The Eagles are sitting in meeting rooms this morning and starting to prepare for the trip to Pittsburgh and the battle against the 1-2 Steelers. They have to be wondering which Steelers team they will face. Pittsburgh has been hamstrung by injuries to a number of key players, so they’ve had a number of their key players missing. The guys in black and gold, who had last week off, may benefit from the return of two former NFL Defensive Players of the Year and their 2011 leading rusher.
Pro Bowl safety Troy Polamalu hasn’t played in the Steelers last two games because of a strained right calf. He’s expected back on Sunday and that could make a huge difference. For years Polamalu has been one of the keys to the Pittsburgh defense. Michael Vick and the Birds must know where he’s lining up on each and every play.
I think it says a lot that the safety has been in and out of the line up the last couple of years. It looks like he’s lost a step or two and the fact that he hasn’t played in a while might benefit the Birds. It will take a while for the safety to get into a rhythm.
Pro Bowl linebacker James Harrison is expected to return to the lineup after recovering from a recent arthroscopic knee surgery. He would help the Steelers regain their ability to consistently rush the passer and he’s a big play maker. We’ll see if he’s really healthy and ready to get back up to speed.
There’s also a chance that Pittsburgh running back Rashard Mendenhall, who has been recovering from offseason ACL knee surgery, may return to the lineup. If he does return, I doubt that he would take the entire rushing load in the first game.
I hope Safety Polamula plays for he is very succeptible to double moves and deep routes and does not the have the Speed he used to have and in fact, really has not been the Elite Player he used to be for the last 2-3 Season though he continues to make the All-Pro based on reputation which is how the NFL works .
Now LB James Harrison is another story and will be out there to do his usual mayhem I expect all 3 Players to play but obviously they are not in tip-top Football shape and will probably be in on a rotational basis for Harrison & Mendenhall have not played a snap since last Season and don’t need to be out their playing every down in their return
when was the last time the eagles beat the steelers, what was it 1997? Jason Dunn running over that dude on his way to a touchdown. Then the season went down the drain. Don’t expect a victory for the birds this weekend, we match up with the steelers almost as badly as the colts.
When is the last time the Steelers started a Season 1-3
When is the last time the Steelers lost at home after a Bye Week
When was the Last time the Steelers lost back to back games sandwiched with a “Bye” week
Steelers simpley have to win this game or they are in deep trouble
Steelers 24- Eagles 20
@stach
Eagles 15-6 over Steelers, Sept 21, 2008 which happened to be the last reg season game played against them.
Stach- Where are these bad matchups? The Steelers D is older than it has been and you have their 2 best players nicked up. Their front 4 isn’t any better than the Giants? They will have to play smart offensively like last week, but I think that they can run the ball on the outside like they did against the Giants. Shady behind Havili, and I would get Havili some carries again this week for change of pace.
If you put DRC on Wallace, then he can shut him down (to a certain extent). They will have to figure out what to do with Anotonio Brown, but he is not a game breaker. Then you look at their RBs and you have Mendenhall in his first game back from major surgery and nobody else. The X factor is Big Ben. If they can get some pressure on him, but at the same time keep him in the pocket, then they can have success.
The Steelers do need this game and it is a home game for them, but I don’t see these perceived match-up problems. No one expected the Saints or the Lions to have the records that they have, but look where they are.
The Eagles need this game too! Every game is big for AR and his squad, lets not get it twisted! I expect DRC to match up with Wallace, Nnamdi on Brown. If I had to pick one spot other than ST coverage, that struggled this past weekend, it would be the secondary. Steelers haven’t been impressive running the ball this season. Against the Steelers the Eagles have to start prepared against the pass, don’t bite on play actions, safeties should be staying home on a delay, then attacking the ball carriers. I also expect communication to be much better against the Steelers. The play of the secondary will help the Eagles get a few sacks on Ben.
This game should be a win for the eagles. The Steelers D is old and should allow our young O to go crazy depending on how the game is called. The o-line of the Steelers is banged up real bad which should allow the pass rush to get home. They need to keep Big Rape in the pocket and not let him scramble around, and need to watch the screen game. If I remember right the last game against the steelers the eagles got like 6 or 7 sacks. That would help this week!
