Steelers offense
Steelers offense
The Pittsburgh Steelers’ Week 1 uninspiring offensive performance was largely brushed aside as first-week issues due to a lack of cohesion from the preseason. After all, September football can be incredibly sloppy.
But the Steelers’ Week 2 20-3 loss to the New England Patriots has raised the concern level through the roof. The Steelers managed just 3.5 yards per play on Sunday in Foxboro. The offensive line struggled to generate any real push in the run game and was downright terrible in pass protection.
With no run game and the inability to protect quarterback Aaron Rodgers, things went off the rails quickly for the Steelers’ offense. First-year head coach Mike McCarthy made it clear after the dreadful performance that he has to be better. It starts with him and his preparation during the week.
For former NFL head coach Jon Gruden, who appeared on Wake Up Barstool Monday morning, it was one of the worst performances he’s ever seen from a Steelers offense, period.
“The offensive line, I don’t know what they did. They moved their right tackle to left tackle, their right guard to left guard. I don’t know who their right tackle is. They’re struggling to protect, struggling to run the ball,” Gruden said. “But Aaron Rodgers did make some great throws in Week 1. I don’t know where they’re going with the direction of the offense but yesterday was one of the biggest butt-kickings I have ever seen the Pittsburgh Steelers take on offense.
“It was hard to watch.”
Hard to watch is putting it nicely. It was a complete train wreck, and it was clear it was going to be that type of day right from the start, as tight end Pat Freiermuth pointed out after the loss.
The Steelers had a lot of moving parts along the offensive line this offseason, flipping Troy Fautanu and Mason McCormick from the right side to the left. Instead, it’s caused more chaos as both have struggled mightily in the first two weeks of the season. It culminated in a major miscommunication in the first half, leading to a free rusher on Rodgers, who was blasted and fumbled the football.
Pittsburgh flat-out couldn’t protect Rodgers throughout the day. The Patriots pressured Rodgers 18 times, hit him seven times and sacked him four times in the blowout. For a 42-year-old quarterback, that’s way too much. It borders on elder abuse.
It’s just Week 2 though and there’s some time to iron things out. September football is historically bad, especially in this new era of the NFL, where padded practices are limited in training camp, putting teams at a disadvantage when it comes to getting up to speed physically.
That appears to be the case with the Steelers. And it might result in some changes up front, like putting rookie first-round pick Max Iheanachor into the lineup at right tackle, and maybe even swapping right guard Spencer Anderson out for Brock Hoffman until rookie third-round pick Gennings Dunker is ready.
We’ll see what happens under McCarthy, but coming off that performance in Week 2, the concern level is high, and there doesn’t appear to be an easy solution to correct things, either.