In the knee-jerk reaction world we live in, opinions can flip at the drop of a hat. One bad game, and Rex Ryan can be calling for Justin Fields to replace Russell Wilson again. Herm Edwards is taking a more level approach and isn’t panicking too much after the Pittsburgh Steelers lost to the Philadelphia Eagles.
“I’m not concerned in the fact that they went on the road to play a Philadelphia Eagles team that might be the best team in the NFC. They’re right there with the Detroit Lions,” Edwards said via ESPN’s SportsCenter on Sunday evening. “They go to Philly and play ’em until the fourth quarter. Philly finally makes some plays in the fourth quarter. Hard-fought game…Don’t count the Pittsburgh Steelers out. I mean, [if] they can go on the road and play like this, they have a chance of winning in the playoffs.”
For as bad as the game felt, the Steelers managed to pull within four points by halftime and were rolling towards another scoring opportunity to tie it up late in the third quarter until Najee Harris fumbled. There’s a world where the game could have been tied up entering the fourth quarter. Things went very sideways from that point forward, but the Steelers still had themselves in position to compete until very late in the game.
The Eagles are on a 10-game win streak and have a very good chance at becoming the NFC’s 1-seed with a first-round bye. Of course the Steelers need to be able to beat them if they want to achieve their ultimate goal of winning the Super Bowl, but there’s no shame in losing to a team of that caliber on the road.
As for some of the specifics of how they lost – it wasn’t great.
The Steelers had their worst time of possession performance in over 20 years, and a litany of other ugly stats. That was without their top offensive weapon, George Pickens, and without a couple key pieces on defense in DeShon Elliott and Larry Ogunjobi. They also lost T.J. Watt and Donte Jackson during the game. That’s a lot to overcome against a very healthy Eagles team.
Is it time to panic? Probably not yet. If the Steelers win this week, they will have secured the AFC North division and at least one home playoff game in the process. They would then have plenty of time to get healthy during two relatively inconsequential games to finish out the regular season.
