Airing of Grievances: Steelers standards sink so far that blowout in Philadelphia seems expected

Fortunately for the Steelers, as heavy underdogs, their 35-13 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sunday didn’t go all that much worse than expected.

Unfortunately, it just went — well — exactly as expected. That’s how much the Steelers have fallen and how good the 7-0 Eagles have gotten.

The 2-6 Steelers were thoroughly outplayed. They couldn’t handle Philly’s pass rush. The Eagles hit them for big plays. Philadelphia’s offense ran when it needed to do so, went deep anytime it wanted, got in front early and sat on the lead.

Early in the fourth quarter, the Eagles had their backup quarterback in the game. Jason Kelce was wearing a Halloween mask on the sideline. And the fans were chanting, “Let’s go, Phillies.”

I guess the Steelers weren’t exactly perceived as much of a threat.

A bye week is next. So let’s get all the venting out now. Here is this week’s “Airing of Grievances” after yet another humiliating Steelers defeat.

Sour start

The Steelers got the ball first to open the game. It didn’t go well.

Najee Harris tried a run. It went nowhere. Kenny Pickett tried to pass on second down. He was almost sacked but scrambled back to the line of scrimmage. On third down, Pickett was sacked by Haason Reddick for an 8-yard loss. Then they punted.

.@Haason7Reddick checkin' in EARLY#PITvsPHI | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/ElU41vSkre

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) October 30, 2022

That was the first of three three-and-outs in the first half. Aside from that, the first offensive sequence was a total success.

After the punt, the Eagles converted a third-and-1 and a fourth-and-2. Then quarterback Jalen Hurts hit receiver A.J. Brown for a 39-yard touchdown.

GET THE CAPE#PITvsPHI | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/INFwctCQ4t

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) October 30, 2022

Nuthin’ like giving the NFL’s lone unbeaten team a lead right off the bat.

Brown delivers

That was the first of three touchdowns for Brown … in the first half.

The other two looked nearly identical, down the right sideline, beating Ahkello Witherspoon both times.

.@JalenHurts @1kalwaysopen_ again #PITvsPHI | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/lCr5oWZNNB

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) October 30, 2022

HIM#PITvsPHI | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/iPzJw3GsnF

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) October 30, 2022

Wow. Throw the ball deep down the field and let your receivers make plays. Gee, what a concept!

Brown ended up with six catches for 156 receiving yards on the day, plus three touchdowns. His longest catch went for 43 yards, and that wasn’t even a score. His touchdown catches were from 39, 29 and 27 yards. Hurts was 19 of 28 for 285 yards and four touchdowns with no interceptions. That was good for a passer rating of 140.6.

“We’ve got to put a lid on it. If you don’t put a lid on it in the NFL, you aren’t giving yourself a chance to play,” coach Mike Tomlin said. “I thought it was a domino effect from that point. I thought our eyes weren’t in the right place.”

The first four Eagles touchdowns were converted without needing a red-zone snap. Their fifth came on a 11-yard run from Penn State product Miles Sanders. It was Philly’s only red-zone snap of the day.

Wrong yellow towels

Those weren’t terrible towels all over Lincoln Financial Field. Those were penalty flags. And lots of them.

The officiating felt imbalanced, especially in the first half, when the Steelers got eight penalties, and the Eagles had only three (they wound up with eight).

One example stands out when there was a ticky-tack offensive pass-interference call against George Pickens that wiped out a reception. Then, in the second half, Diontae Johnson got his arm held and was tripped.

The Steelers were hit for nine penalties (60 yards). A lot of them were pre-snap errors. Things like delay-of-game calls on the offense. The special teams had an illegal procedure call on a kickoff. Kevin Dotson got yet another illegal man downfield call. Chuks Okorafor wasn’t on the line of scrimmage for a snap.

“We were too penalized. I’ll look at those penalties. I thought some of them were questionable, but that’s life,” Tomlin said.

The refs definitely weren’t on Pittsburgh’s side for this one. But Tomlin’s team brought a lot on itself.

Consistently ineffective

The Steelers offense continued its amazing run of inefficiency.

Look at the first half. They had the ball for 18 minutes, 4 seconds out of the first 30. That yielded 10 points. They were averaging just 3.7 yards per play over the first two quarters. Conversely, the Eagles had 21 points in 11:56.

Matt Canada’s offense has this annoying habit of either going three-and-out or holding the ball forever and doing nothing with it.

The Steelers had two field-goal drives. One consisted of 15 plays, covered 64 yards and lasted just under seven minutes. The other lasted 12 plays and covered 45 yards in 5:11. That’s 27 plays and 12 minutes without a touchdown.

In terms of those three-and-outs, the offense had three more. That’s 28 on the season, a category the team led leaguewide coming into the weekend. And their 15 points per game is now the lowest in the NFL, 0.1 points per game behind the 31st place Denver Broncos.

Pass protection problems

The Steelers offensive line had been better than expected the last few weeks, especially in terms of pass protection.

They had yet to allow an opponent to have four sacks in a game. That changed Sunday. The Eagles had six on the afternoon.

“The secondary is playing soft. The four-man rush has their ears pinned back when you are down multiple scores,” Tomlin said. “That’s just how ball goes. That’s why the games need to be close to keep everything at your disposal.”

Javon Hargrave had two sacks, including one that forced a fumble.

We love takeaways. -Eagles defense#PITvsPHI | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/I3COpT9j9o

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) October 30, 2022

The Steelers should try drafting guys like Harg … wait a minute.