Recapping the Steelers' 24-23 loss to the Eagles

This is my first attempt at recapping a game since I started writing, and it's long, so bear with me. I actually sat down and watched the game (on a crappy feed) with a pen and notebook and took notes on just about every play. Of course, you miss a ton of things watching it once, but I think I was able to take note of a lot of things.

Recapping the Steelers' 24-23 loss to the Eagles Please click the link to see the full article. It's in 3 parts. The slideshows also include pictures from the game.

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The Pittsburgh Steelers opened up their preseason schedule tonight against the Philadelphia Eagles, but the success of this first venture is not the type to be decided by wins and losses. In the preseason, what matters first and foremost is health. Secondary to that is execution and situational role playing.

To that end, there were a few injuries of note during the game, unfortunately, the most severe appearing to be to fullback/tight end David Johnson, who had right tackle Marcus Gilbert fall on his right knee. It did not appear at the time that he was able to put any weight on the knee, and he may be out for the entire season with a torn ACL.

Rookie left tackle Mike Adams also suffered a less severe right knee injury, who left the game near the start of the 2nd quarter after struggling in his NFL debut. Running back Jonathan Dwyer also suffered an AC shoulder sprain. It would be difficult to consider this game a success if the Steelers have indeed lost David Johnson for the season and if Mike Adams’ progress is set back significantly due to his injury.

The following are my own observations on the game.

The Steelers lost the game 23-24 on a last minute 51 yard field goal, but the loss is meaningless in the long run. The Steelers went into the locker room at halftime with a 13-0 lead on scoring drives led by Ben Roethlisberger and Byron Leftwich.

To recap the game, the Steelers opened with a 16 play, nearly 10 minute drive that ultimately led to a 46 yard Shaun Suisham field goal. Some of the new features of the Todd Haley offense were apparent immediately with a significant amount of quick release passes to running backs and tight ends.

Included on that drive was a vintage Ben Roethlisberger scramble on 3rd and 11 that led to an across the field completion to wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders for the first down. Big Ben was sacked twice on the drive, once when Adams failed to get his hands on the edge rusher and again four plays later when left guard Ramon Foster was late out of his stance. The Steelers were 2 for 4 on 3rd down and 1 for 1 on 4th down on the drive.

Rookie 1st round guard David DeCastro overall had an impressive debut, earning few demerits. He was able to pull block several times with success, and had very few mental errors. He was slightly out-manned physically at the goal line, but it was still an impressive debut while playing with the first team offense.

Good write up. Took me about ten minutes to read it, but it was worth it.

Dodens - very well written! You're a good re-capper~

But how did the defense look? Old/Tired/Slow???? (seriously). What about Brown/Sanders?

Thanks!

I only got to see bits and pieces as the NFL channel was showing Pats**/Saints, Broncos/Giants too. None of the streams worked for me!

The link for the Examiner won't work for me! DAMN computer!

Brown and Sanders didn't see a lot of action. While they were in, it was mostly the backs and tight ends doing the work. But they did as one would expect. They both made a couple plays and called it a day. Sanders and Leftwich were on the same page for a nice 2 yard touchdown, exploiting a defensive miscommunication, after the offense got stuffed on back to back running plays.

Finally read the whole article after I rebooted the old hag computer.

Good read. Now I know where to go when I don't get to see certain games.

Steelers play on national tv next week, and i'm PUMPED!

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Steelers play on national tv next week, and i'm PUMPED

THANK YOU GOD! I guess I'm only going to get to see the national TV games. Otherwise, looks like I'm going to be relegated to listening to the audio on Steelers.com.

Hey, do they sell the regular season games for streaming like the preseason games?

Gingerchip wrote:

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Steelers play on national tv next week, and i'm PUMPED

THANK YOU GOD! I guess I'm only going to get to see the national TV games. Otherwise, looks like I'm going to be relegated to listening to the audio on Steelers.com.

Hey, do they sell the regular season games for streaming like the preseason games?

I think the "live" packages on NFL.com are for Europe users only, but they do have "rewind". It's not cheap. The streams work well depending on internet connection speed and computer strength.

You can get all the Steelers' regular (NOT post) season games for $35 on their Rewind service. Not live. Sunday games available after the SNF game.

NBC streams all Sunday-Night games at NBCSports.com.

Good write-up, Dodens! That about summed up the first pre-season game. I liked what I saw out of Rainey, Batch, McLendon, Brown, Ben, Robinson, B. Johnson, Sanders, Dwyer, and Foote.

No glaring problems that stood out as too horrible except the early special teams play and the late defensive play. Jerrod Johnson also looked confused and hesitant out there and Mike Adams struggled a bit, but overall not a bad game out of the guys we were looking at.