The Pittsburgh Steelers earned their second straight win of the preseason against the Eagles. Here are four things we learned from the game.
It was another slow start to a preseason game for the Steelers in Philadelphia this week. During the Hall of Fame Game, Mason Rudolph’s offense scored zero points in the first half of the contest. On Thursday night against the Eagles, Pittsburgh was held scoreless in the first quarter before Dwayne Haskins eventually led a touchdown drive four minutes before the half.
While it’s hard to read too much into a preseason game (especially without yet going back and reviewing the film), there were some things that really stood out to me in the Steelers win against the Eagles. Here are my takeaways from the game:
Dwayne Haskins making a case as QB2
I disagree with the notion that Dwayne Haskins looked really good last week against the Dallas Cowboys. However, I’ll be the first to admit that he looked much better against the Eagles in his second performance of 2021.
When Mason Rudolph was in the game, he went 8 of 9 for a respectable 77 yards and was sacked once, according to ESPN stats. Unfortunately, none of his drives resulted in points. Haskins, on the other hand, led several scoring drives as he completed 16 of 22 passes for 161 yards and 1 touchdown.
Haskins’ 7.3 yards per attempt was modest and there were a few wild throws mixed in. But for the most part, Haskins did a much better job of looking down the field and extending the play this week – as evidenced by his 108.3 passer rating. He’s really starting to make this a race for QB2 in Pittsburgh. At this rate, the job could be his soon, but he needs to keep up the pace.