"[The Eagles' blitzing] really seemed to confuse us a little," Steelers receiver Hines Ward said, after the Eagles' 15-6 victory. "I think today was a good old-fashioned butt-kicking . . .

"I think this was about as frustrating a game as it could be. I think sometimes you don't want to press the issues too much this early in the season. I think we really had a lot of guys that were not on the same page. In a 60-minute game, you have to be on that same page. It's tough enough to win on the road . . .

"I think we were really confused," Ward added. "We have to learn from this today. We had too many guys coming in scot-free and did not pick up their blitz packages. I think we did not protect our quarterback because he was running around a lot. We all had our hands in the cookie jar and are all to blame."

The key point, though, was this: The Eagles were only able to terrorize Roethlisberger because they did such a good job stopping running back Willie Parker. After breaking 100 yards in each of the Steelers' first two games, Parker settled for a measly 20 yards on 13 carries yesterday.

Asked if the Eagles also blitzed a lot on running plays, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said, "Yeah, they had a bunch of guys up around the line of scrimmage. They made a commitment to it like they are capable of doing, and the only way you get people out of that mentality is you handle it, get the ball out, get the ball in the hands of people in open spaces. We weren't able to do that consistently."

Asked if they changed anything in the second half to deal with the pressure, Tomlin said, "We did. [But] to be quite honest with you, blood in the water at that point."

Receiver report

"We knew it was a short week this week and we knew we were playing a very physical team offensively and defensively," Jackson said. "Whatever we needed to do to get the win, we fought hard and we pulled it out."

Surprise, the leading receiver this week was Hank Baskett, who had a career-high eight catches for 85 yards. Baskett already has more yards this year in three games than he had all of last year.

"I was able to get open, fortunately, tonight," he said. "I made a couple of things happen but it just comes down to Donovan [McNabb]. Donovan is the one putting the ball in and it goes back to the line and the running backs because they're giving him time. If you give him time, he's dangerous."

And then there is Reggie Brown, who played for the first time this season after nursing his way back from a hamstring injury. Brown did not start, did not have a catch, and did not appear to have the kind of physical burst that receivers in the NFL so desperately need.

Asked if Brown could have been used more, Eagles coach Andy Reid said, "He could have been used more. He was feeling good. The important thing was that he came out of this game feeling good. As much as you practice hard, once you get the juices flowing in a game, it's different. I just wanted to make sure he came out of this game healthy, and that's how he feels. We'll use him more now."

The Eagles' longest completions were for 20 yards (to Baskett and running back Correll Buckhalter). Reid tried to rein things in a bit in the second half, because of the injuries and because of how well his defense was playing.

"I was semi-conservative," Reid said. "I was still trying to get it down the field. But [the Steelers] were just playing so stinking deep." *