PHILADELPHIA — ‘Tis the season for giving, and the Eagles seemed to have a generous spirit on Sunday with the Pittsburgh Steelers in town. The Steelers had one yard of offense in the first quarter and didn’t gain a first down until there was 8:26 left in the half. They wouldn’t have even sniffed points, let alone scored, if the Eagles hadn’t gifted them good field position with a pair of turnovers and a bad punt (plus a questionable penalty on safety Reed Blankenship for unnecessary roughness). “We didn’t win the turnover battle, so that part of the game plan didn’t come together,” Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni said after his team got back on track en route to a 27-13 win over the Steelers. “(Our) defense did a phenomenal job of holding them. They’ve played good red-zone defense. We’ve played good red-zone defense the entire year, dating back to the very beginning of the year when we turned it over early in the game and held Green Bay to six points, and they did a good job (today).” As much as the Eagles kept Pittsburgh in the game with their miscues, which they might not get away with in the playoffs, they dominated their cross-state rival, which still sits in first place in the AFC North. The Eagles finished with 26 first downs compared to the Steelers’ 10, they outgained Pittsburgh with 401 yards of offense to 163, and the Eagles’ defense pitched a shutout in the second half. On top of all that, the Birds quickly exorcised their recent demons on their first possession, as Hurts spread the holiday cheer around to A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, and then embattled kicker Jake Elliott drilled a 34-yard goal. Hurts answered critics by finishing 25 of 32 for 290 yards with two touchdowns and a 125.3 quarterback rating. He targeted AJ. Brown 11 times and DeVonta Smith 12. Brown finished with eight catches for 110 yards and a score, and Smith had 11 receptions for 109 yards and a TD. Although Hurts fumbled the ball away, as did cornerback/punt returner Cooper DeJean, the Eagles overcame the mistakes with otherwise excellent efforts in all phases. And gone were the offense’s first-quarter scoring woes, as the Birds got out to a 10-3 lead in the opening period. “Complementary football is what it’s about,” said linebacker Zack Baun, who had five solo tackles. “They (the offense) get a score, we get a stop. That’s good ball right there, and then the special teams playing well — we have a really good team.” For the 10th time this season, the Birds held an opponent to 20 points or fewer. The Steelers were without top receiver George Pickens, yet entered the game with the ninth-best rushing offense in the league, averaging 132.1 yards per game. On Sunday, they generated just 56 yards on the ground. “I think it starts with stopping the run,” Baun said. “They’re a good running team, they’re physical, so that was one of the things we focused on.” As they did against the Baltimore Ravens, the Eagles were more physical than physically capable Pittsburgh, with the disruptive Philly defense and the offensive line doing the dictating. “That’s our goal,” said cornerback Darius Slay, who recovered a Steelers fumble. “I’m not just going to put that (out) there like that, but our goal is always to try to be the most physical team in the league. Whenever we go against a good, physical team like – you know, Pittsburgh is a very, very physical team – but we just made a lot more plays than they did. “We just continue to keep playing ball like we did. They were missing one of their star receivers, but we knew that going in. … But we were still trying to go out there and dominate.” The Steelers of 2024 usually have set the tone in games, and they kicked it up a notch when Russell Wilson took over under center in Week 7. Instead, it was the Eagles setting the tone on Sunday, handing Wilson (14-of-22, 128 yards, TD) a loss in his worst performance of the season. “We didn’t coach as well as we’d like, we didn’t play as well as we’d like,” Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin said. “It’s just such a fine line at this level. There were several possession downs on defense where we had opportunities to tackle ball carriers in the flat, and we missed those tackles. And that produced extended drives, and thus points. “That’s life in our business,” he said. “It’s not anything mystical. It’s very fundamental. We have to play disciplined. We have to secure the ball. We have to tackle. And we didn’t do some of those fundamental things well enough tonight to secure victory.” Whereas the Eagles fell apart last December, this year – except for a near hiccup against Carolina – they’re playing their best, most cohesive football down the stretch.