Sports

Game Recap: Eagles 35, Steelers 13

Written by ABC AUDIO on October 31, 2022

It was a sunny Sunday afternoon in Philadelphia as the Eagles hosted intrastate foe, the Pittsburgh Steelers, at Lincoln Financial Field for the first time since 2016.

• The Eagles started on defense – Haason Reddick built momentum quickly sacking Steelers quarterback Kenny Pickett at the Pittsburgh 18 for a loss of 8 yards within the first two minutes of the game. The Steelers punted it on the next play.

• Jalen Hurts capitalized on the following possession, completing a 39-yard deep middle pass to A.J. Brown, capping of a 9-play, 68-yard drive.

•The Steelers followed suit in a 13-play 75-yard drive – Eagles’ Brandon Graham received a delay of game penalty on fourth-and-goal and Pittsburgh decided to go for it after lining up for a field goal, leading the Steelers to their first points of the game. Chase Claypool threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to Derek Watt on 4th-and-goal with just over two minutes remaining in the first quarter.

•The score marked the Steelers’ very first touchdown EVER at Lincoln Financial Field. The Steelers left Philadelphia without reaching the end zone in their previous two visits to the stadium in 2008 and 2016, losing both games.

• Another Brown and Hurts connection! The Eagles kicked off the second quarter with a touchdown, taking the lead again. Hurts found Brown for a 27-yard pass into the end zone with 12:53 remaining in the half.

• Darius Slay nearly had his fourth interception of the season with 7:47 remaining – his reaction showed that he really wanted to take it away. Nonetheless, he still prevented any production from Pickett’s pass intended for Diontae Johnson.

• ANOTHER ONE! Brown was on FIRE in the first half – Hurts targeted him for a third touchdown. This time, he caught a 29-yard pass to complete a 3-play, 60-yard drive. The refs charged him with a taunting penalty – to which Lincoln Financial Field responded with an eruption of booing. The Eagles extended their lead 21-7.

• Jordan Davis went down during a play in the final four minutes of the first half. He needed assistance exiting the field; the team’s trainers guided him to the blue medical tent on the sideline before he went inside on a cart.

• The Steelers’ newly signed kicker Nick Sciba scored his first NFL field goal from 38 yards, adding three points to the board for Pittsburgh. Sciba was signed to the team’s practice squad on Saturday just hours before kickoff; kicker Chris Boswell was sidelined for the Sunday matinee due to a groin injury.

• Have a day, A.J.! Brown finished the half with an impressive 5 catches for 113 yards and three receiving touchdowns. He’s the first Eagle in the last 15 years to record three receiving touchdowns, each 25+ yards.

• The Eagles started the third quarter with the ball … and another touchdown! A fourth scoring pass from Hurts glided 34 yards through the air, this time into the hands of Zach Pascal. The Eagles increased their lead to 28-10 in a speedy 2:07, 5-play, 75-yard drive.

• The team announced an injury update for Jordan Davis, who was carted to the locker room in the first half. He was ruled out for the remainder of the game due to an ankle injury.

• Sciba scored again. The Eagles’ defense forced the Steelers to attempt a field goal after holding them from the end zone through their 6:58 15-play, 64-yard drive. Steelers added three, but still trailed 28-13.

• Eagles defense dominated the start of the fourth quarter! Javon Hargrave strip-sacked Kenny Pickett at the Philadelphia 45 for a loss of 9 yards; Avonte Maddox recovered it at the 46-yard line. Soon enough, that Pickett turnover led to another Philadelphia score! Hurts passed short middle to Brown for a 43-yard play to the Pittsburgh 11-yard line. On the next play, Miles Sanders ran it in for a touchdown. Philadelphia increased their lead yet again with 12:41 remaining in the game, 35-13.

• The Eagles’ defense is relentless — C.J. Gardner-Johnson recorded the team’s fifth sack of the day.

• Quarterback Gardner Minshew saw his first game action of the season, entering the game in the final ten minutes. Hurts left the game with 285 yards and four touchdown passes. Most of the Eagles starters exited the game — they’ll have a quick week, playing again on Thursday night against the Texans.

• Gardner-Johnson grab! He intercepted a Pickett pass intended for Pat Freiermuth, advancing it 14-yards to the Philadelphia 12-yard line with 4:27 left in the game.

