PHILADELPHIA (AP) -Darren Howard put the Philadelphia defense’s dominance over the Pittsburgh offense in terms that every shark knows.
“The blood was in the water,” the Eagles defensive end said after his team piled up nine sacks, three turnovers and a safety in its 15-6 win over the Steelers on Sunday. This just six days after Dallas scored 41 points on Philly, 34 points against a defense that prides itself on being much better than that.
So Sunday’s performance was especially gratifying – so gratifying that Andy Reid spent nearly 15 minutes talking to the media after the game and was a lot cheerier than his usual dour self.
b to a chest bruise for two series in the second half and reining him in afterward as he played in obvious pain.
The Steelers gained 180 yards in 60 minutes and for a while, it looked like they might not reach 100. And 51 of those yards came on a final series with Byron Leftwich at quarterback for Pittsburgh for Ben Roethlisberger after Big Ben bruised his hand on – what else? – a Philadelphia pass rusher.
“He’s battered a little bit,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said in the understatement of the day.
Philadelphia’s dominance against a team a lot of people considered the best in the AFC continues to highlight how good the NFC East is: 7-0 against non-divisional opponents going into Dallas’ game Sunday night against Green Bay.
The signature play of this game came early in the fourth quarter after another of Philly’s weapons, punter Sav Rocca, backed up the Steelers to their 6-yard line with a 54 yard punt. That followed a 64-yard punt that completely changed the game’s field position. All this was with Philly holding a lead of only 10-6, meaning that one big play by a team with players capable of it could suddenly put Pittsburgh in the lead.
On first down, Willie Parker was stuffed for a 2-yard loss by Brian Dawkins, the six-time Pro Bowl safety who will turn 35 next month and was burned pretty badly in Dallas last week. Fullback Carey Davis got a yard back and it was third-and-11, a down and distance the Steelers seemed to find themselves in all afternoon.
Naturally, the Eagles ordered an all-out blitz. Jim Johnson, the defensive coordinator and guru for younger offensive masterminds, kept calling them all day after acknowledging he should have done it more in Dallas.
And naturally, Roethlisberger was confused, his normal mode for the day. Pressured, Roethlisberger finally threw from the zone to avoid a sack and was called for grounding, meaning a safety. It made the score just 12-6, still within one big play by the Steelers.
Two series later, Dawkins made another play, leaping in the air to knock the ball loose, then falling on it at the Pittsburgh 18. Philly ran three times for 5 yards – Reid wasn’t about to put the ball in the air – and David Akers’ second 31-yard field goal made it 15-6, out of range of that one sudden Pittsburgh score that never came anyway.
“He’s old. He knows he’s old. I know he’s old. You guys know he’s old,” Reid said of Dawkins. “But he just keeps going out there and playing.”
Then it was Johnson’s turn.
“I probably didn’t blitz enough last week,” he said. “I think we made up for it. On the other hand, the coverage wasn’t good last week. It was good this time.”
That’s because last week it was against an NFC East team.
This week, against a non-division opponent, there was, in Howard’s words, a lot of blood in the water.
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