Engine Failure

I find this game to be an interesting one. It is one of those games that could go either way, and both teams have an advantage in one way or another. Let’s not get it twisted though; these are both good teams. The Eagles are second in the NFC and stand one game better than the Pittsburgh Steelers at 11-2. The Eagles have been a little concerning. This was touched upon last week, as Philadelphia can’t seem to win games without Saquon carrying them to victory. Jalen Hurts is 20th in the league in total passing, and there seems to be a disconnect between him and A.J Brown. This seems more like an internal problem that I don’t have answers for, but the knock on Jalen Hurts has been he isn’t the greatest passer in the world. Don’t get me wrong, he is better than your average QB, but for a team as dominant as the Eagles are overall, I’m surprised they can’t get the pass game going. They are second to last in passing offense, only averaging around 181 yards per game. Sure, Barkley covers a lot of those problems with his excellent play, but if they want to make a deeper run, they are going to need to figure out this passing slump.

The Eagles are facing a tougher defense in Pittsburgh, who is a master at holding team to low point games. They are 5th in the league in points allowed, only allowing 18.3 points a game. The problem for Pittsburgh this game is going to be on both sides. They have a great defense, but the Eagles have the 6th best offense in the league. So, let’s say they stop them on defense. Ok, now they’re on offense. Pittsburgh, being weaker on offense, must face the best overall defense in the league. They really don’t have an out in this game, so they are going to have to play their best game this weekend. This is also unbiasedly the best team they have played all year, so this will be a real test for this Steelers team. Can they play tight enough defense and find that stride on offense? Russell Wilson has thrown for over 1,200 yards and 9 TDs in his last five games, so they know how to do it. I’m taking the Steelers because they are 5-2 on the road, and I believe the Eagles lack of passing game will be the tipping point in this game.

POSTGAME:

Jalen Hurts must’ve been listening to me, along with the entire NFL media, because that’s the only thing that could explain this ridiculously exact passing performance. Everyone was talking about his poor passing game, and he heard that, and decided to go 25/32 for 290 yards and 2 TDs. And how about more rumors being extinguished, as A.J Brown had himself over 100 yards receiving and 1 TD. Saquon Barkley only had 66 yards rushing and zero TDs. It was a pass-heavy game Philadelphia desperately needed. This will quiet the media, bring a calmness back to their locker room, and they can now just focus on getting ready for the playoffs. As for the Steelers, they did not have the game they needed. They could not get anything going on offense, finishing with just 163 total yards of offense, (the Eagles had 401 total yards.) They’re going to need to fix that quickly. They face the blazing hot Ravens in a game that will either give the Steelers a one game cushion in their division race, or leave the two teams all tied up.