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43 years later, Steelers looking to win in Philly

43 years later, Steelers looking to win in Philly At least during the lifetime of any of their current players.

PITTSBURGH — In only a week's time, the Pittsburgh Steelers will go from playing in an opposing city where they almost never lose to one where they've never won. At least during the lifetime of any of their current players.

After beating the Cleveland Browns for the 10th consecutive time, the Steelers (2-0) travel across Pennsylvania on Sunday to play in Philadelphia (1-1) - a city where they haven't won in eight games or 43 years, or two stadiums ago for the Eagles.

"Really? 1965? I wasn't even born yet," wide receiver Hines Ward said Wednesday. "What happens then, that's history. It's definitely going to be a challenge, there's no question."

Talk about ancient history. The Eagles played in Franklin Field in 1965; the Steelers never won any of their three regular season game in Veterans Stadium, during irregular appearances dictated by a now-abandoned NFL scheduling format in which AFC teams sometimes didn't play in NFC cities for years. They have yet to play in Lincoln Financial Field.

To these Steelers, the Eagles will be a difficult enough team to beat, regardless of their own franchise's terrible history in Philadelphia. Despite losing Monday night in Dallas, the Eagles are second in the NFL in scoring (37.5 points per game) and Donovan McNabb is second with 642 yards passing and DeSean Jackson is fourth in receiving with 216 yards.

Despite the Steelers' infrequent trips to Philadelphia and the number of fans they have in central and northeastern Pennsylvania, they expect the atmosphere in Philadelphia to be as anti-Steelers as it was Sunday night in Cleveland. There, the Steelers squeezed out one Ben Roethlisberger-to-Ward touchdown pass and a field goal on a rainy, windy Sunday night to win 10-6.

They are certain it will take many more points than that to beat the Eagles, who face a second important game in a seven-day span.

"It's going to be crazy in Philly. It's probably worse than in Cleveland; I think they don't like us more than Cleveland doesn't like us," running back Willie Parker said. "It's going to be a hostile environment and a physical game."

The Steelers have spent much of the week answering questions about quarterback Ben Roethlisberger's sore right shoulder - whether it is separated (technically it is, because the team's diagnosis of a sprained AC ligament is a mild separation) or if it isn't (as coach Mike Tomlin argues).

Roethlisberger flipped the ball in practice but did no intensive work, the same regimen he had the previous Wednesday. He is expected to go through a full practice by Friday.

The quarterback seems humored by all the attention being paid to an injury he believes is insignificant.

"I'm not sure where everything came from, but you know what? I'm not going to talk about it," he said. "It's not worth talking about. I'm healthy and we're going to go play football."

As Roethlisberger and linebacker Larry Foote said, almost no NFL player - unless he's not playing - is 100 percent healthy after the season opens.

"Sometimes when you're home watching TV, you get worried because you haven't seen Ben and you don't known the updates, and the first thing guys do when they come in and go to the training room is ask, 'Is Ben all right? Is Ben all right?' Then everybody says he's fine," Foote said.

Ward professed to being even less interested in his quarterback's injury than that.

"We're not worried about Ben's shoulder," Ward said. "As players, we know he's going to be there on Sunday. ... He's going to be ready and be well-prepared. It's really irrelevant to me (whether he's hurt). Only he knows he's hurt. We don't really care."

Notes:@ LG Chris Kemoeatu (ankle) did not practice, though he described the injury as minor. It may have been caused when 350-pound Browns defensive lineman Shaun Rogers rolled across it. ... LB LaMarr Woodley on how the Steelers will shut down McNabb's deep throwing: "We're going to go in there and we're going to put pressure on the quarterback. We're going to hit the quarterback a few times and, hopefully, he'll make some bad decisions." ... The Steelers may use both Nick Eason and Orpheus Roye to replace injured DE Brett Keisel. ... DB Troy Polamalu doesn't believe he deserved his AFC defensive player of the week award. Polamalu had a key interception late in the first half in Cleveland and made four tackles.

By ALAN ROBINSON- AP Sports Writer

 ,the Steelers never won any of their three regular season game in Veterans Stadium,and They have yet to play in Lincoln Financial Field.

i wasnt aware of all that to be honest , cool , go eagles - eagle_man

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My fondest memory of an Eagles-Steelers game

2004,..Steelers just stopped the Pats winning streak,…and hosted the undefeated Eagles,…We beat you guys like 38-3 or some nasty number. It was sweet.

by ismail on Sep 17, 2008 11:16 PM EDT   0 recs

but you guys made it to the superbowl,.so i guess you had the last laugh

by ismail on Sep 17, 2008 11:17 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

My fondest memory will be when we embarrass the Steelers this week and truly reveal the AFC to be incredibly weak this year.

