Hurts puts hurting on Steelers as woes in Philadelphia continue

PHILADELPHIA — The results were as predictable as a little kid getting frightened inside a haunted house.

In a game fittingly played on Halloween weekend, the Pittsburgh Steelers visited their personal little shop of horrors on the other side of the state and had their secondary picked apart like a bunch of skeletons by Jalen Hurts, A.J. Brown and the Philadelphia Eagles.

Hurts threw a career-high four touchdown passes, finding Brown for three long scores in the first half, to lead the unbeaten Eagles to a 35-13 rout at Lincoln Financial Field.

The loss was the 10th in a row in Philadelphia for the Steelers, who last won there in 1965. While the Eagles improved to 7-0 to remain the NFL’s lone unbeaten team, the Steelers limped into their bye week with a 2-6 record, their worst record at this point of the season since 2013.

“It’s rough right now,” running back and offensive captain Najee Harris said. “It’s, obviously. We lack a lot of stuff.”

Then, Harris listed a few items that have plagued the Steelers in the first half of the season.

“We lack a lot of experience, lack a lot of discipline, accountability,” he said. “We lack a lot. We can’t go forward without correcting the little things that are affecting us.

“That is stuff we talk about every week.”

Indeed, it was more of the same for the Steelers. The offense, in rookie Kenny Pickett’s fourth career start, produced one touchdown or fewer for the fifth time in eight games, committed four pre-snap penalties and turned the ball over twice in the second half. The defense gave up six pass plays of at least 23 yards, including all three touchdown passes from Hurts to Brown and another to Zach Pascal.

“There’s a lot going wrong,” defensive captain Cameron Heyward said.

Enough wrong that the Steelers might not think they are good enough?

“No,” Heyward said before pausing. “But when you play like that, it tells on yourself. There is a dysfunction in what we’re putting on the field right now.”

Perhaps, then, the bye comes at the appropriate time for the Steelers. The only other time they got off to a 2-6 start under Tomlin, they reversed the record in the second half of the season to finish 8-8.

“There is an eagerness to get this bad taste out of your mouth,” Heyward said. “We have two weeks to really dive in and see what is going on. A lot of times you don’t get to address all the problems you want to do because you’re moving on to the next opponent. … Now we get to sit back and see what the hell is going on.”

More on the Steelers' loss to the Eagles:

• Steelers frustrated by inability to contain big plays against Eagles
• Kenny Pickett: Mental mistakes 'need to get addressed' before Steelers return from bye
• From fish market job to NFL game in 48 hours, Nick Sciba makes all kicks as Steelers fill-in
• Ahkello Witherspoon benched in return to Steelers lineup after 4-game absence

The Steelers entered the game concerned about Hurts extending plays with his legs. Instead, he beat them with his arm, throwing touchdown passes covering 39, 27 and 29 yards to Brown in the first half. He unleashed a 34-yarder to Pascal on the opening series of the third quarter to push the Eagles’ lead to 28-10.

It was so bad in the Steelers secondary that cornerback Ahkello Witherspoon, returning from a four-game absence because of a hamstring injury, was benched at halftime after being beaten on two of Brown’s touchdowns.

“There’s no excuses regarding the play that we put out there,” coach Mike Tomlin said when asked specifically about Witherspoon. “Whether it’s one of us as an individual or us as a collective.”

Pickett completed 25 of 38 passes for 191 yards and no touchdowns. He was sacked six times, losing a fumble on one of his takedowns, and he threw an interception in the second half while trying to make the outcome respectable.

The lone touchdown came in the first quarter on a fourth-down end-around pass from Chase Claypool to fullback Derek Watt. That tied the score 7-7. Yet, before getting the ball in the end zone, the Steelers had to overcome three pre-snap penalties on the drive, which lasted 13 plays.

In another sign of the offense’s inability to get big plays, the Steelers needed to run 12 and 15 plays before getting field goals from newly signed kicker Nick Sciba.

“When you’re on the field for 14 plays, you’re leaving yourself open to make mistakes whether it’s physically or mental,” Pickett said. “We need more explosive plays.”

In addition to the six sacks, Pickett was hit 11 other times on pressures. The Eagles had five sacks and nine hits in the second half after Pickett took the field facing a 28-10 deficit. It was the seventh time in the past 18 games, counting the playoff loss last year in Kansas City, that the Steelers trailed by at least 17 points in the second half.

“Something’s got to change, right?” Pickett said. “It’s insane that we do the same thing over and over and expect something different. We’ve been having these problems all year.”