The Pittsburgh Steelers offensive line looked good at times and they looked bad at times. This is what the preseason is about so there shouldn’t be a whole lot of need for alarm. With that said, the transition to some zone blocking schemes was clearly a work in progress in the 18-13 loss to the New York Giants.
I went back and watched the game over and if I applied grades to each of the starters last night I can tell you that the grades ranged from B to a low C. I thought David DeCastro had a very solid outing and maybe for the first time looked the part of a first-round draft pick. He looked good in pass protection and was very aggressive and stayed with his man to the whistle in the running game.
His counterpart Ramon Foster didn’t fare so well. He was beaten badly in the first quarter on a play that resulted in a sack of quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. His balance was not good and he seemed to fall for a pretty basic ‘one move and go’ by the defensive lineman. Pass protecting has never been Foster’s specialty but he must be better than he showed. His run blocking was pretty good overall which I would expect.
Maurkice Pouncey was steady against the Giants. I didn’t think he was overly spectacular but he didn’t have any short-comings that I saw either in his limited time on the field. As the leader of the O-Line, Pouncey must help make the transition to some zone blocking as smooth as possible.
As far as the tackles go, I was pleased to see Mike Adams on the left and Marcus Gilbert on the right. I think the Steelers liked Adams better on the right because they typically are ‘run-heavy’ that way, but getting both of these guys back to their more traditional college positions should help over time.
With that said, I’m just not crazy about the footwork of either guy. Both Adams and Gilbert give up way too much ground to pass rushers on the edge. Obviously they don’t want to be overly aggressive or they risk opening rush lanes for rushers but they need to find a more happy medium. Adams is typically a yard or two deep before the rusher engages him. I’d rather see some aggressiveness out of both guys than be so passive at the point of attack.
I thought they excelled a little more in the run game but even there I saw some lethargy. Adams had defenders cross his face on a couple of runs to the opposite side and in one of the cases the defender made the play down-field. Gilbert also took a bad holding penalty when he was beaten by a faster player. His poor positioning and balance was most of the problem.
The good news is that this is just game one of the preseason and there is still a lot of time for adjustment and improvement. The zone blocking scheme is not an over-night success and it will have growing pains but the line must come together when it comes to pass blocking. Breakdowns like the one Foster had can be the difference between Ben playing and Ben playing hurt.
Marc Uhlmann writes for and co-owns www.steelcityblitz.com. Follow him on Twitter @steeldad and follow the website at @SCBlitz. He can be heard Mondays on Trib-Live Radio at 4pm ET talking Steelers.
