Safety Ryan Clark refers to Philadelphia Eagles running back Brian Westbrook as the Marshall Faulk of his era, a multi-purpose back who presents a two-pronged problem for a defense: He is a tough matchup, and even tougher to tackle.

Clark should know. He played two seasons with the Washington Redskins and two with the New York Giants, teams that shared the NFC East Division with the Eagles.

"I always said he's one of hardest guys I ever had to tackle," Clark said. "He's elusive and stronger than you think. He doesn't weigh much, but he's a short guy, so all that weight is compact and he'll break a lot of tackles.

"But you have to honor his moves. He gives you a little shake to the right or left and you start to lean that way, and if you want to get an arm on him he's going to break that tackle."

Then Clark added, "I put him up there with LT, as far as getting him on the ground," a reference to LaDainian Tomlinson of the San Diego Chargers.

Here's another two-pronged problem: Westbrook is a quality running back and quality receiver.

The Steelers will try a variety of different ways to stop Westbrook when they play the Eagles at 4:15 p.m. in Philadelphia, and it won't be easy. He was named first-team on the All-Pro team in 2007 after leading in NFL in yards from scrimmage (2,104) and set a team record for receptions in a season (90).

Only seven players in NFL history have ever scored at least 25 rushing touchdowns and 25 receiving touchdowns in their career. Westbrook is one of them.

"He can hurt you in the air and he can hurt you running the ball," said Steelers outside linebacker LaMarr Woodley. "You can see they going to try to get Westbrook matched up with linebackers such as myself, kind of get a mismatch, and let him make big plays against guys like me."

Perhaps. But maybe not.

Among the defensive strategies the Steelers could employ against Westbrook, especially in pass situations, is to get him matched against linebacker Lawrence Timmons in their nickel defense.

Timmons is the fastest and most athletic linebacker on the team, one of the reasons he has been used to play Troy Polamalu's spot in the dime defense when Polamalu was injured.

"He's a terrific athlete," Timmons said, "I know they revolve the offense around him. He can beat you with the pass and the run. He's just a great back, and you have to prepare for him. You never know what to expect from him."

The Steelers did not use their nickel defense much in last week's victory in Cleveland, primarily because of the formations the Browns like to use with tight end Kellen Winslow Jr. as a wide receiver. That could change against the Eagles, who are aware of Dick LeBeau's intricate and varied defensive schemes.

"He just does a lot of things with that 3-4 defense ... as much with that 3-4 as anybody," Eagles coach Andy Reid said. "Then you add in there all of the crazy things that he does with his nickel and dime package. It is amazing that those players can digest it all."