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.
Linebackers struggle in coverage, Joe Schobert should help
Allowing easy passes over the middle of the football field was the Achilles heel to the Steelers defense in 2020, and apparently, they are rolling these struggles into 2021. Though this is something that the team attempted to work on and address, Pittsburgh’s linebackers were consistently allowing chunk plays over the middle of the field in the first half.
Devin Bush saw his first action since tearing his ACL early last year, and the results were not pretty, as he allowed a huge 34-yard gain on a post route to TE Dallas Goedert in which he allowed far too much separation. He and his fellow off-ball linebackers didn’t fare well in this department on Thursday night.
Fortunately, there is some hope that we could see improvement here. During the game against the Eagles, it was announced that the Pittsburgh Steelers were making a trade for Jacksonville Jaguars linebacker, Joe Schobert. The former Pro Bowler during his time with the Browns hasn’t been spectacular over the past two seasons, but has earned 7 interceptions during that stretch and has a great feel for coverage.
Schobert has a pretty big contract, and trading for him almost certainly means that Robert Spillane will be going back to a reserve role. The good news is that the pairing of Bush and Schobert should be much better in coverage than what Pittsburgh had last year.
EDGE Jamir Jones pushing to make Steelers roster
Since Melvin Ingram was signed before training camp, many fans were wondering whether it would be Cassius Marsh or Quincy Roche earning the job as the team’s fourth outside linebacker in 2021. Perhaps the answer is neither.
After impressing at training camp Jamir Jones would like to throw his hat in the ring for this job. He was arguable the most impressive player for the Steelers in his second preseason game this year as he continually harrassed the opposing quarterback. At the end of the night, Jones earned 4 tackles, 1 sack, 1 tackle for a loss, 2 quarterback hits, and the attention of a lot of people.
As a former undrafted free agent, Jones has an uphill battle to make this roster, but performances like this will most certainly help. Last week against the Dallas Cowboys in the Hall of Fame Game, Jones consistently disrupted the play behind the line of scrimmage.
After his second impressive preseason performance in as many games, the coaches are no doubt going to have a little discussion in the meeting room to see if there’s a spot for this kid on the roster. Perhaps the team will consider reserving another edge defender spot this year, but it’s not going to be easy to make the cut.
Isaiahh Loudermilk could be ready to carve out a role as a rookie
The Steelers really like this kid, and I’m beginning to see why. Trading back into the 2021 NFL Draft and giving up future draft capital to take defensive lineman left me scratching my head at the time, but Isaiahh Loudermilk hasn’t disappointed. In fact, he did just the opposite on Thursday night.
I wasn’t always paying careful attention to Loudermilk along the defensive line as there was so much to watch, but I found myself starting to narrow in on him at times. Loudermilk isn’t just a big defensive lineman with a 6’6” frame, he’s really got some talent.
Against the Eagles, he could be seen shedding blocks, stopping the run, interpreting passing lanes, getting his hands on the football, and even knifing past an offensive lineman for a half-sack he shared with fellow rookie, Quincy Roche.
With such good depth along the interior defensive line, Loudermilk wasn’t expected to do much during his rookie season. However, if he keeps playing like this, Pittsburgh may just need to make him part of the permanent rotation. I’m interested to watch him grow.
There will be plenty more to assess once I do a deeper dive back into the game, but these are four things that really stood out to me in Pittsburgh’s win over Philadelphia on Thursday night.