Polamalu and Harrison are getting older and not as fast as they used to be . The Steelers defense has a lot of age. I feel the Eagles will be able to move the ball on them if they maintain balance like last week. On defense we may have a problem with their receivers unless we can handle Big Ben with a decent rush. I hope the special teams are up to snuff especially kick coverage and height and distance on kickoffs. Our safety, Colman, was drawn out of coverage by play action a few times leaving Asmo all alone
If Reid and Marty don’t f this up; i don’t see the steelers beating us. urgency notwithstanding. It all starts on the sideline. If reid wants to joint he likes of SB winning coaches like parcells, the guy he’s going against sunday, belicheck, gruden, dungy, so on he needs to statrt becoming a better game manager. If he can’t consistently figure out how to win with Vick, he should be fired. Adjustments per who you’re playing go hand in hand with adjusting to the strenghts and weaknesses of you personel. To hell with your system.
Well the good thing is that 61.1% of the time they don’t fuck it up
A big target for Big Ben has been TE Heath Miller and even Thrir FB
Or RB’ out of the backfield so the Eagles LB’s Ryan’s and Kendrick’s
Have to have their “A” games for Eagles Safeties will have to play back some to respect the speed of Wallace/Brown who are Amit’s as quick as D-Jax
Okay, let’s finally be real, why are so many of us not buying in on this team, because first, of the misrepresentations from the top, first all the crap about how Vick now studies film, he’s a changed quarterback, he now understands the position, he’s married, he’s happy, well statistically he’s worse than his career stats and far inferior to Kevin kolb, the quarterback shipped out of here, the eagles dumbed down the play book last week to account for the fact their quarterback is not as advertised, what a joke, the offensive coordinator at one point said he will be better than Steve young, what a joke
Andy Reid is still the head coach, I guarantee and will bet anyone that as long as he is here the result will be failure, fourteen seasons to prove it, he’s lucky as hell this season, dumb ass quarterback, dumb ass coach, dumb ass coordinators , eagles will not make the playoffs this season, the downfall starts this weekend when they get mauled by a real football team
Hahaah @ Jake – you are one of the most clueless posters on this site. Dumbed down the playbook? Did you watch the game? how about the replay last night? If anything the playbook was opened up and gave Vick much more reads than we seen the prior three weeks of the season. There were times where Vick had 5 options on many series. RB/TE were chipping and getting out underneath, by DESIGN! DJAX was sent on deep routes as well as quick slants. You are the dumbest of the dumbasses and have no clue what the hell you’re talking about in regards to football!
And Jake, so the Ravens and the Giants aren’t a real football team? Teams that have played a stronger schedule than the team the Eagles play this weekend and also have a better record! stop talking nonsense!
Also you need League pass so you can actually watch the games….If you are watching Kolb out in AZ, you’ll see his playbook is dumbed down! Only thing is they have Fitz, who can be moved around to any spot, hell they could even put him at TE if they wanted too! AZ team is defense first!
Did you miss me?
That was a good little trip. Good game. Very nice tribute at halftime. “Decent” game by Vick (pedestrian is the word I would use). But at least, for the first time in a long time, he was actually trying to take what was given – half his passes going to RBs and TEs.
I think what Jake is trying to get at is this continues to be the luckiest team on the planet. Lets be honest, that game was over (I mean the air went out of the stadium when the Birds only kicked the FG with 2 mins to go) had Coughlin not decided to channel his inner Reid and barf up the last 3 plays. Some of the worst coaching/playcalling I’ve ever seen – very uncharacteristic of the man) 2 or 3 forward runs up the gut and Tynes is hammering home a sub-40 yarder.
What still is frustrating is the same problems that we’ve seen over and over continued to happen.
19 points. This marks the 3rd game this season they’ve failed to hit 20. They’re one of the lowest scoring teams in the league. 5 teams have more than twice as many pts as the Birds.
Timeout use like they’re unlimited. More wasted timoeouts in the first half.
VIck running OB after getting the first on last drive. Slide inbounds after the first (could have been easily done) and NYG has to use a TO and would be left with about 1:10, not 1:49 for final drive.
Personally, I think this is a very winnable game at Pitt. Their D is horrendus. They’ve given up over 30+ in 8 of their last 10 games (the only teams they’ve held under 30 were the inept Chiefs and Jets. SO there’s a little irresistable force/immovable object thing going.
The offence that can’t score vs the D that can’t stop anyone.
The Eagles’ D has been a very impressive unit (save the lack of sacks) and should be able to hold the Steelers O in check….so we’ll see what happens.
The rest of the sched is now breaking pretty favourably…with immature Detroit, the coachless Saints imploding, and Romo transforming into December Romo 3 months early.
Would be difficult not to make the playoffs now.
Of course – Every Eagles fan knows how Vick will perform in any playoff game we make. So we’re still at square one.