It's the fourth week of a five-week
preseason, which means everybody is itching for the start of the games that
count in the standings. In that sense, Sunday night's game between the
Philadelphia Eagles and the Pittsburgh Steelers could be seen as an
appetizer.
The 8
p.m. game at
Heinz Field will be televised nationally by NBC, it will pit the Steelers
against an Eagles team that has won five division championships in the past six
seasons, and it's a game for which Coach Mike Tomlin has prepared his team,
almost to the degree of a regular season game.
So if the preseason is seen as a
chance for players to audition, Sunday night is closer to a dress
rehearsal.
"They've been in four NFC
Championship games, a Super Bowl," said Tomlin about the Eagles. "They're one of
the legendary giants in this era of the NFC. Those are the kind of opponents you
like to
play
against this time of year when you're trying to find out who and what you are.
We welcome that challenge."
To give his players their best
chance to meet that challenge, Tomlin has conducted this week as close to a
regular season week as possible. There was a modified game plan, and it was
implemented during the Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
practices.
"Not a complete body of work like we
will do here in a couple weeks getting ready for the opener, but quite a bit
more than we've done for the preseason," said Tomlin. "You've got to make
decisions along those lines when you're talking about the preseason when you're
installing and zeroing in on an opponent, you're not giving those guys an
opportunity to compete and play Steelers vs. Steelers, as we like to say in
training camp.
"To me that is what training camp is
about. It's about seeing who can compete, giving guys things that they know
they've been working on in the offseason to see who's capable of making plays
and who is not. Things are a little different this week, we've broken camp, we
got a simulated game-week here where we are game planning for an opponent to a
degree, so it is some subtle differences."
And then on the other side of this
game, Tomlin plans to use the Sunday-Thursday night schedule of the preseason's
final week to mimic what the team will face in December when the Steelers play
Jacksonville at home on a Sunday and then have a road game in St. Louis the
following Thursday night.
Tomlin said the plan is
to
play
the starters through the first half, and depending upon how that goes, then
decisions will be made about getting the backups into the game. Ben
Roethlisberger will be followed at quarterback by Charlie Batch, but Tomlin
indicated his veteran backup will play only a short time to allow for more of an
opportunity for Brian St. Pierre and/or Bryan
Randall.
The starting offensive line will
consist of Marvel Smith, Alan Faneca, Sean Mahan, Kendall Simmons and Willie
Colon, and Tomlin said, "You'll see there will be guys rolling in and competing
and playing. We want to make sure all of those men who have been talked about
have an opportunity to show what they are capable of."
All NFL teams are required to reduce
their rosters to 75 players by Tuesday afternoon, and this year the exemptions
for NFL Europa players expired with this mandatory cut-down. This means the
Steelers will be cutting 10 players before Tuesday afternoon, and so the game
against the Eagles represents a final chance for many of
them.
"I'm looking for the same thing from
them that I am looking for from everybody, and that is that they
continue to grow in terms of their game," said Tomlin about the guys who might
be playing their final game in a Steelers uniform. "Technically, the level of
execution, we have to continue to grow, we are a developing football team, and
they are developing men. Whether they're been-there-done-that guys or guys on
the bubble, it really doesn't matter. Every time we go out there and play in the
stadiums on weekends, we're looking to keep it moving forward in terms of being
a finished product."
INJURY REPORT: Tomlin said TE Jerame
Tuman (back) and DE Derrick Jones (calf) won't play against the Eagles … Rookie
C/G Darnell Stapleton, who had surgery to repair a torn meniscus cartilage in
his knee before the preseason opener, will see his first action on Sunday night.
"I look forward to seeing what he can do," said
Tomlin.
