Since early in the Bill Cowher era, the third preseason game has been the Steelers “dress rehearsal” for the regular season. Mike Tomlin has followed suit, and he went as far as to say he was looking testing the no huddle in a hostile environment.
- In the first big test of the 2014 the Steelers came up small. Very, very small.
The offensive line gave Ben Roethlisberger good protection, yet he was off target and inaccurate, although Antonio Brown and Heath Miller did save a couple of his cookies from the fire. Justin Brown, the “OTA sensation” was out of place drawing Roethlisberger’s ire. Derek Moye dropped the one pass thrown his way.
- As bad as the offense was, the Steelers defense was worse.
Nick Foles had all night to throw – neither Jason Worilds (before he got injured, again) nor Jarvis Jones generated any pressure, and shredded the Steelers defense despite missing on several throws. Ike Taylor and Cortez Allen were both flagged multiple times.
- But worse yet Philadelphia was more physical than Pittsburgh.
Both Michael Mitchell and Ryan Shazier, supposedly two key upgrades to the 2014 edition of the Steelers, missed easy tackles that then went for long gains.
- To his credit, Mike Tomlin refused to use the arrest of Le’Veon Bell and LeGarrette Blount as an excuse for his team’s poor play.
But the truth is the Pittsburgh Steelers looked like they were playing in a purple haze vs. Philadelphia.
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