The Steelers allowed 5 sacks Sunday night against the New England Patriots and we have the breakdowns of all five of them below in animated gif form. If you click on either of the images, you can see the full size replay on NFL.com. If you missed are offensive line breakdown grading against the Patriots, you can read the grades here.
The 1st sack sees safety Patrick Chung come off the corner while linebacker Gary Guyton comes on a small delay. It looks like running back Rashard Mendenhall thinks his job is to get the safety, but left tackle Jonathan Scott never sees Guyton and chooses to take Chung. Mendenhall tries to get back to picking up Guyton but is way late. The worst thing is how easy Chung gets past Scott. The rest of the line is not spectacular on the 5 man rush and right tackle Flozell Adams lets loose of Mike Wright kind of soon, but the damage was done.
Sack #1 versus Patriots
The 2nd sack sees quite a stunt up front by the Patriots. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is given a ton of time here as Shawn Crable is pushed inside by right tackle Flozell Adams and center Maurkice Pouncey has him engaged. Ramon Foster and Jonathan Scott tag team Tully Banta-Cain. Right guard Trai Essex quits on Mike Wright and Adams comes back and tries to help Pouncey but instead pushes Crable around the Pouncey and into the other half of the sack. Half the blame goes to Roethlisberger here while the other half of blame must be split between Essex and Pouncey.
Sack #2 versus Patriots
On the 3rd sack, Mike Wright attacks the Steelers left A gap that drives center Maurkice Pouncey back into the pocket. Jermaine Cunningham uses a quick inside head fake to get right tackle Flozell Adams off balance and then beats him to the edge for the early pressure to force Ben Roethlisberger up into the pocket and waiting arms of Tully Banta-Cain, who used an easy spin move to beat left tackle Jonathan Scott inside. This one the blame goes to both Scott and Adams. It was also only a four man rush.
Sack #3 versus Patriots
On the 4th sack, Vince Wilfork does a great job rushing the A gap and ties up both center Maurkice Pouncey and left guard Ramon Foster. Mike Wright stunts back to his right in the open B gap and Foster fails to switch off of Wright. Left tackle Jonathan Scott loses his feet and loses engagement of Tully Banta-Cain and Bain gets in at the end. In reality this one is mostly on Foster and a little on Pouncey.
Sack #4 versus Patriots
The 5th sack was very late in the game and came on just a half effort four man rush by the Patriots. Left tackle Jonathan Scott does a great job initially on Tully Banta-Cain, but quits on the play after he has him down. Right guard Trai Essex had Gerard Warren pretty well under control but stopped engaging him. About that time Ben Roethlisberger is stepping up into the pocket and right into an unengaged Warren with Banta-Cain right behind. In the end though, plenty of time was given and this one mostly gets charged to Big Ben.
Sack #5 versus Patriots
