The Pittsburgh Steelers lost their second preseason game of the 2014 season Thursday night to the Philadelphia Eagles and after one quick pass back through the game replay, here is just a small sampling of some winners and losers for you to discuss. I really had to reach for some winners and I could write all morning about more players for the losers section.
What an awful performance that was. Sure, it was only a preseason game, but so many things need to be fixed on both sides of the football in a hurry.
Fell free to add your own in the comments below that you think I missed.
Winners:
Heath Miller – While I haven’t looked very closely at his blocking, Miller’s five catches for 53 yards and a touchdown is worth him getting listed in the winners section. Miller looks very healthy right now and did a great job of running away from the safety on the touchdown.
David DeCastro – I’m always hesitant to list offensive linemen in the winners section without going through the game several times, but DeCastro looked like he played well in my first time back through the tape. We will have a closer look at him later on in the week.
Darrius Heyward-Bey – There were several drops Thursday night but Heyward-Bey caught every ball thrown his way. Three catches for 54 yards and a long 33-yard touchdown reception certainly made him stand out in his limited playing time. Is it too little, too late for him?
Dri Archer – I’m grasping for straws, but I really liked seeing Archer function as a pass protector during one play in the second quarter. He added three catches and a 20-yard kickoff return.
Lanear Sampson – Two kickoff returns for 74 yards is enough to land Sampson here before he is waived.
Losers:
Mike Mitchell – It sure looked like Mitchell needs to work on his tackling. In addition, he was not quick to react on a few runs that I thought he should have been able to diagnose quicker.
First And Second Team Defensive Linemen – I hate lumping a positional group together, but take your pick of players from the first and second-team defensive line. Cameron Heyward, Cam Thomas, Steve McLendon, Stephon Tuitt, Daniel McCullers and Josh Mauro were all pushed around by the Eagles offensive line way too easily.
Martavis Bryant – Bryant failed to haul in two deep passes that he should have had. The one on the free play went right off of his hands.
Jarvis Jones – Three of Jones’ four tackles were six or more yards past the line of scrimmage. Eagles left tackle Jason Peters had his way with Jones and to be quite honest with you, I’m not very surprised. He’s yet to give us a reason to think that he can beat top-rated left tackles.
Ryan Shazier – Welcome to the NFL. Shazier had trouble all night getting himself free from offensive linemen. Now you understand why it’s so important to keep the mack covered up in the Steelers defense (see above defensive linemen). Sure Shazier had six total tackles, but five of them happened eight or more yards past the line of scrimmage.
