This
upcoming Sunday offers NFL fans some enticing games slated for week 15. One of these intriguing interconference matchups
that is gaining a lot of steam leading up to kickoff is a battle of two teams
within the same state. The Mike Tomlin-led
Pittsburgh Steelers will travel to Philadelphia as they take on coach Nick
Sirianni’s Philadelphia Eagles. These
two franchises will go head-to-head for the 82nd time in NFL history. Philly leads the all-time series when competing
against Pittsburgh, 49-29-3, 48 of those wins came in the regular season. No, they never met in a Super Bowl, however,
the two franchises met in the 1947 NFL Eastern Division Championship and the
Eagles won 21-0. The largest margin of
victory between them was when the E-A-G-L-E-S dismantled them 45-3 in 1942. The Steelers' biggest win came in 1959, with black
and gold shutting out gang green 31-0.
Philly also owns the longest win streak of the series ripping off 7 consecutive
victories 1947-1950. The last meeting was
also won by the Eagles, 35-13 in 2022.
Pittsburgh
has had a strong season to this point.
Mike Tomlin is proving how great of a coach he is while leading the
Steelers to a 10-3 record this season.
They are currently looking as if they could be a legitimate threat to
the Kansas City Chiefs. Is the Steel
Curtain era back? They certainly are
making a case for it, T.J. Watt is the odds-on favorite to win DPOTY, Teryl
Austin’s (DC) defense is in the top 5 in scoring and total yards, defensive
tackle Cam Hayward has turned back the hands of time, and Mike Tomlin is also
in the running for the COTY! Offensively,
they’ve also been getting better by the week.
Russell Wilson has been proving his time in Denver was merely a fluke as
he has helped them become the 10th-best scoring unit in the league this season. In terms of passing, they are averaging just
over 268 yards in their last 3 weeks. However,
they will have to look towards other weapons for Russ on the outside as George Pickens
has already been listed as out with a nagging hamstring injury.
STEELERS OFFENSE:
TOTAL YARDS P/G- 338.1 (16TH)
RUSH YARDS P/G- 132.1 (9TH)
PASS YARDS P/G- 206.0 (23RD)
POINTS P/G- 24.8 (10TH)
TOTAL SACKS ALLOWED- 35 (20TH)
STEELERS DEFENSE:
TOTAL DEFENSE P/G- 310.2 (7TH)
RUSH YARDS P/G- 91.5 (5TH)
PASS YARDS P/G- 218.6 (18TH)
POINTS P/G- 18.3 (5TH)
TOTAL SACKS- 32 (T-15TH)
The
Eagles have been playing great football this year as well. They are the second-best team in the NFC,
only one game back from the Detroit Lions, and have now won nine straight dating
back to week 5. Philly had initially started
a little flat on defense this season, then down the stretch, they’ve been one
of the best defenses in the league. Much
credit goes to Vic Fangio (DC), he has since coached his men to become a premier
unit in defensive scoring. This Eagles team
has two amazing rookie cornerbacks bolstering the back end and holding opposing
offenses to the second least passing yards per game. I don’t know what the Steelers' offense will
be able to accomplish against Fangio’s men, they don’t have any real weaknesses,
only progressively get stronger with time.
The only real thing that is worrisome for this team is their passing
game on the offensive side. Their air
attack has been atrocious this year. I
guess you can attribute that to the fact that Saquon has just been so good that
they haven’t had to worry about the passing game in the same way as in past
years. In Philly’s last three games, their
air attack averaged roughly 120 yards a game.
Last week was by far their worst, maybe ever for the Philadelphia
franchise as Jalen Hurts only threw for 83 yards. Maybe another piece to this puzzle could be
the fact that A.J. Brown and Jalen don’t seem to be on the same page as of late
and Brandon Graham made comments to the media about a week ago stating that
there may be a problem in the city of brotherly love.
EAGLES OFFENSE:
TOTAL OFFENSE P/G- 371.7 (6TH)
RUSH YARDS P/G- 190.5 (1ST)
PASS YARDS P/G- 180.6 (31ST)
POINTS P/G – 26.3 (8TH)
TOTAL SACKS ALLOWED- 36 (22ND)
EAGLES DEFENSE:
TOTAL DEFENSE P/G- 284.2 (1ST)
RUSH YARDS P/G- 105.8 (8TH)
PASS YARDS P/G- 178.5 (2ND)
POINTS P/G – 18.0 (T-2ND)
TOTAL SACKS- 37 (T-7TH)
Though
Philly has excelled thus far with the ground game having the offense go through
the league's leading rusher Saquon Barkley, they may wind up playing right into
the hands of the Steelers' strength if they use a heavy dose of running script
against them. Pittsburgh only allows 91
yards per game in rushing as the stats above point out, meaning I think that
Hurts will have to get back on track with receivers DeVonta Smith & A.J.
Brown if they want to beat this non-bendable ore of defense. If Tomlin wants to show the state of P.A.
that Steel City is bigger than the home of the Liberty Bell, he will need to
attack the Eagles where it hurts most. Pittsburgh,
as I already mentioned, will be without Wilson’s number one target, so it makes
even more sense to attack the Eagles' rush defense. Look for Arthur Smith to deploy both running
backs to try and wear down their opponents, while also utilizing Jaylen Warren
on bubble screens and in other passing situations. Then Smith can attempt to get Russ out of the
pocket to throw some of those moonballs to Van Jefferson, Mike Williams, Pat
Freiermuth, and the rest of the skilled players. My thoughts on this game will be that it will
be a closely contested one and quite possibly a lower-scoring game. Assuming the spread stays where it is
currently, Pittsburgh will be +5.5 underdogs.
The funny thing about the Steelers being underdogs is they are undefeated
this year when placed as such. If I were
betting on this one, I would take those 5.5 points, it could wind up ending with
a three-point margin.
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