Game Recap: Week 3 Pittsburgh Steelers v Philadelphia Eagles

Final score, Eagles win with a dominant display, 34-3.

What a surprising win by the Eagles at home, against a very talented and strong Steelers team. The Eagles lead by rookie Carson Wentz, came out and completely dominated the game on both sides of the ball. Wentz looked exceptionally comfortable in the pocket, rarely receiving any pressure, and not getting sacked once in the game. He finished the day completing 23 from 31 attempts, totalling 301 passing yards and one passing touchdown. This offence was lethal, constantly applying pressure to the right areas of the Steelers defense, Wentz looks like he is the real deal.

Even with Ryan Matthews sidelined early in the game with a reoccurring ankle injury, the ability of Wendell Smallwood to come into the game and shoulder the load, was impressive. Smallwood finished the day with 79 rushing yards and one touchdown. The ability of Wentz to find the open man, completely gutted a Steelers defense that suffered a number of injuries in this game. Wentz was nearly flawless in his execution today, at one point, whilst being pressured he sidestepped a defender, to lob a perfect pass to Darren Sproles, in which Sproles then proceeded to take 73 yards for a touch down.

The Steelers offensively just couldn’t seem to get anything going, against a revamped and energised Eagles front. The Eagles with new defensive coordinator, ex Lions head coach Jim Schwartz, have turned into a very capable unit. Recording four sacks on the day against Big Ben, Fletcher Cox and Brandon Graham seemed to be constantly pushing the pocket backwards and making life for Ben difficult. Credit must also be given to this Eagles secondary that has been a weakness for them in the past, whilst they still did allow Antonio Brown to record 140 receiving yards, they shut down virtually every other option for Big Ben. Antonio Brown is a football freak, the best receiver in the game, therefore I think the Eagles did a good job of keeping him out of the end zone, as well as forcing Brown into difficult catches.

The biggest factor that won the Eagles the game for them today, was their ability to stop and shut down the running game of the Steelers. The Steelers for the past few weeks have been running all over defences, yet this was not the case today. With DeAngelo Williams spluttering to a season low of 21 rushing yards, the running game was almost non existent for the Steelers, especially when they were trailing by 34 points heading into the final quarter. In Markus Wheaton’s first game back, he dropped a number of crucial catches that would have enabled the Steelers to keep drives alive, outside of Antonio Brown this Steelers offence looked to have been neutered by a smart game plan from the Eagles defense.

Not enough can be said of Wentz in this game, hitting seven different receivers, he looks at home in this West Coast offence. The Steelers just couldn’t manage to get any pressure to Wentz, and looked lethargic in coverage, making it easy for Wentz to find the open receiver. A comprehensive victory for the Eagles at home, Philadelphia fans will be happy with the way Wentz has transitioned into the NFL. On the flip side, the Steelers need to get the running game moving, this will be helped with Bell coming back from a suspension, yet their defense needs to start creating pressure and turnovers, if they want to be playing football in January.