“We were able to get a first down,” tight end Pat Freiermuth said of the change after falling behind 17-3. “We had five three-pointers at the start of the game. We will learn from it. We’re going to fix it and get better.”

The slow starts on offense need to change.

The Eagles have a very good defense. It entered this game ranked No. 1 in the NFL. And without Pickens, the Eagles loaded the box and dared the Steelers to throw the ball.

They did this with very little success at first, as Russell Wilson started the game just 2 of 8 for 8 yards.

Meanwhile, the running game didn’t help either, as the Steelers gained 5 yards on four runs in the first quarter.

“We got behind the scenes,” Austin said. “The penalty I took knocked us out of the touchdown. Instead of getting 7, we got 3. If we sit behind the sticks a lot, play in the second and third rounds, it just means losing football. “It’s very frustrating because we know that if we don’t beat ourselves, it’s a different game.

• The Steelers tried to stop Barkley. And that came at the expense of keeping their cornerbacks on an island with wide receivers AJ Brown and Devonta Smith.

Both caught touchdown passes and finished the game with 100 yards receiving, Brown with eight and Smith with 10.

The Steelers assumed the Eagles might throw more balls this week than they have so far. After all, Brown complained last week that the Eagles weren’t throwing the ball enough.

And Hurts’ 32 pass attempts marked the first time he was over 30 since a loss to Tampa Bay on Sept. 29.

In some ways, it’s just a small taste of what the Eagles expected from the Steelers. They knew they were in for a tough sledding game in the run game.

“I think a Mike Tomlin team is physical, disruptive and tough,” Hurts said. “This whole conference, this whole division is tough. Playing against a Steelers team is always a big challenge. It was definitely a test, a battle. They look for the ball and play physical ball. We were a great opponent out there.

• Lost in all of this is the fact that Chris Boswell made both field goal attempts in that game and now holds the Steelers record with 38 field goals in a season. And he did it in just 41 total attempts.

• Buffalo’s win at Detroit likely puts the Steelers’ ability to secure the No. 1 pick and a first-round bye out of reach. The next step after securing a playoff spot is now securing a home playoff game.

And they’ll do that by winning in Baltimore next week.

This will make it pretty easy for you to focus this week.

“It’s great to be able to get it so early, but I wish we had gotten the win so we could celebrate,” Freiermuth said. “But we want to achieve some big things in the postseason and hopefully win the division next weekend.”

To do that, they’ll have to get back to the things that helped this team to seven wins in eight games prior to this game.

“We approached this game with the right mindset,” Austin said. “But you can approach the game with the right attitude and if the details, execution and focus don’t match your attitude then it doesn’t matter. With every win or loss, you have to go back to basics and clean up the little things and overemphasize things so they don’t happen again.