This article should really be titled “Breaking Down The Steelers Offense, or Lack There of” because Sunday’s performance by The Steelers offense was almost nonexistent.

Pittsburgh went into Philadelphia with a favorable matchup with a hot 2-0 start versus a rookie quarterback in Carson Wentz, and a first year head coach in Doug Pederson. However, the game plan on offense went anything but favorable for Pittsburgh.

Forget the score – The Steelers were outdone by the The Eagles and their young quarterback Wentz in virtually every single category on offense. Most noticeably coming in the form of:

• total yards (251 to 426)
• rushing yards (29 yards to 125 yards)
• time of possession (25:04 to 34:56)
• first downs (15 to 25)

When you lose in all of those areas, it can be rather difficult to win a football game, to say the least. The Eagles had a sizable lead for a majority of the game, so they did run a lot more than the Steelers attempted to (30 attempts to 10) but Philly still bettered Pittsburgh by nearly 100 yards.

Carson Wentz and the Eagles offense had the ball for almost 10 more minutes than Big Ben Roethlisberger and crew. I won’t sugar coat it: there are very few, if any, bright spots to point out from the Steelers.

In a game where it appeared the tone was set from the start, Pittsburgh’s fortune only seemed to trend farther down as the game unraveled.

After what seemed at first to be a successful opening drive, Markus Wheaton dropped what would have been a “classic” touchdown pass from Ben Roethlisberger after buying time with his feet. Shortly after, the usually clutch Chris Boswell had a routine field goal attempt blocked. Little did we all know, but this was a sign of things to come for the rest of the match up between the (then) unbeaten PA teams.

The Steelers just never seemed to find their groove after the failed field goal attempt.

The Eagles front seven is good, very good. I can’t necessarily get upset with OC Todd Haley and company for only running the ball 9 times (10 if you count Ben taking off for that early first down) because Philly’s front seven looked that good. To me, it looked like the Steelers, and running back DeAngelo Williams, were getting nowhere in their efforts to run.

Credit that to the Eagles defense.

When you fall behind in the football game, you can’t continue to “impose your will” on a team that is beating you by multiple scores – you need to air-it-out and catch up.

Quickly.

Could Pittsburgh have done a better job running the ball? Yes, absolutely they could have; but they didn’t really have time to try anymore at a certain point. I wouldn’t have ditched the running game entirely, but I definitely understand adjusting the play calling to pass-heavy.

Unfortunately, when you become one-dimensional like the Steelers were forced to become, the opposing team can send a lot of pressure at the opposing QB. Big Ben was under fire all afternoon and it certainly did not help to lose starting guard, Ramon Foster, to an upper body injury. There were more than a few throws Ben could have made, if he had just .5 more seconds to stand in the pocket. (I count two from memory that sailed just over Eli Roger’s outstretched hands.)

Ben also missed Jessie James wide open for a would-be first down (if you can believe that – he’s 6″7).

Ben never properly set his feet.

Roethlisberger had one of his dullest days on the football field in recent memory, barely completing just over half his pass attempts and throwing for zero touchdowns. I credit a large part of that to the pressure he was under.

The receivers had a bright spot or two, but they were hard to notice in all of the frustration surrounding the game as a whole. Antonio Brown got back on track Sunday after a below average performance last weekend, posting 12 catches for 140 yards off of 18 targets from Roethlisberger. A rather attention-grabbing stat was that the next highest targeted WR only saw 4 passes his way.

To say Ben was locked in on AB may be a minor understatement.

I can’t blame Ben though, Wheaton had 3 drops playing in his first game of the season. It’s hard to trust a guy who drops a pass or two, let alone 3.

On the bright side, Sammie Coates continues to grow and excite fans. Sammie hauled in 3 passes for 50 yards which placed him 2nd on the team in both categories for Sunday’s game. Coates has now caught a pass of at least 40 yards or more in each of The Steelers first 3 games.

https://twitter.com/steelcityundrgr/status/780400745698975744

This is truly encouraging, especially because Eli Rogers also seems to continue to grow: the depth Pittsburgh has at playmaker is really impressive. Eli only caught 2 passes for 32 yards, but would have had a whole lot more had Big Ben not missed him wide open on those two occasions mentioned previously.

And another instance where Rogers may have hurt his foot:

https://twitter.com/steelcityundrgr/status/780521869451620352

Unfortunately, Rogers suffered an unknown injury during the game. Head Coach Mike Tomlin later stated that Eli is dealing with a foot injury. That’s all we know.

As for Wheaton: most people, myself included, understand “being rusty” coming back from injury and all that noise, but with Coates and Rogers developing at a nice pace, Markus Wheaton better start catching the ball when it’s thrown his way. You can make the argument that Wheaton’s drops cost us the game if you wanted to. His first drop was a touchdown (as I mentioned earlier) and the next one would have been a crucial first down.

Waking up the day after a loss of this magnitude is a foreign feeling to Steeler Nation indeed. We have dealt with losses before, but never a loss by 30 points or more in the Mike Tomlin coaching era. Hopefully this serves as a wake up call of sorts.

Joe Kuzma made a great point on his podcast that I certainly agree with: and it was that The Steelers may have been a little cocky heading into this game coming off a 2-0 start, especially when you include the win versus division rival Cincinnati.

Maybe this serves as a reality check of sorts.

It’s a cliché but any team can beat you on any Sunday, even a team with a rookie quarterback and first year head coach.

A few positives to take away from this game: it was an NFC matchup (which I tweeted immediately after the loss) and the Bengals also lost.

That’s about it.

The Ravens are now in first place in the AFC North with The Steelers at a close second.

Hopefully nothing serious comes out on the injury report about starting guard, Ramon Foster, and starting slot receiver, Eli Rogers.

Losses happen to every single team, I think the way in which we lost is what is going to sting the most about this one.

I expect the Steelers to bounce back. Week four, and the return of Le’Veon Bell are upon us.

On to Kansas City in primetime…