Fletcher Cox led the Eagles pass rush with two sacks and five tackles against the Steelers. Photo by Jessie Simmers / contrastphotography.com

PHILADELPHIA: The last time the Pittsburgh Steelers won a football game in the City of Philadelphia Lyndon Johnson was president, The Beatles had five No. 1 songs in the Billboard Hot 100 and the population of the world was around 3.4 billion.

On Sunday the Super Bowl-contending Steelers were facing a team with a rookie head coach and rookie quarterback and left town once again without a win.

They left without much pride at the Eagles planted a 34-3 verdict in the Steelers, a result even the Eagles were most likely not expecting.

Head coach Doug Pederson was asked if he was surprised the way his team dominated an elite team.

“I told the team way back in OTAs that it just takes a little bit of belief,” he said. “Belief in themselves; trust the process; believe in the coaches and the coaches believe in one another. That’s what they did tonight. Am I surprised? A little. But at the same time, I know that locker room, I know those guys and I know what they are building. By no means have we accomplished anything yet; the season is still extremely young. But what they did tonight just proves that they are coming together as a football team.”

The Steelers won the toss and wanted the ball. The way Ben Roethlisberger led Pittsburgh down the field it looked like a great decision.

Big Ben had his team in a great spot after seven plays earning a first and ten at the Eagles 15-yard line. But the Birds defense stiffened and the Steelers were forced to try a 36-yard field goal. It was still a good start, right?

No.

Defensive tackle Bennie Logan was able to block the attempt by Chris Boswell and the Steelers were sent to the bench with nothing to show for an eleven-play drive.

The Eagles – led by rookie Carson Wentz- responded with a seven-play drive that stalled at the Pittsburgh 11. Caleb Sturgis connected on a 29-yard field goal and the Eagles led 3-0.

The Steelers were unable to move the ball on their next drive and punted.

Wentz went back to work engineering a 12-play drive that ended with the signal caller hitting Jordan Matthews in stride with slant play and a 12-yard touchdown giving them a 10-0 lead.

The teams traded field goals with Boswell hitting from 40-yards and Sturgis connecting from 38.
The Eagles opened the second half on offense.

All Wentz did was wriggle out of a possible sack on third and eight from the 27-yard line, then scramble to his right and find Darren Sproles behind the Steelers defense. Sproles caught the ball in stride at about midfield then water-bugged his way for a 73-yard touchdown. It was a feat many in the press box (at least in my area) claimed would be the play of the year.

After the game Wentz talked about the improve play to Sproles.

“I was reading the other side of the field, somebody stepped across my face from the Steelers, and I just stepped up and turned into scramble mode,” Wentz said at his post game press conference. “I came out and saw Sproles and he just turned up the field. Anytime that you can put it in the hands of No. 43 something special can happen on any play, and he did the rest of it.”

Wentz said when he was flushed out the pocket, it became more of a schoolyard play to Sproles.
“A little bit,” he said. “We knew what the route concept was, but once you step up and I was border line about to run, it just turns into scramble mode. That’s something that we talk about a lot. We always say that a play is never dead. I like to make plays when we need to and everyone just does a great job of getting open in those situations.”

The Eagles were far from done.

Jim Schwatz’ defense continued to swarm the Steelers future Hall of Fame quarterback into what turned out to be a dreadful afternoon.

Roethlisberger was sacked four times going 24 of 44 for 257 yards, no touchdown passes, one interception and lost a fumble on one of the sacks.

His quarterback rating was a forgettable 62.4.
Fletcher Cox and Logan dominated the line of scrimmage, putting pressure on the quarterback all afternoon. Cox had five overall tackles including two sacks.

Logan had two tackles and a sack.

Cox talked about getting all that pressure on Roethlisberger:

“It’s a compliment,” he said. “We know Coach Schwartz is not going to blitz. We know he likes to rush up. We have to have four, really eight guys that are ready to rush. I think we did a great job of getting to the quarterback. He made some plays, which we knew they would make some plays. We knew he would move around the pocket and throw the ball which he did. It was just a matter of time before we started hitting him.”

Cox was asked on what it means for the defense to not allow any touchdowns.

“We still can be better,” he said. “We can grow. We’re not comfortable. That’s what I think about this team. Nobody is comfortable or patting themselves on the back. We know we can be better. We just have to take this bye week, take a little time off to come back and get ready for Detroit.”

Wentz was 23 of 31 (74.2) for 301 yards, two touchdown passes and a quarterback rating of 125.9.

Sproles caught all six passes thrown to him for 128 yards and the touchdown pass.
Rookie running back Wendell Smallwood led the Eagles with 79 yards rushing on 17 carries and a touchdown.

When the lead reached 34-3 with time running out in the third quarter, it was a wrap. The Eagles join, of all teams, the Minnesota Viking s as the only 3-0 teams in the NFC.