Pittsburgh Steelers vs Philadelphia Eagles: Game Recap and Looking into the Standout Young Guys

Easily, the most exciting thing to do in preseason football is to watch how the young guys are doing for each team. The Steelers and Eagles are two of the more veteran teams in the league (the Eagles became that after they signed all of those free agents…last year they were actually one of the youngest) but there are still some young’uns to watch in this game.

Well the other fun thing about this game is going on Eagles fans message boards and reading some of their comments after the first half of the game in which the Eagles were down 21-0 (Despite playing their first team starters on offense the entire first half).

I’m going to post this now and update it throughout the second half as things stand out to me.

Pittsburgh Steelers

Marcus Gilbert

The second round pick out of Florida had a very solid showing, I think. He did have one holding penalty which is never good, but he didn’t give up much pressure even though he was facing one of the best in Trent Cole and easily handled him in the run game. The thing I saw about Gilbert that I liked is that he played to the whistle. He’ll have to be careful with that, but that’s a good sign. Unfortuantely, he left the game in the first quarter.

Antonio Brown

Brown had a very nice showing early on vs the Eagles first team defense. The fox analyst team talked about how impressive Brown has been in training camp. He looks poised for a pretty good year across from Mike Wallace.

Isaac Redman

Who is this guy? He looked really sharp, but that could be because the Eagles defense didn’t look great, but I was surprised with how well he played. He didn’t get much chance to shine last year, but he looked very shifty, was pretty good in pass protection, and can catch the ball out of the backfield.

Stevenson Slyvster

The second year player made some plays he ended the game with four tackles and an assist. I don’t expect him to break into the Steelers starting lineup any time soon though.

Philadelphia Eagles

Casey Matthews

Matthews looks like bulked up a ton. Maybe I’m crazy, but definitely looks like he has. Even if he did, wasn’t that impressed. I can’t remember one tackle he made behind the line of scrimmage through the first half of the second quarter (when I’m starting to writing this right now). He was also chasing Hines Ward on his touchdown, though I can’t be sure who was responsible for that coverage without knowing the call.

Danny Watkins

Didn’t see any major snafus early on in the game. he was decent, he tries hard, but still seems to have a lot of technical issues to work out.

Eagles Safety play

Way too many big plays from the Steelers on offense vs the Eagles young secondary. The secondary is left vulnerable because of how often the Eagles blitz, but they let up a lot of big plays and the Steelers were way too good on third down and passing situations. Nate Allen is a good player, but the entire Eagles defense including the secondary hve some work to do before the season starts.

With that being said:

Kurt Coleman had nine tackles with 4:30 left in the second quarter.

Riley Cooper

Cooper got the start tonight because of the absence of Jeremy Maclin (who should be back soon, which is goo dnews whether or not you’re an Eagles fan, no one roots for major sickness). And he did all right. He runs pretty good routes and looks like he can continue to develop into a pretty good possession wide receiver. He had a nice 16 yard reception early in the game.

Like I said, these are two very veteran teams, but there should be much more participation from the rookies and second year players in the second half.

Chas Henry

One thing no one has talked about for the Eagles this offseason is how much transition in the kicking game will go through this year. Henry’s first punt was a beauty. 53 yards and inside the 20 yard line. Can’t ask for much better than that from the rookie.

Dion Lewis

Lewis showcased an excellent burst on one of his first runs in which he gained 14 yards, but shortly after that run he was stood up (on a different run) and the ball was striped from him and recovered by the Steelers. Lewis also showed he can be a weapon out of the backfield with 2 catches for 48 yards.

Mike Kafka

My co editor Sayre broke down Kafka’s impressive showing here.

The Game Recap

The two early stories of the game have to be how out of sync Michael Vick looks. He’s thrown three interceptions and is completely less than 50 percent of his passes (5 of 12).

Also the Eagles have let up way too many big passing plays. This is supposed to be the most talented secondary in all of football (and it still may wind up that way) but tonight is not a good night. Four seperate players already have at least one 20 yard reception in the first half alone.

Other story lines:

How agile is Reshard Mendenhall for a heavier running back. He moves around like a ballerina, one of my favorite running backs to watch in the entire league. He’s only averaging a little over 4 yards a carry (6 carries for 28 yards) but when it looks that pretty who cares?

The Jets are going to miss Jerricho Cotchery.

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