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PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Steelers suffered their worst loss in 27 years on Sunday, when they lost to the Eagles 34-3 at Lincoln Financial Field. The previous time the Steelers lost by 31-point margin was 1989, when the Cincinnati Bengals beat them, 31-10. Mike Tomlin's worst loss had been a 35-7 loss in Baltimore in the season opener in 2011.
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"We lost just about every element of that matchup," Tomlin said. "It was a poor performance by us. When I say us, I mean us. It starts with me. They outcoached us. They outplayed us. They were better fundamentally. We were highly penalized. We didn't get it done and they did."
Now the Steelers have to go about figuring out how to fix a multitude of problems that surfaced against the Eagles. The Steelers were held to three points for the first time since losing in San Francisco, 20-3, late in the 2011 season. They were held to 29 rushing yards, which allowed the Eagles to dictate on the many second- and third-and-long situations.
"They got after us and made us one-dimensional," quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said. "They got after us pretty good."
The defense, which had been so good in the red zone in the first two games, allowed the Eagles to score almost at will. Rookie Carson Wentz threw for 301 yards and two touchdowns, and rookie running back Wendell Smallwood rushed for 79 of Philadelphia 125 yards on the ground.
"There is room for improvement all around, whether it's the pass rush, not tackling well, not rallying to screens better, not winning third downs," defensive end Cam Heyward said. "We got our (butts) kicked. I'll simply say it like that. I got my (butt) kicked. We all got our (butts) kicked. We're going to learn from it."
Next up is a Sunday night game against Kansas City at Heinz Field. The Chiefs run the same offense as the Eagles. Philadelphia coach Doug Pederson was Andy Reid's offensive coordinator for the Chiefs the past three seasons. He no doubt will examine everything Pederson did and try to duplicate that success against the Steelers.
"It's one of those things where it's out there," linebacker Arthur Moats said. "We're going to correct our issues and we're going to make sure that gets off our tape real quick."
Opposing running backs are starting to make a habit of lighting up the Pittsburgh secondary in the passing game. One week after Gio Bernard had 100 receiving yards and a touchdown, Eagles running back Darren Sproles had six receptions for 128 yards, including a 73-yard touchdown.
"We're just not tackling," safety Mike Mitchell said. "That's really all it is. When they're throwing the ball short, we're taking away the deep throws, so we have to come up and tackle the short stuff we're giving them. That's why they are throwing it there. We gave up a lot of yards to a back last week, so we would be stupid to assume that this team was not going to try similar things. Hats off to their offense because they did a good job, but I really felt like it was our lack of execution more than anything else. We have to get it corrected."
Rookie defensive backs Artie Burns and Sean Davis were two of the biggest culprits in the missed tackles department.
"Until you stop stuff like that, it's a copycat league," linebacker Arthur Moats said. "They're going to see we have to tackle better against the screen. We're totally expecting that, but we put that out there, and it's going to be on us to rectify that situation."
