Steelers - Eagles

In what is always touted as the most important week of the preseason, the Steelers and Eagles met where the three rivers come together and played some football.

The Steelers started off in their usual way. They squandered first an goals with turnovers on the one yard line, Ben Roethlisberger returned to last year's form for a brief second by being intercepted on a last ditch effort to his check down while being tackled instead of taking the sack. Daniel Sepulveda, the rookie punter out of Baylor shanked a 14 yard punt out of bounds at the Steeler 20. I guess there aren't perks to being handed the starting job immediately out of college. Seeing how well the offense looks until mistakes are made makes me wonder how good they'd be if they tied up those loose ends before the season starts. Mike Tomlin inherited the best job the NFL had to offer this offseason.

The Steelers defense stopped Donovan McNabb cold on every drive, holding him to 5/11-60 yards in a quarter and a half. Kevin Kolb, the rookie out of Houston, came in midway through the second quarter to look dumbfounded by Dick Lebeau's crazy zone blitz packages. He should take a hint from McNabb: just don't worry about Troy Polamalu before the snap. Wherever he is presnap is irrelevant, he'll be thirty yards from anywhere by the time you look up with the ball. Lebeau showed him a bunch of the same thing, which is "organized chaos." Safeties stunted, linebackers showing blitz and dropping into coverage, linemen doing the same. There may be a reason Romeo Crennel is choosing to sit Brady Quinn week one in Cleveland.

The Pittsburgh offense did get it going in the second quarter. Willie Parker scored on an 18 yard romp untouched due to some great blocks by Max Starks and Alan Faneca. Roethlisberger and Najeh "Dump Truck" Davenport(some of you may remember the present he left in his ex-girlfriend's closet while he was at Miami) hooked up a couple of times on a slip screen and a dump pass. Roethlisberger climbed his way to 247 yards passing leading the Steelers on three scoring drives (1 TD and 2 FGs) before retiring.

The backups came in for the second half and Kevin Kolb flourished. He ended up throwing 37 passes, connecting on 26 of them for 242 yards. He really looks like he will be able to carry that offense once McNabb is gone. I am sure Andy Reid likes him. As a son. What?

Steelers rookie CB William Gay sealed the deal by stripping Zac Collie of the football, which was recoverd by Jovon Johnson and ran back 77 yards for the clincher. The Steelers prevailed 27-13, on a night where John Madden mistook the darkest black man alive, Tyrone Carter, for Samoan Troy Polamalu. The end.