Do Steelers Have What it Takes to Hand Eagles Their First Loss?
Larry Csonka may have said it best last week when asked who he thinks could trip up the Eagles and hand them their first loss of the season.
It will be the team nobody expects said the former Dolphins running back, a key piece to that undefeated Miam team from 50 years ago because parity is so great in the NFL.
Can it be the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday afternoon when they visit Lincoln Financial Field for a 1 p.m. game that will be aired on CBS?
On the surface, it doesn’t seem likely, though the Eagles are coming off a bye, where they were no doubt told how great they were at 6-0 and they will hit the field for practice on Wednesday for the first time in more than a week.
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There is great veteran leadership on this team and their quarterback, Jalen Hurts, takes a backseat to none of it, so gearing back up after a week in which we’ve seen center Jason Kelce chug a beer in front of 46,000 Phillies fans at Citizens Bank Park during the NLCS, shouldn’t be too difficult to manage.
Oddsmakers don't think it will be a problem. They have installed the Eagles as double-digit favorites.
These aren’t the Steelers that never had a losing record in the 15 years that Mike Tomlin has been their head coach.
They are 2-5 and it looks like Year 16 will finally bring Tomlin his first losing season, ending that remarkable streak.
Pittsburgh’s quarterback situation isn’t very good.
And to think they bypassed Jalen Hurts in the 2020 NFL Draft to take WR Chase Claypool at No. 49, four picks ahead of when the Eagles took Hurts. Claypool is now reportedly on the trade block.
Ben Roethlisberger was 38 at the time, coming off an injury that had limited him to two games the year before, yet the Steelers chose to put all their eggs in that basket.
It was a top-heavy draft that year for quarterbacks, and Hurts was the last one who had a shot to amount to anything. Whether teams had evaluated him that way is irrelevant. They were wrong, and the Eagles, who surprised everyone by taking Hurts, proved right.
Hurts has won his last nine regular-season starts, which is the best active streak in the league at the moment.
With 12 touchdowns – six rushing and six passing – and just two turners, Hurts joins Tom Brady, Brett Favre, and Peyton Manning as the only quarterbacks in history to have 12-plus TD and two-fewer turnovers while leading their team to 6-0 records.
The Steelers could have used him.
They are trying to make it work with Kenny Pickett and Mitchell Trubisky.
Maybe Pickett will eventually figure it out. He has a young receiver in George Pickens, who leads them in reception yards with 338, and the two of them can grow together after both arrived in the same draft this past spring.
As it is now, though, Pickett has thrown seven interceptions in just 127 pass attempts. Trubisky has thrown two in 128 attempts.
That’s not a good sign against an Eagles secondary that already owns nine picks.
Or against cornerbacks James Bradberry and Darius Slay who rank first and second, respectively, in opponent passing rating on a minimum of 20 attempts.
Bradberry is also tied for third with nine passes defended behind the Jets rookie Sauce Gardner (12) and the Cowboys’ Trevon Diggs (11).
The Steelers' inferior offensive line hasn't helped matters nor has the early-season injury to sack artist T.J. Watt, who will miss another game this week.
Bottom line: it’s hard to see this Steelers team being the unexpected team with the ability to trip up the Eagles, as Csonka believes, but, as the cliche goes, that's why you play the games.
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Fan Nation Eagles Today and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglesmaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
