On a day the offense finally got things going, the defense couldn't get a stop.
Welcome to the life of a bad football team.
The Eagles are now 1-3-1 following their 38-29 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, a game that came with plenty of positives on offense, but will leave everyone questioning all week what Jim Schwartz and the defense was doing.
There will be plenty to get into from this game, but here are some initial thoughts from the loss:
Carson Wentz:
*** Wentz made an awesome play on 3rd-and-3 midway through the second quarter, ducking from an oncoming defender that should have brought him down, keeping his eyes down the field and finding receiver Travis Fulgham for the first down. The impressive play got the Eagles a fresh-set of downs.
*** Holding onto the ball too long remains an issue for Wentz. He took a sack he could have avoided by throwing it away with under two minutes to play in the first half. Wentz had plenty of time to get rid of the ball, but instead held onto it and was taken down for a five-yard loss by Cameron Hayward.
*** Wentz now has an interception in every game this season after throwing his 8th of the year in the third quarter. The pass, intended for tight end Zach Ertz, went right into the hands of cornerback Steven Nelson. It is hard to kill Wentz for the interception, as Ertz was knocked off his route on the play, which resulted in him not being in the spot Wentz was expecting him. Still, it was another interception by Wentz that put his defense in a bad spot.
*** Wentz did have a few nice throws. One of his best was an eight-yard touchdown to receiver Greg Ward midway through the third quarter, a pass Wentz lofted off of his back foot right into Ward's hands in the right side of the end zone. The touchdown came in a big spot, as pulled the Eagles to within 31-22, and helped get some of the momentum back from the Steelers.
** Jalen Hurts had his first pass attempt of the season, completing a 18-yard pass up the middle to tight end Richard Rodgers at the start of the fourth quarter. It was a nice pass by Hurts, and it was a big gain.
*** Wentz had his best game of the season. After a brutal start to the year, the arrow is once again pointing up on Wentz, which for this franchise right now is more important than whatever the scoreboard says at the end of the game.
Eagles Receivers:
*** Started John Hightower, Travis Fulgham and Greg Ward at receiver — not J.J. Arcega-Whiteside even though he was active.
** The Eagles might have something in Travis Fulgham. Fulgham seemed to be Wentz's favorite target, as he looked for him routinely on big downs, including a 20-yard completion on 3rd-and-17 at the end of the first half. Heading into the game, the Eagles leading receiver had 146 yards (Greg Ward). Fulgham nearly topped that (135 yards) in three quarters, and did top it with a catch at the start of the fourth quarter that gave him 148 yards. Fulgham was unstoppable, and the Eagles' offense moved up-and-down the field for long stretches of the game because of it. Not many, if any, receiver has dominated a game in recent memory like Fulgham did on Sunday.
*** The Eagles receivers deserve plenty of credit for helping to spring Miles Sanders free for his 74-yard touchdown. Both J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, Fulgham and Ward had key blocks down the field to help break Sanders free. One benefit of playing the young receivers? They give max effort in run blocking, something veterans sometimes don't do.
** Arcega-Whiteside made a catch! The second-year receiver had his first catch of the season with just seconds remaining in the first half, pulling in a 37-yard reception down the field. Sadly, the pass ended up not mattering, as the clock hit zero before the Eagles could snap the ball.
** Hightower could have had a touchdown at the end of the first half when Wentz threw a nice ball into the back of the end zone from about 50-yards out, but Hightower seemed to loose it and couldn't bring it in.
Eagles Running Backs:
*** Miles Sanders is so explosive with the ball in his hands, and he showed it on a 74-yard touchdown run with 19 seconds to play in the first quarter. The play was blocked great by the offensive line and the receivers, but it was Sanders who made it a touchdown, making a defender miss in the box and showing breakaway speed to get into the end zone.
Eagles Offensive Line:
*** It was not a good start to the game for the Eagles' young offense line. TJ Watt came away with a sack on the first drive of the game, bringing down Wentz on third down to force the punt. Watt got the sack, but Matt Pryor, Nate Herbig and Jordan Mailata were all beaten badly on the play.
** Lane Johnson was carted off and into the locker room with just under five minutes to play in the third quarter. He has had trouble staying on the field this season with an ankle injury, and at this point, you have to wonder if he needs to take a few weeks to try to fully recover instead of playing through the injury.
Eagles Defensive Line:
** The line got off to a hot start, getting a sack on the first drive of the game when basically the entire line got pressure, and Derek Barnett brought down Ben Roethlisberger with the help of Fletcher Cox.
** After a strong start, however, the pressure wasn't great for most of the day. Ben Roethlisberger had plenty of time in the pocket as the Steelers went up-and-down the field, scoring on five-straight possessions — four of which were touchdowns. That doesn't all fall on the defensive line, but the Eagles invested heavily in the defensive line for games like Sunday, and they weren't the dominant unit they needed to be.
Eagles Linebackers
*** Shaun Bradley got some snaps on the goal line on the with just over two minutes to play in the first quarter, and made a touchdown-saving tackle on the one-yard line.
*** Duke Riley made one of the biggest plays of the game when he knocked the ball out of Steelers tight end Eric Ebron's hands with just under seven minutes to play. The forced fumble was recovered by Cre'von LeBlanc on the Steelers' 49-yard line, and gave the Eagles the ball back down 31-29 with just under seven minutes to play.
*** Nate Gerry seemed to be in coverage on the Steelers' game-winning touchdown, a 35-yard touchdown to receiver Chase Claypool. It isn't clear if Gerry was responsible for Claypool, but if he was, that is on the defensive play call, not Gerry.
Eagles Secondary
*** Darius Slay had a huge hit on the second series of the game, drilling Dionte Johnson in the backfield for a four-yard loss. The concerns about Slay's tackling were fair coming into the season, but it hasn't been an issue so far, and wasn't on Sunday.
*** Slay was called for a pass interference call with just over two minutes to play in the first quarter, giving the Steelers the ball on the seven-yard line. The call was not only a bad one, but it was late. Bad job by the refs on that play. The Steelers went after Slay all day, and although it had mixed success, it is interesting they weren't afraid to target him.
*** Tough snap for Jalen Mills on Steelers receiver Chase Claypool's 32-yard touchdown in the second quarter. Mills got beaten at the line of scrimmage, and Claypool ran freely from there across the middle for the touchdown. The score gave the Steelers a 14-7 lead and took away the momentum of the Eagles' touchdown on the previous possession. Slay was flagged again — correctly this time — for pass interference in the 2nd quarter.
*** Cre'Von LeBlanc had a rough day. He gave up a 12-yard completion to JuJu Smith-Schuster on a Steelers' field-goal drive in the second quarter, then missed badly on a 3rd-down tackle that would have kept Eric Ebron short of the first down on the next drive. The Steelers scored a touchdown three plays later for a 24-14 lead at the beginning of the third quarter. He did, however, come up with a huge fumble in the fourth quarter, giving the Eagles the ball down just two with just under seven minutes to play in the game.
You can reach Eliot Shorr-Parks on Twitter at @EliotShorrParks or email him at esp@94wip.com!
