Escape will not go above 60mph and will not downshift w/gas pedal

It could very well be a restriction in the exhaust like a stopped up cat converter. I doubt if it is a torque converter,that may make it slow to get to speed but shouldn't effect hwy speeds.
You can check this vehicle for an exhaust restriction very easy by going to the DPFE sensor and measuring exhaust back pressure with a vacuum/pressure gage. It will be either silver or black in color will have 2 rubber hoses hooked to it going down to metal tubes that hook into the exhaust.It will have a 3 wire connector with the color of the wires being BN/WH,BN/LG,OG. Disconnect one of the rubber hoses from the sensor and hook the vacuum/pressure gage into the hose.You should have less than 1 psi at idle,then press accel to wide open throttle and take a reading,it should be no higher than 3-4 psi. Anything more is an exhaust restriction.

it sounds like the catalytic converter is partially clogged my suburban did the same thing and i had i replace mine

My 2002 escape had both manifold cats. replaced ..However the third cat was bad. I did the test at the DPFE port and psi went to 10 on throttle. Removed cat to retest and was fine, so I replaced cat and it runs great.

Thanks,