Destroyer of Subject Lines :3™

by yomjoseki on Sep 18, 2008 12:35 AM EDT   0 recs

your fondest memory is of something that never even happened? I guess that makes sense for an Eagles fan. You guys are a little thin on good memories.

by ismail on Sep 18, 2008 1:31 AM EDT to parent up   0 recs

I meant trash talking

Simply because I dont see any way they beat us this weekend.
Our run D seems to vastly improved and I dont think Ben can really throw the ball.

I dont think their D can hold us under 20 and I dont see them scoring that many

http://vimeo.com/1590229

by 700 Level on Sep 18, 2008 10:04 AM EDT   0 recs

gotcha… yeah, if our run D plays like the first two weeks, we should be okay. As long as 5 stays upright and cuts down on the few bad throws last week

by foos05 on Sep 18, 2008 10:13 AM EDT to parent up   0 recs

i'm worn out on trash talking

last week was all i could handle for a while

by eagleyosh on Sep 18, 2008 10:16 AM EDT to parent up   0 recs

Seriously, we’re coming off of a browns game ( a team you’ll soon have something in common with ), so we’re a bit worn out.

700 knows we can’t even trash talk anyhow.

And besides, your team is good. Our team is good. We’ll see how it plays out – I think you guys are definitely underrating our offense, but we’ll see.

by steelguy99 on Sep 18, 2008 10:20 AM EDT to parent up   0 recs

you mean we’re going to draft a homophobic back up quaterback from Notre Dame? I missed that one… Thanks for the heads up!

by foos05 on Sep 18, 2008 10:26 AM EDT to parent up   0 recs

"I dont think Ben can really throw the ball."

Please clarify your statement. Is this because of his shoulder injury, or just in general?

If it’s just in general, what would lead you to that conclusion?

"It was an attrition football game and you know we like that."

by showtime on Sep 19, 2008 7:44 AM EDT to parent up   0 recs

It must be him leading the league in passer rating over the last few years. Or his highest YPA for any current QB. One or the other must certainly indicate he can’t throw.

Guns don't kill people. Lamar Woodley kills people.

by BostonWahoo on Sep 19, 2008 9:21 AM EDT to parent up   0 recs

i think that he means

that if we stop the run, and the game is in ben’s hands, he doesn’t know if he’ll be able to throw them to a victory. he does have good numbers, but he is in a run heavy offense. he does what he’s asked, but he’s not asked to take control of the game and win it with his arm, it seems based on his stats. for example, mcnabb has more than twice as many yards (642 to 316) and twice as many attempts (70-33) than ben. it’s clear that mcnabb can take the ball in his hands and win it with his arm. based on ben’s numbers, he throws it well when asked, but he’s not really asked to do this…he asked to turn around and give it to willie parker and mendanhall (55 rushes for pitt in 2 games). this is not to say that i think he’s bad, i’m just trying to explain what i think 700 was getting at.

by eagleyosh on Sep 19, 2008 10:39 AM EDT to parent up   0 recs

thats what we call ...

a product of the system ladies and gentlemen.

by Whodie126 on Sep 19, 2008 1:24 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

Ah yes.

“The system.”

The last bastion of those with no hope of making a point.

As much as the Steelers “system” may improve Ben’s stats (and someone will have to explain to me how the “system” improves his passer rating or YPA), McNabb must surely see a similar or greater benefit, not being asked to throw downfield, but to dink and dunk 3, 4, 5, 6 yard patterns. Explain to me, whit your QB with his all powerful arm only asked to throw short-to-midrange passes most often, how then is his career completion pct at 58.8? Ben, not being asked to throw often, has a 63.5 completion rate.

DMac has a career YPA of 5.9 (includes sacks). Ben’s is 6.8. DMac’s career passer rating is 86.3, Ben’s is 93.5. How are these things influenced by the “system”? Does the system make those throws for him at a consistently higher rate than McNabb? Of course not.

McNabb makes better decisions overall, with a remarkable 2-1 career TD-Int ratio. But the system does not prop Ben up. He gives the Steelers the flexibility to make plays when they need him. He has carried the team for whole games. “The System” prevents him from throwing 30 times a game, and accumulating 4000 yards a season, but thats where its influence stops.

