The Pittsburgh Steelers entertain the Philadelphia Eagles tonight in the preseason home finale. Last week, the Eagles defeated Tampa Bay 17-9 while the Steelers lost to Detroit 30-17.
What: Philadelphia Eagles 1-0 at Pittsburgh Steelers 0-1
Where: Heinz Field Pittsburgh, PA
When: Thursday August 18th 7pm ET
Weather: 82 degrees and partly cloudy.
Line: Steelers -3
TV: KDKA TV Bob Pompeani, Charlie Batch with Missi Matthews and Richie Walsh on the sidelines
Radio: Steelers Nation Radio/WDVE Bill Hillgrove, Tunch Ilkin and Craig Wolfley on the sidelines.
Rabble TV: Not Broadcasting tonight
Key Injuries: PIT Ladarius Green continues to be on the PUP list due to his ankle injury according to the Steelers. PHI QB Carson Wentz suffered a rib injury last week and is unlikely to play.
Availability: Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown, Le’Veon Bell, and DeAngelo Williams will not play.
Final 2015 NFL Ranks : Eagles 12th total offense ( 14th Rushing/ 12th Passing)/ 30th total defense ( 32nd Rushing/ 28th Passing)… Steelers 3rd total offense (16th Rushing/3rd Passing)/21st total defense (5th Rushing/30th Passing)
What You Need to Know: The Steelers and Eagles play for the tenth time in the preseason since 2000. The Steelers have won five of the last nine.
What’s at Stake: Not a damn thing.
All-Time Series: Eagles lead 46-28-3 in the regular season.
Series Highs: Preseason not available
What to Look For: In this space in the regular season, I’ll provide you with three keys to a Steelers’ win. Thus, “Three-Point Stance.” For the preseason, I’ll give you what we’re watching for since winning isn’t the number one objective.
The Steelers enter offensively with the majority of their stars on the sidelines. With Bruce Gradkowski out, Landry Jones and Dustin Vaughan will take all the snaps. What we need to see is more consistency in the passing game and that falls not just on the quarterbacks either. Sammie Coates and company need to catch the ball and hang onto the ball as well. I’m anxious to see if running back Daryl Richardson can repeat the strong performance from last week.
Defensively, far and away the most important thing we need to see is improved tackling especially in the open field. Both Ryan Shazier and rookie Sean Davis have to do a better job of wrapping up and they aren’t the only ones. The defensive line showed the potential for some better depth than we previously thought so we need to see that continue as well. We’re also anxious to see Doran Grant at safety where he’s spent most of the last week in practice.
As for the all important third phase, the kickoff team gave up a touchdown return. While most of those players will not even be on this roster, it still bothers me. Danny Smith has never been a favorite of mine as a special teams’ coach but regardless we need to see improvement.
As always, the main goal is health. The Steelers must remain healthy as the regular season approaches.
