Steelers Offensive line performance in preseason game 1

**BlitzburghRockCity** · 08-13-2011, 09:22 AM

Well this unit, like the rest of the starters did not have a good game. When Ben was in the game they were allowing pressure to come from all over the place, mainly up the middle though. Both times that Ben got knocked down and/or nicked up the pressure came right up the middle between Pouncey and Ramon Foster. When Leftwich came into the game he had some pressure in his face too; on 1 snap in the first half the Washington pass rusher was in the backfield before Byron even had a chance to take a second step in his drop.

When Leftwich came into the game , Tomlin left the starters in but did swap out Chris Scott in place of Foster for awhile. That yielded probably worse results and Scott was completely schooled and looked lost. Pressure came from up the middle again on multiple occasions between him and Pouncey.

Willie Colon wasn't too bad overall from what I could tell, nothing glaringly bad like some of the others.

Jonathan Scott wasn't in the game very long but overall his performance was average. Considering he was facing Arakpo on many of the snaps he didn't do all that bad. He did let pressure through on several occasions but he wasn't the worst of them.

I will say from a run blocking point of view, once they settled down and Redman came into the game they were able to open up some holes for him. I would caution though that it was Redman's ability to power through tackles and spin out of the grasp of defenders as much as it was a semi ok run blocking performance.

**LatrobePA** · 08-13-2011, 09:25 AM

Pouncey appeared to be overwhelmed.

To be honest not one bright spot on that line last night. I could smell them all the way here in Ohio THEY STUNK!

**BlitzburghRockCity** · 08-13-2011, 09:33 AM

Remember last night too, Kemoeatu didn't play in the game and Tomlin rotated out Foster at RG. It was hardly a line to be proud of and hardly one you'd think is going to be successful in the NFL. Given the injuries in training camp and the musical chairs they've been playing again, we should have been expecting this to happen.

Even if they did have a good showing you wouldn't want to read too much into it, because it is preseason. However when they were that bad, you can only blame it on rust so much. This team has got to get a healthy starting 5 in front of Ben before the season starts.

Kemo is off the PUP list now I believe, hopefully that will help solidify things alittle bit although we don't know if he'll play next weekend or not. I want to see a much better showing in the next game.

**SteelDad** · 08-13-2011, 10:27 AM

I'm DVR'ing the game later today and am looking forward to breaking it down a little, From what highlights I've seen, the O-line has serious work to do, but I have faith in Kugler.

**connecticutsteel** · 08-13-2011, 10:40 AM

What i saw was one team (skins) treating it like a regular season game and one team evaluating talent (pitt) that what i saw Shanahan kept his starters in for a half but our starter didn't play well and better pick it up . Look on the bright side if we don't pick it up
we will get atop 10 draft pick 10 . lol

**jackhammer1** · 08-13-2011, 11:26 AM

Hey, the punting game looked solid!

**Rampage** · 08-13-2011, 12:50 PM

I still have to watch the game, but from what I have seen, the o-line looked like Chet from Weird Science. Hopefully they can figure something out and do it quickly, otherwise Ben is going to be killed in the opener.

**SteelDad** · 08-13-2011, 01:00 PM

Originally Posted by connecticutsteel

What i saw was one team (skins) treating it like a regular season game and one team evaluating talent (pitt) that what i saw Shanahan kept his starters in for a half but our starter didn't play well and better pick it up . Look on the bright side if we don't pick it up
we will get atop 10 draft pick 10 . lol

You make an excellent point in your evaluation. Veteran teams like ours have one mindset while a younger team like the skins have a totally different one when approaching these preseason games.

Originally Posted by Rampage

I still have to watch the game, but from what I have seen, the o-line looked like Chet from Weird Science. Hopefully they can figure something out and do it quickly, otherwise Ben is going to be killed in the opener.

**BlitzburghRockCity** · 08-13-2011, 02:32 PM

The Redskins clearly came into this game with a purpose and from what we could tell atleast on offense they were able to accomplish that. Their line was able to handle the Steelers defensive line and their running game was somewhat effective.

The Steelers offensive line got very little push in the run game, but the pass protection was horrific. They were totally out of sync and looked lost. Granted it's the first time they've played in a game since last year and there were no OTA's to help get them ready. The Skins were in the same boat though and their line was clearly up to the task.

**Rampage** · 08-13-2011, 03:15 PM

Honestly, I don't think this is a huge deal. Scrub teams like the Redskins always play balls out in these types of games and keep their starters in longer. I wish the team would have performed better, but they only got beat 16 to 7. It isn't like we had every starter in and got crushed 35 to nothing.

The o-line was apparently a steaming pile of crap and that is a huge concern, but I imagine they'll gain some continuity over the next few weeks. Secondary looked crappy, but there were no starters in. I would say the third preseason game will be the greatest tell: That's usually when the starters put in the most time and if they still suck, it might be time to be alarmed. First game back with a short period of time to get ready and using backups on both sides of the ball doesn't leave me frantic.