Guns don't kill people. Lamar Woodley kills people.

by BostonWahoo on Sep 19, 2008 1:51 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

system

or perhaps the system the eagles use allow teams to know that we’ll more than likely throw, so they play the pass more, where they know the steelers will likely run, so they’ll play the run more, opening things up for ben….
it’s kinda why on second and fourteen, we can give it to westbrook for 15 yards. no one expects us to run then, so there is more room to run.

also….mcnabb airs it out quite a bit…he has passes of 60, 52, and 90 yards this year. over his career, mcnabb has 11.65 yds/attempt, and ben has 8.15 yds/attempt. when they actually throw it, mcnabb averages 3.5 yars more per attempt. this gives a better idea of the types of passes they are intended to throw because if they got sacked, it means they obviously didn’t throw the ball, so we have no way of knowing if it was a bomb or just a dink and dunk.

i got my stats from nfl…total yards passing over attempts listed. adding in sacks is manipulating the stats. mcnabb plays in a pass heavy offense, of course he’ll be sacked more. ben plays in a run heavy offense, which explains why he has been sacked 1/2 as many times as mcnabb. that was pretty sneaky though

by eagleyosh on Sep 19, 2008 2:41 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

Everyone knows that the run sets up the past, when you are a run based team and successful at it which the Steelers always are then you can work off of play action better. Ben is asked to throw in situations that make him more successful to complete the pass. McNabb is asked to throw often and make the correct decision to go with a short past (ie our run) or throw the bomb. This places the game more in his hands than say Ben Roethtoomanylettersinmynameberger. Also,

not being asked to throw downfield, but to dink and dunk 3, 4, 5, 6 yard patterns.

I’m hoping this was a joke but I’ll address it anyway. You see there are these things called pass plays. They have several options, it is the QBs job to survey the field, analyze the options and choose the best one. When McNabb “dink and dunk” it it is usually because nothing was open downfield and it’s better to get 3, 4, 5, 6 yards than take a sack or throw it away. These generally take the place of our running plays.

Listen Ben is a good QB I liked him at Miami-Ohio and was a fan when he came out, but he has had better recievers than McNabb, Burress, Ward, Santonio Holmes is becoming a go to guy. I don’t need to name some of the scrubs McNabb has had with the exception of one T.O. year he has never had a true wideout near the calibur of Ward.

So yes Ben is the product of the system, put him on the Eagles and he would struggle.

by Whodie126 on Sep 19, 2008 7:22 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

you have a point

Freddie Mitchell did suck :)

Bill Belichick said of Mitchell, “[a]ll he does is talk. He’s terrible, and you can print that. I was happy when he was in the game.”

Sorry I wikipedia’d the dude to make sure I got his name right and that qoute was too funny not to share with everyone.

"It was an attrition football game and you know we like that."

by showtime on Sep 20, 2008 9:12 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

Its not sneaky its common sense.

I’d love to see where you get your 11.65 YPA. That would be the unqualified leader of all QBs for all time.

http://www.coldhardfootballfacts.com/Articles/7_1580_Best_passers_in_history:_Yards_Per_Attempt.html

Funny, I don’t see Donovan anywhere on that list. Maybe he was sick that day. We all know he doesn’t like to show up all that often.

Guns don't kill people. Lamar Woodley kills people.

by BostonWahoo on Sep 19, 2008 2:56 PM EDT   0 recs

i looked at the wrong column

that was yards per completion..my bad

by eagleyosh on Sep 19, 2008 3:01 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

;)

Guns don't kill people. Lamar Woodley kills people.

by BostonWahoo on Sep 19, 2008 3:02 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

your real crime

was saying Ben would struggle on the Eagles. Pleasseeee.

People forget that in our Superbowl run,…our running game was garbage,….Parker was inconsistent and the Bus almost cost us the Colts game. Roethlisberger threw the Steelers to victory both in the Divisional against Indy and the AFC Championships against the Broncos. And this was in his second year.

by ismail on Sep 20, 2008 5:31 PM EDT   0 recs

was saying Ben would struggle on the Eagles.

i doubt that anyone of us said that Ben would struggle on the Eagles

by Remis on Sep 20, 2008 6:55 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

“So yes Ben is the product of the system, put him on the Eagles and he would struggle.”

Your boy Whodie126 said it couple posts back.

by ismail on Sep 20, 2008 9:48 PM EDT to parent up   0 recs

ooo ma, dont i feel stupid. i thot you were saying he wouod struggle against the eagles, with really bad grammar

by Remis on Sep 21, 2008 9:30 AM EDT to parent up   0 recs

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