Steelers wide receiver Sammie Coates took the blame for quarterback Landry Jones’ first interception of the night.
Finding scapegoats for the other three would prove tougher.
On a night when the Steelers held out most of their regular skill-position players against the Eagles, Jones threw a total of four interceptions. One was returned for a touchdown and two others were in the end zone, a complete flat-line performance for Ben Roethlisberger’s backup.
“You have to make it a learning experience,” Jones said. “Things like that are going to happen. You are going to play bad. You aren’t going to play like you want to. You learn from it and you move on.”
The question for the Steelers is where to move. With Bruce Gradkowski suffering a torn hamstring, his availability is in question again. So realistically, Ben Roethlisberger’s backup if he gets hurt is probably a hurt Ben Roethlisberger.
“We need to get better,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. “Sometimes it is playmaking by them and sometimes it is negligence by us. . . .
“The bottom line is that us as a unit or team has got to do a better job of securing the ball.”
Of course, it will be better when Antonio Brown, Le’Veon Bell, Markus Wheaton, Ladarius Green (maybe) and DeAngelo Williams return to the lineup. But after this kind of performance, it’s hard to know how the Steelers can feel confident about Jones, which could send them looking for a veteran backup.
