PS Game 1- Steelers 16, Eagles 10

A Steelers victory, a perfect night, a spectacular looking first team offense... all overshadowed by the loss of veteran QB Charlie Batch.

(Charlie Batch high fives some kids before the game.)

Batch broke his collarbone in the second quarter of last nights game against the Philadelphia Eagles on a broken play due to a miscommunication between himself and RB Gary Russel.

From what I have read, that type of injury takes about 4-6 weeks to heal properly.
So, the Steelers will look for a veteran QB to back up Big Ben, since they wouldn't want to have to go with Rookie QB Dennis DIxon.

Two free agent QB's who come to mind are Byron Leftwich and Dante Culpepper. I think Culpepper would be a nice fit as a backup, especially since he is an athletic QB like Dixon. He would be a good teacher.

The Steelers went on to win the game 16-10.
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I want to talk about some things I liked and didn't like about what I saw last night.
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Likes:

THE FIRST TEAM OFFENSE
(Santonio Holmes celebrates after his 19-yard TD catch.)

- I thought Willie Parker looked to be about 100% now. He ran pretty hard on the edges.
- The offensive line looked pretty good. On both of Big Ben's passing attempts he had plenty of time to throw.
- Santonio Holmes is the teams #1 receiver. As much as I love Hines Ward, Santonio is the playmaker right now.

JEFF REED
- 3/3 on FG's, including a 50-yard blast in the 4th, which put the Steelers ahead by 6.

RAHSARD MENDENHALL AND LIMAS SWEED
(Mendenhall busts off a big run early on.)

(Limas Sweed hauls in a bomb later in the game... there was a penalty though and it came back.)

- These 2 guys might turn into the steal of the draft. Mendenhall ran hard all night and Sweed was all over the place, making catches and getting open a lot.

THE BACKUP DEFENSE
- I loved what they did last night, holding the Eagles out of the endzone and off the board completely in the second half. It was especially impressive because they were going up against the QB's A.J. Feely and Kevin Kolb. The Eagles threw the ball 48 times and only managed 210 yards passing. The Philly QB's averaged only 4.4 yards per attempt.
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Dislikes:

PUNTING
- Paul Ersnter was kind of all over the place with his punts, but I think with time he will get his control back. He put 2 punts inside the 20, but I felt like he wasn't getting all he could on his kicks.

THE FIRST TEAM DEFENSE
- They got a little torn up by Mcnabb, who was 10/13 for 97 yards and a TD. But with Troy Polamalu and Casey Hampton still out, that could have played a part in it.

THE BACKUP OFFENSE
(Dennis Dixon scrambling... he did a lot of that.)

- I wasn't too impressed with them not being able to get into the endzone and only putting up 9 points after the first drive.
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All in all I think the Steelers looked pretty good. The first team offense really showed what they can do, giving the fans hope for a big time, high flying season.