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The Pittsburgh Steelers kicked off the 2018 preseason the right way, going against the defending Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles in the city of brotherly love. While the all-Pennsylvania contest was lacking the star power of Ben Roethlisberger, Antonio Brown, Carson Wentz, among others as they took the meaningless game off.
Nonetheless, just because the outcome is ultimately meaningless doesn’t mean the game itself is. Players looking to make the team, and rookies trying to make a name for themselves, put it all on the line for their respective teams.
The Steelers started with the football, and Landry Jones was under center to begin the game. After a successful run by James Conner, a Fletcher Cox sack of Jones pushed the Steelers back into their own zone, and Jordan Berry got his first action of the game.
It didn’t take the Steelers long to get the ball back after Coty Sensabaugh picked off Eagles backup quarterback Nate Sudfeld to give the Steelers tremendous field position. The field position would be for naught after another sack of Jones pushed Pittsburgh out of field goal range.
After a long drive, the Eagles had to punt the ball back to Pittsburgh and the Steelers made them play. After a James Conner first down run, Landry Jones’ hard count drew the Eagles offsides. The free play resulted in a huge 71-yard touchdown pass to JuJu Smith-Schuster. Chris Boswell added the extra point to make it 7-0.
.@TeamJuJu gets the preseason started with some . pic.twitter.com/tfIWemhUxD
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) August 9, 2018
The Steelers had the football, and Joshua Dobbs at quarterback, to start the 2nd quarter.