The Pittsburgh Steelers were back on the field Sunday for the fourteenth time of the 2024 regular season when they traveled to play the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 15 of regular season action. The Steelers were losers in the contest, but that doesn’t mean every player had a good or bad performance.

Players who play well can be considered ‘Winners’, while those who left a lot to be desired can be called ‘Losers’. It may sound harsh, but it is the crux of this exercise.

Let’s check in to see who fell on which side of the ledger after the latest game…

Winners

T.J. Watt
Stat Line: 7 tackles, 5 solo, 2 sacks, 1 TFL, 2 QB Hits, 1 Forced Fumble

The Philadelphia Eagles went into this game as a confident group, but they also got a little arrogant at times. T.J. Watt vs. Lane Johnson was good-on-good, and it was great to see Watt still being able to make plays when a team doesn’t put three players on Watt every single play. While Watt’s great game was downplayed by his late game injury, he was playing a tremendous game up until that point. Nice additional stat is that Watt has reached double-digit sacks for the 6th time in his career. A tremendous career continues, and let’s hope Watt’s ankle injury isn’t serious and he doesn’t miss any time down the stretch.

Takeaways
Stat Line: 2 takeaways (2 FRs)

The Steelers are taking the ball away more than any other team, and that trend continued vs. the Eagles with two timely forced fumbles early in the game. I don’t want to think about how ugly this game could have been if the Steelers didn’t get those two takeaways, but as I’ve been saying this is a positive trend for this team. The Steelers 30 takeaways this season is No. 1 in the NFL.

Playoff Spot Clinched
Stat Line: They’re in

The first box on the to-do list has been checked. The Steelers are in the playoffs, but you won’t hear players, or even many fans, celebrating this fact after the team’s loss on Sunday. Nonetheless, it is a welcome change to the Steelers most recent postseason entries which have relied on help from other teams and typically come down to the final week of the regular season. Now, the Steelers can focus on where they fit within the AFC Playoff Picture, which could be as high as the No. 2 seed, or as low as a Wild Card team who is planning on playing on the road the entire playoffs.

Losers

Offensive Game Plan
Stat Line: No 1st down till 2nd quarter

I am going to do some digging this week into the Steelers starts to games this season. Early game success hasn’t been on the team’s side outside of the game in Cincinnati a few weeks ago. Quarterback doesn’t matter, I am curious if Arthur Smith and his staff have a horrible patterns of not having good opening scripts to these games. It was obvious on Sunday in Philadelphia, but it seems to be a bad trend for the Steelers offense, and it can’t linger into the playoffs if they want to win a playoff game for the first time since 2016.

Najee Harris
Stat Line: Back-breaking fumble

Najee Harris led the Steelers in rushing, 6 carries for 14 yards, but it was his second half fumble which was the turning point in the game. The Steelers trailed by just a touchdown at that moment, and they were well within Chris Boswell’s field goal range when Harris took his eyes off the pitch and turned the ball over. After that fumble the Eagles drove down the field and scored a touchdown. The next Steelers drive stalled and Mike Tomlin elected to punt the ball to the Eagles with just over 10 minutes left in the game. They never saw the football again. It was the fumble which was back-breaking for the Steelers efforts.

3rd Down Offense
Stat Line: 3-for-10

As I stated earlier in this column, the Steelers didn’t have a first down until the 2nd quarter of the game. Without takeaways the Steelers wouldn’t have had any points during that stretch either. At one point the Steelers had five straight three-and-outs to start the game. The first, first down was a pass play to, you guessed it, Ben Skowronek for 17 yards. If the Steelers want to be considered legitimate, they need to be better on 3rd downs, especially to start a game.

3rd Down Defense
Stat Line: PHI – 10-for-17

The Steelers defense had been solid on third downs in recent memory, but against Philadelphia you could tell the opponent was too versatile for the Pittsburgh defense. When the Steelers ran zone coverage, the Eagles were running wide open in those open zones. When they ran man concepts, the Steelers couldn’t match up with Davonta Smith and A.J. Brown. On top of that, the Steelers loaded the box to stop the run, and while they did that, it left them vulnerable in the back end when the pass rush couldn’t get home.

Tackling
Stat Line: Horrendous all game

There were players who lost garments or joints in this game. Two in particular. Donte Jackson lost his jock strap trying to tackle Kenneth Gainwell in a critical 3rd down play. Patrick Queen got his ankles broken by Jalen Hurts as Hurts scrambled for a first down. These two were just the tip of the iceberg for the Steelers tackling woes on Sunday in Philadelphia. Fundamentally the Steelers were sub-par, and a lot of these mistakes equated in extended drives, and even touchdowns.

Injuries
Stat Line: List is growing

For those who want to know the in-game injuries for players who weren’t able to return to the game, here they are:

• Donte Jackson (back)
• Justin Fields (abdomen)
• T.J. Watt (lower ankle)

These players get added to the other players who missed the game due to injury:

• George Pickens (hamstring)
• DeShon Elliott (hamstring)
• Larry Ogunjobi (groin)

This list is growing, and some key players remain on the list. If the Steelers want to win Saturday, and win the AFC North, they’ll need to get some good luck on the injury front. Without Pickens and Watt on the road vs. the Ravens isn’t impossible, but it makes the team upcoming game even more daunting.

Running Game
Stat Line: 56 total yards

The Steelers averaged over 130 yards on the ground coming into Week 15, but there were a lot of issues in the running game this week. Sure, the toss sweep play should be eliminated from the playbook, but the Steelers started this game with a ton of heavy sets. 2 and 3 tight end personnel were the Steelers guess on how to run the ball. With no real threat at wide receiver, the Eagles crowded the box and dominated that battle. When the Steelers started to get the running game going they did so with lighter personnel groupings, and then Najee Harris fumbled the ball away. It was an abysmal performance for the ground game from the coaching to player execution.

Time of Possession
Stat Line: PHI: 39:52 / PIT: 20:08

It’s hard to believe, but the Eagles out-Steelered the Steelers. The Pittsburgh Steelers have been a Top 5 team in time of possession all season, at times being atop the league in this regard, but look at those numbers above. The Eagles almost doubled up the Steelers in terms of time of possession. The Steelers ran just 11 plays in the entire second half. When Mike Tomlin elected to punt the ball away with over 10 minutes left in the game, no one thought they’d never see the ball again, yet here we are.

Penalties
Stat Line: 5-for-60 yards

The Steelers still have a lot of cleaning up to do in the penalty department. Dan Moore’s costly holding call, Van Jefferson’s illegal procedure penalty and Zach Frazier’s tripping penalty were all costly. However, the tripping call also bleeds its way into the unknown abys that is NFL officiating. It’s awful, and we all know it…unfortunately nothing will change anytime soon.

If you want a more detailed look at the above list, check out my “Let’s Ride” podcast in the player below where I outline each Winner and Loser, and MORE!