Wentz leads Eagles to rout of Steelers
a blocked 36-yard field-goal attempt. It virtually ended with Eagles safety Rodney McLeod wrestling the ball away from Darrius Heyward-Bey in the end zone for an interception.
In-between was just as ugly for the Steelers.
“We lost just about every element of that matchup,’’ Tomlin said. “It was a poor performance by us . ... I tip my cap to them but I acknowledge some areas that are showing a pattern of inconsistency or a pattern of undesirable performance.”
After starting 2-0 with victories against two 2015 division champs, the Steelers slipped on a banana in Philadelphia.
“It’s only one game,’’ guard David DeCastro said, then added, “It feels like 10. It’s pretty brutal right now.”
“I’ll be honest with you guys,’’ center Maurkice Pouncey said, “this [stuff stinks].”
As Ryan Shazier said, normally do this to people.”
Wentz looked every bit as good as Roethlisberger did at any point in his rookie season. It appears the trade the Eagles made with Cleveland in order to draft him could go down as one of the great ones in league history.
“I thought he played great,’’ Roethlisberger said. “He won the game. He managed the game, he makes throws, he does the checks and audibles. I’m not sure how much freedom he has but just look at the score.”
It was tough for the Steelers to do just that but safety Mike Mitchell took umbrage when someone asked him if he could forget about the 31point licking.
“Why would we want to forget about this?” he said.
They would have to go back to the opener of the 2011 season to find a game in which they were so soundly thrashed, when the Ravens spanked the defending AFC champions, 35-7, in Baltimore.
Their only player who had any kind of success Sunday was Antonio Brown, who threw a fit for not getting the ball enough in a victory against Cincinnati the previous week. Brown caught 12 passes for 140 yards against the Eagles and then said all the right things.
“Today we got our butt kicked. It’s not about what we did individually; collectively, we [stunk]. We got blown out and couldn’t put up enough points.”
They came up only 27 short of their weekly goal.
Wheaton took the blame for dropping that first one from Roethlisberger in the end zone: “I started the game off on the wrong foot.”
It occurred on the opening drive, after the Steelers won the coin toss and chose to receive. It came on third down from the 18 and would have gotten them off to a quick 7-0 start. It might have changed the tone for the rest of the day.
“He knows that he should and can make that play,’’ Roethlisberger said. “But there’s enough thumb-pointing that needs to go on and it starts with me.”
To top it all off, the Steelers lost a gaggle of starters to injuries during the game — Robert Golden, Ramon Foster, Lawrence Timmons, Eli Rogers and Ryan Shazier.
There are many wounds for them to lick between now and Sunday night when they play the Kansas City Chiefs at Heinz Field.
“It better be fixable,’’ Heyward said. Will Gay Heyward
Coach Mike Tomlin cited missed tackles and penalties by the defense as reasons the Steelers fell behind. Timmons received a 15-yard penalty for a late hit and rookie defensive backs Artie Burns and Sean Davis were just two of the culprits when it came to missed tackles.
“We allowed some drives to continue there in the early portion of the game,” Tomlin said. “We need to do a better job of tackling.”
Chickillo devastated
The loss the Eagles handed the Steelers wasn’t the worst part of Anthony Chickillo’s day. The worst came early Sunday morning when he woke up to the news that his friend, Jose Fernandez, had died in a boating accident.
Chickillo and Fernandez, the star pitcher for the Miami Marlins, were classmates at Braulio High School in Tampa, Fla.
“It’s devastating,” Chickillo said. “It’s just really, really devastating.”
Chickillo last saw Fernandez in July before he left Miami for training camp. It was a chance meeting. He was going to dinner with his girlfriend in Miracle Mile and Fernandez was going to dinner with his girlfriend, who is pregnant with their first child.
“We were really excited about what was coming his way,” Chickillo said. “He was excited for me. I was excited for him . ... We were just really, really happy to see each other.”
Quick hits
Antonio Brown had his 27th 100-yard receiving game, the second-most 100yard receiving games in team history. Only Hines Ward (29) has more. Brown reached 7,500 yards from scrimmage and achieved that feat in the fourth-fewest number of games . ... DeAngelo Williams rushed for 21 yards and became the fifth active player to reach 8,000 rushing yards.