oldnumberseven

Pittsburgh looked pretty good in their first pre-season game against Philadelphia. The Eagles played without Westbrook though. These two teams meet again in week 3 of the regular season so neither team showed much of their playbooks. Santonio Holmes and Ben Roethlisberger hooked up for the Steelers touchdown on a nineteen yard catch. It was a nice play by Holmes to outflank another Eagle great Brian Dawkins. The drive was 8 plays and covered 65 yards, and featured 4 first downs. Roethlisberger’s TD pass came on the drive’s only third down. The Steelers lost back-up QB Charlie Batch to a broken collarbone when Batch had to scramble on a broken play. My biggest concern for the new season is the offensive line. Those fellows played better than I expected, but I am reserving judgement until they play against a non-vanilla defense. The Eagles played like the Eagles. McNabb looked good. I could see the Eagles winning their division and the NFC this season.

The higlights at NFL.com
Rothlisberger’s highlights
The stats (pdf)
What the papers are saying:
Game summary at the New York Times
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Rightwing Rag Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Coach Mike Tomlin post game presser
Open thread at Heels, Sox, Steelers