Any success or failures the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense has usually has something to do with its two young tackles, Broderick Jones and Troy Fautanu. Unfortunately for the Steelers, their 25-10 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers Sunday night was full of offensive failures.
Some of those could be attributed to the line, Fautanu said, which did not do a good enough job of protecting QB Aaron Rodgers.
“We gotta be able to hold up as an offensive line, knowing that Aaron’s gonna hold the ball. But just didn’t play our best out there. It was frustrating,” Fautanu said after the game via Steelers.com. “I’ll have to go back and watch the film, but I just know that 8 [Rodgers] was hit too much.”
The Steelers really struggled to protect Rodgers early in the year, but things seemed to be improving over the last month or so. During a four-game stretch, from Weeks 3 to 7, Rodgers was sacked just two times. However, he’s starting to get sacked at a bit higher of a rate now. He was sacked three times by the Chargers and was sacked three times in each of the Steelers’ previous two games as well.
One of those sacks was costly, with Rodgers going down in the end zone for a safety. Fautanu was initially beat around the edge by Khalil Mack on the play, and then he failed to get back to help his scrambling quarterback.
To be fair, this safety isn’t completely Fautanu. Rodgers and his 21 years of NFL experience should know better than to hold onto the ball this long. Even if a lineman gets beat, there really is no reason a play should end up in a safety when it starts at the 9-yard line. It’s certainly some poor situational awareness from Rodgers. And Rodgers did take responsibility for the play after the game.
However, it just wasn’t a great day for Fautanu in general. Later in the game, he was called for a holding penalty while the Steelers were in the red zone.
“I just gotta do a better job of keeping my hands inside,” Fautanu said. “The ref had told me that I was hooking the defender. Frustrating, but I gotta clean that up.”
To his credit, Fautanu really has had an impressive year. He’s essentially in his rookie season since he missed nearly his entire actual rookie season with an injury. But he’s playing well and is convincing some he’s already one of the better right tackles in the NFL.
Yet Sunday night was a rough performance from Fautanu, and really most of the offense as a whole. Rodgers held onto the ball for a bit longer than usual and didn’t have a good game in any aspect. But some of those problems start with the line, something Troy Fautanu recognizes.
Recommended for you