• The Eagles advance to 7-0, winning the keystone showdown at Lincoln Financial Field. Jalen Hurts is the first quarterback in franchise history to win in 10 consecutive starts.

Labriola on the loss to the Eagles

Let’s start with this: the Philadelphia Eagles are good. Very good. A legitimate Super Bowl contender. Right now, the best team in the NFC and quite possibly the best team in the NFL.

With that out of the way, the Steelers’ performance in their 35-13 loss to the Eagles on Sunday at Lincoln Financial Field was embarrassing, the second time in the last four games where that description is appropriate. Some of it was confounding, some of it was annoying, and all of it was frustrating.

After back-to-back games where the Steelers defense seemed to be coming around, at least to the degree where it was stingy in allowing points, the bottom dropped out. One week after doing a representative job against the Miami RPOs triggered by Tua Tagovailoa, the Eagles’ version operated by Jalen Hurts did what it wanted when it wanted. One week after keeping a lid on the combination of Tyreek Hill and Jaylen Waddle, the Steelers were barely a speedbump for A.J. Brown and Zach Pascal, both of whom averaged over 25 yards per catch.

The offense was back to doing, and not doing, the things that has made it one of the worst performing units from a statistical standpoint in the league so far in 2022. After the Eagles won the toss and elected to defer, the Steelers got the ball first. Their opening series then followed the same disturbing pattern – run (by Najee Harris for no gain), run (by Kenny Pickett to escape the pass rush for 1 yard), pass (attempt by Pickett only to be sacked), punt. It was the fourth time in their eight regular season games that the Steelers went three-and-out on their opening possession.

Their play along the lines of scrimmage in Philadelphia can be summarized by two plays, one on each of the game’s first two series. On first-and-10 from the 25-yard line on the game’s first play, Harris had to fight to get back to the line of scrimmage for no gain. On third-and-1 from their 41-yard line on the Eagles’ third play of their opening possession, Miles Sanders ran for 5 yards before encountering any Steelers defenders on the way to a 7-yard gain and a drive-extending first down.

Then the element that led to the 38-3 rout in Buffalo reared its ugly head again. Remember, Bills receiver Gabe Davis, known primarily as a deep threat, caught touchdown passes of 98 and 62 yards. In Philadelphia, A.J. Brown did his thing to the tune of 39, 29, and 27-yard touchdown catches, plus a 43-yard reception that set up an 11-yard touchdown run by Sanders that completed the scoring. The Steelers failed miserably to keep a lid on Brown, and the resulting explosion obliterated whatever chance they might have had.

“We’re not positioning ourselves to win games. We didn’t today,” said Coach Mike Tomlin. “Some fundamental things are falling short. We got to keep a lid on it. If you don’t keep a lid on it in the NFL, you don’t give yourself a chance to play. We didn’t do that. I thought it was a domino effect from there. I thought our eyes weren’t in the right place defensively. It’s capable of happening when you’re not keeping a lid on it. You got to keep a lid on it.”

The Eagles had no such difficulty with the Steelers offense, because Philadelphia held a significant edge in plays that gained 20-plus yards, 7-2. Or to make the point a different way, the Eagles scored touchdowns on drives of 60 yards in three plays, 75 yards in five plays, and 54 yards in two plays; the Steelers touchdown and two field goals came of drives of 84 yards in 13 plays, 55 yards on 12 plays, and 74 yards on 15 plays.

“When you’re on the field for 14 plays, you’re leaving yourself open to make mistakes whether that’s physically, mentally,” said Kenny Pickett. “Some things happen like that, so we need more explosive plays. We had opportunities today and didn’t connect. Penalties again hurt us. When you’re running 14 plays, 16 plays, something (bad) is going to happen sooner or later. Guys get tired up front. It causes problems. It’s a double-edged sword. It’s good to stay on the field and control the football and chew some clock. We have to finish with points. If we’re not getting points, it’s really not doing us any good.”

And Bill Cowher, the former Steelers coach and now an NFL analyst for CBS, doesn’t believe the team is doing Pickett any favors with the way it’s handling his rookie season. Pickett’s fourth NFL start was Sunday in Philadelphia, and in those starts, he has attempted 52, 18 (in slightly more than a half before leaving with a concussion), 44, and 38 passes. That’s 152 pass attempts in 3.5 NFL games, which is a lot of exposure to sacks/hits from the defense, and Cowher also doesn’t believe the 7 interceptions Pickett has thrown in his starts (10 total in his rookie season) are doing anything for his mental well-being either.

