You can’t flinch,” Wilson said. “We got to get better and be better this week on the road.”
A win Saturday will clinch the division and make everyone forget about Sunday, but the Steelers said if they don’t learn from it, they might be bound to repeat it.