PHILADELPHIA -- Bryant McFadden played last season as the Steelers' third cornerback in the nickel and dime defenses, and he is listed as Deshea Townsend's backup at right cornerback. Yet, when Townsend was scratched last night because of a broken right thumb, Ricardo Colclough and not McFadden started.

It may not be that Colclough, listed as the backup on the left side to Ike Taylor, moved ahead of McFadden as much as coach Bill Cowher and defensive coordinator Dick LeBeau wanted to get a longer look at Colclough. McFadden is entering his second season and Colclough his third; both were second-round draft choices.

"They've been good," said secondary coach Darren Perry. "They've been competing, and I know they're eager to get an opportunity and, in this league, a lot of jobs are gotten that way."

Colclough was beaten on a 61-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter last night from Jeff Garcia to Greg Lewis.

A touch of Hollywood

The pregame looked like a premier. Vince Papale was everywhere. The movie "Invincible," based on Papale's three years with the Philadelphia Eagles in the 1970s, opened last night. His former coach, Dick Vermeil, and many of the Eagles from that era attended. A Steelers player from the '70s also attend the game -- Hall of Famer Lynn Swann, the Republican candidate for governor. Gov. Ed Rendell, a lifelong Eagles fan who also has done a postgame TV show in Philadelphia on the Eagles, did not attend the game.

No-huddle offense update

Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger expects to run the no-huddle offense more often this season than he did the previous two, but it is not something new to him. At Miami (Ohio) University, Roethlisberger ran the no-huddle often.

"We did a lot of that," he said. "That's something we did. We played real fast, with a lot of hand signals."

The Steelers used the no-huddle for the second consecutive game last night, but waited until their second series this time. Roethlisberger played only two series, and Charlie Batch also used some of the no-huddle.

Roethlisberger is eager to do it more often with the Steelers this season for one big reason.

"I think it makes you better. Look at Cincinnati's offense -- not Indy's offense as much, but Cincinnati. Any time as a quarterback you can change the pace of the game and read it off the defense, it makes it so much tougher on the defense because now you're running plays that are best suited against certain defenses.

"When you're calling them at the line of scrimmage, usually you're getting yourself into the best play possible."

Duce not delivering

Halfback Willie Parker played just one series, then bowed out for the rest of the night. Duce Staley replaced him on the second series.

The Steelers have been disappointed in Staley this summer. He did not report to training camp in the kind of shape they hoped he would, and he lost a chance to take over the role Jerome Bettis held the past two years as the goal-line halfback. Cowher said Wednesday that he likely would stay with Parker on the goal line.

"Duce is working himself back into running shape," Cowher said as the team's 3¹/₂-week training camp came to an end.

Staley ran six times for 18 yards in the first half. On their first offensive series of the second half, the Steelers pitched him the ball wide to the right on fourth-and-1 at the Eagles' 36 and he lost 3. He had 11 carries for 21 yards for the game.

Quick hits

The previous time the Steelers had a losing exhibition record was 2003, when they went 1-3 in the preseason and 6-10 in the regular season. They previously went winless in the preseason in 1987 (0-4), the only time in the past 40 years they have not won at least one preseason game. They were 0-5 in 1965. ... Willie Reid was the lone deep man on punt returns for the game and appears to have won the job over fellow rookie Santonio Holmes. "I like Willie," Cowher said. "I think he's real close. ... I think he'll be fine." The Steelers did not use two deep as they had in their second game. ... Cowher was happy, finally, with his defense's performance on third downs (4 of 13 conversions). ... Guard Kendall Simmons moved to center on the third series, and Chris Kemoeatu played guard.