“You’re transitioning into a new quarterback, OK?” said Cowher during the CBS studio show on Sunday. “Right now, I get worried about his confidence, because I’ve seen this happen to other quarterbacks.

“Take the ball out of his hands. Don’t ask him to do as much as you’re asking him to do. I know we have these receivers and everything else. It’s not about the receivers … You have to somehow shorten the game with this quarterback, and it goes back to running the ball. I’d put him back under center. Don’t subject him to being back there (in the shotgun) and getting sacked six times.

“You’re 2-6. Understand it’s a period of transition. What’s in the best interest of developing this quarterback who is your quarterback of the future without destroying his confidence?”

Based on how Pickett has handled things since being a No. 1 pick in late April, it seems unlikely his psyche is overly fragile, but Cowher’s approach nevertheless has validity solely for the reduction of the physical pounding on the rookie quarterback’s body. But trying to sustain offense under those parameters would require a reliance on a running attack that came into the game ranked 27th in the NFL and then managed 144 yards in Philadelphia, but a good bit of that total either came in garbage time or on scrambles by Pickett and reverses to wide receivers.

Najee Harris, a first-round pick just 18 months ago, has become a picker and a dancer in his second NFL season to the extent that undrafted rookie Jaylen Warren looks and produces more like a feature back should. “I’m not a big east-to-west guy. I’ve been taught to just get downhill,” said Warren. “I’m not a big dance guy. That’s what I’ve been taught.”

Exactly, so teach Harris, or refresh those lessons. I spent hours and hours on the practice fields at Saint Vincent College summer after summer hearing former running backs coach Dick Hoak yelling, “hit it up in there” to veterans and draft picks and free agents alike. Harris is a hard worker who wants to be great, and it defies logic that he wouldn’t respond to a constant reinforcing of that message.

As Cowher said, the Steelers are 2-6 and in a period of transition. Their bye is the weekend of Nov. 6-7 with their next game vs. New Orleans on Nov. 13 at Acrisure Stadium. The Collective Bargaining Agreement mandates players be given four consecutive days off during the bye, so there won’t be an extended opportunity to hammer away at the issues dogging the team. But there should be some accounting of where they are and what they need to do to turn what remains of this season into a positive.

“Either you learn and are accountable, or you’re not going to play,” said Cam Heyward. “We’re going into (the bye), and we’ve all been given chances to see that. If you can’t do it, you won’t play. That goes for everybody. I’m not singling one guy out. We’ve all got to be accountable, myself included. As a leader, I’ve got to take most of the blame. It’s easy to point (fingers). It’s better to look yourself in the mirror and say, ‘I’ve got to get better.’ So, I’m going to use this time to truly do that.”

Those who follow Heyward’s lead will be the ones worth keeping. As for the rest, well, as Cowher said, this is a period of transition.

Eagles’ Jalen Hurts connects with A.J. Brown on three first-half touchdown passes

PHILADELPHIA — It’s almost Halloween, so it’s only fitting that “Swole Batman” made a major impression for the Eagles on Sunday.

Receiver A.J. Brown, who got the nickname from cornerback Darius Slay early in the season, showed off his super hero skills with three first-half touchdown passes against the Pittsburgh Steelers, helping Philly to a 21-7 lead.

On the first TD connection, it looked like Jalen Hurts’ heave could be intercepted by standout safety Minkah Fitzpatrick, but Brown came zooming in and elevated to snatch his third receiving touchdown of the season.

The third score was similar to the second, with Hurts again hitting Brown down the right side on a 29-yard play.

Entering the game, Brown had not recorded a 100-yard receiving game since Week 1 against the Detroit Lions — a five-game streak that was tied for the second longest of his career. The third touchdown catch gave him numbers of five catches for 113 yards and 3 TDs on the day.

Brown is the fifth Eagles player over the past 20 seasons with 3-plus receiving touchdowns in a game, per ESPN Stats & Information research, joining Terrell Owens (twice in 2004), Brian Westbrook (2004), Kevin Curtis (2007) and Riley Cooper (2013).

