There’s a reason why the Philadelphia Eagles entered the game 6-0 and why the Pittsburgh Steelers entered it 2-5. And why the Eagles left still undefeated and why the Steelers’ season is essentially over, now 2-6 for the first time in nearly a decade. Eagles’ WR A.J. Brown took over the game with three first-half touchdowns. While Pittsburgh may have been in position on those plays, they failed to finish, and it was the difference in the game.
Tomlin spoke to the point after the game.
“Position is just a component of playmaking,” Tomlin said after the game via the team’s YouTube channel. “The finish is probably as equally as important as the positioning. And we were in position but their guy made a play and we didn’t.”
Brown scored all three of his touchdowns away from the red zone, hitting paydirt from 39, 27, and 29 yards. Brown tracked and finished the ball better than FS Minkah Fitzpatrick on the first score while he won 1v1 chances against CB Ahkello Witherspoon for his next two scores. Witherspoon would be benched after Brown’s third touchdown, replaced by James Pierre, who finished out the game until a late foot injury.
Pittsburgh took a handful of vertical shots but failed to convert. One was caught by George Pickens but he couldn’t land both feet in-bounds, while on another attempt, Pickens couldn’t finish the catch as the ball rolled away at the very end of the play. Some thought Tomlin should’ve challenged, but he opted not to throw the red flag.
“That’s the difference. That’s the minutia. They were making those plays and we were not.”
The Steelers’ offense again did very little, putting up just 13 points all game. They’re now officially the 32nd ranked scoring offense, passed by the Denver Broncos Sunday afternoon. Defensively, it’s the second time in a month the team has allowed 35+ points, torched through the air as they sold out to pressure QB Jalen Hurts and stop the run.
Pittsburgh will have the bye weeks to try to get things right. But with so much of their season wrong, it’ll take an entire offseason to even attempt to fix all of this team’s problems. After being hired in late May, Omar Khan and Andy Weidl will have their first crack at significantly reshaping the roster. They have their work cut out for them.
