Post-Eagles thoughts

Actually, I should have titled this one "Post-Eagles disgust."

That was a putrid effort pretty much across the board by the Steelers, who appeared to have spent the day collectively smoking what was left over of the Le'Veon Bell-LeGarrette Blount stash.

Actually, a few guys did show up, including Bell and Blount, both of who played into the fourth quarter, well after the rest of the starters had gone gently into the night.

I thought the two running backs, along with the offensive line, were the standouts of a shoddy first half. Bell and Blount split the carries, getting five each, and gained 43 yards, a respectable 4.3 yards per carry average.

Then, in the second half, working against the Eagles' backups, joined most of the rest of the team in the tank.

The defense, meanwhile, was pretty bad throughout.

Yes, it got off the field on the opening possession by the Eagles, thanks to a tackle for a 5-yard loss by Lawrence Timmons and a pass breakup by Ike Talyor. After that however, it was pretty much a butt-kicking contest. The Eagles provided the foot. The Steelers provided the butt.

@ Who else shall we single out?

* How about placekicker Shaun Suisham, who missed his third kick of the preseason, this one a 46-yarder.

Now, two of Suisham's misses have come without Greg Warren making the snaps, so there could be something to that in terms of the speed with which the ball is getting back to the holder. Or, it could be the holder, Brad Wing, himself.

But everything looked OK on those two fronts to my untrained eye.

* Or how about Justin Brown? With Lance Moore held out, presumably so the team could take a look at some other guys fighting for the fifth spot. Brown got first chance and ran a wrong route to end the Steelers' first drive. He failed to catch either ball thrown his way.

Darrius Heyward-Bey was up next. He caught all three passes thrown his way for 54 yards and a touchdown - though he was playing with Bruce Gradkowski.

Derek Moye was in at the end and failed to catch the only pass thrown his way.

Take from that what you will.

* Cam Thomas' play is the reason why Brett Keisel was brought back. The more the Steelers saw of Thomas - including getting blown away at the goal line in this one - the more they wanted Keisel back.

* Even Heath Miller couldn't get on the same page as Ben Roethlisberger in this one.

Roethlisberger had a pretty good pocket most of the game and was just off. His final numbers - 15 of 24 for 157 yards, a touchdown and an interception - were bolstered by a third-quarter TD drive against the Eagles' backups.

As good as Roethlisberger looked last week, he looked equally as bad this week.

* I like Mike Mitchell's speed, but if he's not going to wrap guys up when he attempts to tackle them, he's going to keep getting run over like he did by Philly tight end Brent Celek.

* If Dri Archer is going to just fair catch every punt, the Steelers might as well just put Antonio Brown out there.

Maybe Archer is skittish because he got drilled a couple of times in Week 1, but he's calling for the fair catch pretty early.

* Wing has done nothing to earn this punting job. As mentioned, who knows how much of Suisham's struggles involve the holder. Suisham would certain never say.

But Wing's primary job is to punt. And he averaged an uninspiring 39.8 yards on his five punts in this one, including a 48-yarder he booted into the end zone.

If Adam Podlesh doesn't suddenly show up in the next two weeks, the Steelers' punter is somebody who has yet to be cut by another NFL team.

@ It wasn't all bad.

Antonio Brown was his usual self, though, like Roethlisberger, a lot of his damage was done against Philly's second unit.

And, outside of jumping offside on one play and then losing contain, Jason Worilds was very active before leaving with what is likely a bruised knee.

@ OK, that's all I've got, other than the running backs and offensive line early on.

@ The two teams combined for 27 - ! - penalties in this game.

NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino told the NFL Network after this game that there will likely be fewer penalties called once the regular season begins.

No kidding! There couldn't possibly be more.

Preseason games are nearly unwatchable enough without the officials throwing out more flags than you'll see at a U.N. convention.

@ Mike Tomlin played Bell and Blount into the fourth quarter and said that was more punishment than sitting the two running backs out.

But judging from his comments, there will be more punishment forthcoming at some point.

@ Sean Spence left early with a PCL injury to his right knee. It was his left knee that he injured before. And PCL injuries usually just require rest.