Home 2014 Season Steelers Offensive Line Took a Big Step in Win Over Carolina

Steelers Offensive Line Took a Big Step in Win Over Carolina

by Steeldad
Munch

I am in no way ready to anoint the 2014 Pittsburgh Steelers offensive line as the greatest thing since sliced bread but they showed what they can do and now they must build upon it.

As a team, the Steelers rushed for 264 yards against a Panthers’ defense that ranked number two in the league just a year ago. Just a week prior, Carolina limited the explosive Lions to just seven points so what the Steelers did in this victory can’t just be dismissed.

The evening started dubiously enough as Ramon Foster was out with an ankle injury. Cody Wallace came in like he did last year at center and did a very adequate job. There were mistakes and there was sloppy play from him and the line early but both got things right.

It appeared early that the Steelers were going to struggle with yet another defense as the Panthers got good pressure on Ben Roethlisberger early and garnered their only sack early in the game. The difference this time around was the fact that Le’veon Bell was getting positive yardage when they ran the ball.

In my opinion though, things once again clicked for everyone when the team went to the no-huddle. We can debate the merits of the no-huddle ad nauseam but there was no doubt that the offensive line and the rest of the offense got more aggressive once the no-huddle got going.

Much maligned over the first two weeks, Marcus Gilbert was much better in both pass protection and in run blocking. His monstrous double-team with David DeCastro sprung Le’Veon Bell on his huge 81-yard run in the second half. We heard Gilbert’s name very little last night and that’s a good thing for an offensive lineman.

His counter-part on the other side of the line Kelvin Beachum started roughly giving up the one sack on the night but he rebounded as well. This is becoming a common theme for the studious Beachum who seems to get better as games go on. He takes in everything his opponent is doing and learns how to effectively handle him.

Center Maurkice Pouncey is hub of the O-line and he had a tall order last night in dealing with last year’s defensive player of the year Luke Kuechly. I thought for the most part Pouncey did a great job of at the very least disrupting what Kuechly was trying to do. Pouncey’s quickness was his best asset last night for sure.

I was starting to wonder if Mike Munchak would be able to bring this unit together and for one night anyway everything clicked. Now the task is gaining consistency. Can this unit do this week in and week out? No one expects that much rushing yardage every week but but we’ll certainly take the 7.8 yards per rush though right?

Health has always haunted this unit in recent years but if they can keep the boo-boos to a minimum then the chances of them turning more teams from sliced bread to burnt toast increases greatly.

Marc Uhlmann writes for and co-owns www.steelcityblitz.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteelDad and the website @SCBlitz. Check us out on Facebook at facebook.com/steelcityblitz and on Fancred.com. You can hear him weekly during the season on Trib-Live Radio Steelers Pre-Game.

photo courtesy steelers.com

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