Hurts now has three passing touchdowns of 20-plus air yards on the day, only the second time since ESPN began tracking air yards in 2006 that an Eagles quarterback had three such passing touchdowns (Nick Foles in 2013). This also marks the first time an Eagles receiver has had three receiving touchdowns of 20-plus air yards in a game since 2006.

Christian McCaffrey, in 2nd game as 49er, has TD trifecta in win

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — The San Francisco 49ers were putting together their red zone plan on Thursday night when the yell came from coach Kyle Shanahan’s office.

To nobody in particular, Shanahan posed a simple question: Can Christian McCaffrey, the team’s recently acquired star running back, throw the football at all? The question was initially met with silence, but a few moments later Shanahan received a text from tight ends coach Brian Fleury.

The text was a video from Dec. 17, 2018, with McCaffrey tossing a 50-yard touchdown pass against the New Orleans Saints. Satisfied with Fleury’s answer, Shanahan went about adding a McCaffrey pass to the game plan for Sunday’s 31-14 victory against the Los Angeles Rams.

Little did Shanahan know that it would become the signature play on a historic day for McCaffrey.

Without do-it-all receiver Deebo Samuel, McCaffrey offered the Niners the ultimate in versatile performances, as he threw for, ran for and caught a touchdown as the Niners moved to 4-4 heading into their bye week.

“I think everyone knows how good of a player he is, but I just like how consistent he is and under control in what he does,” Shanahan said. “He’s a very smart player, and he makes a lot of plays and stuff, but it’s the consistency of how he plays his game. I feel like he was a great guy to add for us.”

After tossing for a score and catching one, his 1-yard rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter made McCaffrey the first player since LaDainian Tomlinson in 2005 to throw for, run for and catch a touchdown in the same game. He’s the fourth player — along with Tomlinson, receiver David Patten and running back Walter Payton — since the 1970 merger to complete the trifecta.

It’s the eighth straight regular-season win for the Niners against the Rams but McCaffrey’s first taste of the rivalry. He fit right in, having a hand in 183 yards from scrimmage, including 94 rushing and 55 receiving on 27 touches.

After the game, the soft-spoken McCaffrey wasn’t so concerned with his individual performance as he was his first victory with the 49ers.

“That’s awesome,” McCaffrey said. “Obviously, those things are really cool. I think the biggest thing is coming out with a win and playing a second half like that, too … But I’m just proud to be a 49er and it felt good to get a win today.”

McCaffrey got the Niners’ scoring started with his second career touchdown pass. On second-and-8 from the Rams’ 34 with 12:10 left in the second quarter, Niners quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo threw to McCaffrey in the right flat. McCaffrey caught it behind the line of scrimmage and rolled to his right before looking deep down the right side for wideout Brandon Aiyuk.

McCaffrey lofted a pass with enough air under it for Aiyuk to turn multiple times and haul it in for a touchdown that, paired with Robbie Gould’s extra point, tied it at 7.

“That was a dot,” tight end George Kittle said. “Perfect. The pass was awesome. The catch was awesome.”

Indeed, McCaffrey’s touchdown catch might have been his most impressive play of the day. With 1:51 left in the third quarter, Garoppolo dropped back to pass from the Rams’ 9. As Garoppolo scanned the field, nobody was open, so he moved up in the pocket as the Niners commenced the scramble drill.

McCaffrey, who was the fifth option in the passing progression, shook loose down the right sideline. Garoppolo lofted it up and McCaffrey leaped high in the air to snag it for the touchdown grab to give the Niners a 17-14 lead they would not relinquish.

The touchdown was the first one McCaffrey scored as a Niner and put him in some rare company in franchise history. McCaffrey and Emmanuel Sanders (Week 14 of 2019) are the only Niners to have a passing touchdown and a receiving touchdown in the same game in the past 70 years.

“I went through the whole read left to right,” Garoppolo said. “He turned it upfield. That’s just being a football player … That wasn’t really how it was scripted. He just made a play.”

McCaffrey’s big day came in his second game as a Niner and his first following a full week of practice. San Francisco dealt second-, third- and fourth-round picks in 2023 and a fifth-round selection in 2024 to the Panthers for McCaffrey in an Oct. 20 trade.

