3 things you must know about the Steelers Week 5 match up vs the Eagles

The defensive line for the Eagles will be a big factor. Yet, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger should be able to exploit the Eagles’ secondary.

The Philadelphia Eagles do have former All-Pro corner Darius Slay to their advantage. But aside from him, the rest of the secondary is pretty bad. They have multiple players on IR, and the starter on the opposite side of the field, Avonte Maddox has been nursing an injury that held him out of the 49ers game. He is currently listed as questionable. Meanwhile, starting safety Will Parks is also out with an injury, and as a result, the Eagles are low on depth and even if they get Maddox back this week, he will likely be less than 100%.

Even if the whole secondary was healthy, aside from Darius Slay, I don’t see another defensive back on this roster that can shut down any member of the Steelers Wide receiver depth chart in slots 1-3. The Steelers will have to win this game by passing the ball, and Ben has to be in good form in order to do so. If he is showing too much rust, and they start off too slowly, then the Steelers could be in trouble against a heavily injured Eagles squad.

That being said, I like those odds. Ben loves to get his tight ends involved early and this will work against the Eagles. Through the 2020 season opposing tight ends have put up a total of 5 touchdowns and 275 yards against this Eagles defense. To keep that in perspective, the Pittsburgh Steelers are supposed to be bad at stopping tight ends, and they have only allowed a total of 124 yards, and 1 touchdown to opposing tight ends this season. The Steelers have also allowed nearly half of the number of catches per game to tight ends as the Eagles.

I like Eric Ebron in this matchup, and after scoring his first touchdown in Week 3, I expect him to have at worst the same level of production as he did in Week 3. Although, more than likely, this should be a welcoming party to Pittsburgh for him.