To get up to speed quickly, McCaffrey has been spending long hours at the Niners’ facility working with assistant coaches Bobby Turner and Anthony Lynn and stealing additional time with Garoppolo whenever possible.

In addition to his touchdown trifecta, McCaffrey also became the only player in the Super Bowl era to have at least one of each kind of offensive touchdown and 30 or more yards passing, rushing and receiving in a game.

McCaffrey’s performance also left the Niners imagining what could be when key players like Samuel and fellow wideout Jauan Jennings return from hamstring injuries.

“With all those skill position [talent], there isn’t a ceiling, really,” Kittle said. “We should go out there, we should be getting a lot of points.”

Stefon Diggs, Jaire Alexander start trash talk early, dispute who ‘finished it’

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — The chippiness between Buffalo Bills receiver Stefon Diggs and Green Bay Packers cornerback Jaire Alexander began when both players ran out of the tunnel at the same time for pregame warm-ups. But how it ended? Well, that depends on who you ask.

“I don’t give a f— who started it, I finished it. I got the win,” Diggs said after the Bills defeated the Packers 27-17 on Sunday Night Football. “I don’t deal with moral victories. I don’t deal with one-on-one battles because it’s not a one-on-one game. … It’s a team effort, and I got a dub. I feel like at the end of the day there are no moral victories.”

Alexander offered a different perspective.

“Nah, I don’t either,” Alexander said when asked who started the verbal exchange. “I finished it.”

The trash talk seemingly began when Diggs was spotted running sideways and yelling at Alexander on their way out of the tunnel. Their feud continued as the teams filed back to their locker rooms, and picked up again when they were coming out of the tunnel for the second half.

Diggs was once again the Bills’ leading receiver on Sunday night, with a game-high six receptions for 108 yards and a touchdown catch. However, Alexander was not the nearest defender on any of Diggs’ targets, per NFL NextGen Stats. Alexander lined up against Diggs on only three of his routes (13%).

Diggs and Alexander had previously faced each other across two seasons when Diggs played for the Packers’ NFC North rival, the Minnesota Vikings. Diggs, who spent his first five NFL seasons in Minnesota, became the first player to score a touchdown in eight consecutive games against Green Bay.

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“I mean, I always thought he was a decent receiver, but not much I can say about him,” said Alexander, who also said he was “just keeping it real” and told Diggs when they came out of the tunnel before the game that Diggs “couldn’t mess with me,” referring to the receiver as “a little boy.”

In the first quarter, while Diggs was on the ground recovering his own fumble, Alexander ran over and appeared to push down on Diggs’ helmet.

Alexander also appeared to exchange words with Bills wide receiver Gabe Davis, whom he lined up against on 60.9% of Davis’ routes (14). Davis was targeted four times with zero receptions with Alexander as the nearest defender.

And Diggs at times got into it with Packers cornerback Rasul Douglas, who gave up three receptions for 85 yards and the touchdown as the nearest defender on Diggs. Following his 26-yard TD catch, Diggs had to be held back by teammates Isaiah McKenzie and Davis from getting near Douglas.

“Of course I’m going to be aggressive and set the tone. And they grabbed me in a crucial moment,” Diggs said. “I could’ve had a flag. So it’s not so much as far as like going after a guy, but he knows to be smart. That’s just how this game goes when it gets a little chippy.”

There appeared to be no love lost between the Bills’ offense and the Packers’ defense throughout the game.

“It’s the most talking that’s ever been with another team,” Diggs said. “‘Cause I don’t know why. You know, we don’t really do too much talking. You’ve seen us week in and week out. We just go in and try to get the job done. It happens this way sometimes. I don’t care. No matter how a game approaches, I’m a leader in this football team, I’m going to continue to be a leader and I’m going to lead by example. And I’m not going to get pushed around by nobody.”

Diggs on Sunday became the first Bills player with 100 receiving yards and a receiving touchdown in three straight games since Elbert Dubenion (1964). He also tied Dubenion for the most games with 100 receiving yards and a receiving touchdown in a season in franchise history (five). Diggs is now tied with Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce for the most touchdown receptions this season (seven).

Game Recap: Eagles 35, Steelers 13

Written by ABC AUDIO on October 31, 2022

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