Below is the week 10 offensive line breakdown for the Pittsburgh Steelers win over the Kansas City Chiefs.
This was a game that looked much, much different on the All-22 as opposed to the regular television feed. My initial thoughts coming out of the game were that the interior of the line really had a bad effort in the run blocking department. That was not the case. Quite a few of the fails in the run game rest squarely on Heath Miller, Will Johnson and the running backs. Was the interior perfect in this game? No, but I promise you this was easily the worst game of the season for both Miller and Johnson in the run blocking department.
| PLAYER | #TOT | + | – | TOT % | # RUN | + | – | RUN % | # PASS | + | – | PASS % | S | P | H | F |
| Ramon Foster | 65 | 60 | 5 | 92% | 29 | 26 | 3 | 90% | 36 | 34 | 2 | 94% | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Mike Adams | 65 | 60 | 5 | 92% | 29 | 27 | 2 | 93% | 36 | 33 | 3 | 92% | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 |
| Willie Colon | 65 | 58 | 7 | 89% | 29 | 24 | 5 | 83% | 36 | 34 | 2 | 94% | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Max Starks | 65 | 57 | 8 | 88% | 29 | 25 | 4 | 86% | 36 | 32 | 4 | 89% | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Maurkice Pouncey | 65 | 57 | 8 | 88% | 29 | 23 | 6 | 79% | 36 | 34 | 2 | 94% | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 325 | 292 | 33 | 90% | 145 | 125 | 20 | 86% | 180 | 167 | 13 | 93% | 0 | 9 | 4 | 0 |
Due to the short week I will do a quick summary as opposed to a player-by-player breakdown of the offensive line.
The sack on Ben Roethlisberger that caused the injury was really on him. Although there was pressure on the play, he was able to step up initially to deliver the ball. In fact, he held the ball for nearly 5 seconds on the play before being sandwiched. Ramon Foster and Max Starks were both charged with pressures on the play and Starks a hit. Foster once again played a great game in my opinion. He was good to the second level, good on double teams and decent on the few pulls left. He remains consistent with his play on a week-to-week basis. Starks allowed a handful of pressures and hits but no sacks. His 4 demerits in the run blocking department were par for the course. Willie Colon was smacked for the double penalty and 4 more demerits where he failed to be control of his man, who ended up being in on a tackle. This was a good Colon in this game, just not a dominant one, especially when asked to hold his blocks a few times. He did have a few nice pulls to the right that resulted in nice runs. I might have graded him a little harsh as the running backs really did not press the guards good in this game like I thought they should have. At least 5 times in this game I thought they didn\’t read the blocks well. Maurkice Pouncey was in the same boat as Colon with a few of his demerits coming on failures at the second level. He also allowed himself to be pushed back into the pocket a few times in pass protection. Was this an awful game for him? No, but we have seen much better from him, especially when it comes to holding and finishing blocks. Once again, there were creases at times made by both him and Colon that I thought the running backs missed or chose to bounce away from. Mike Adams was fine again outside of a couple of pressures and a few miniscule run block failures due to not finishing. His technique really has come a long way. He just needs to watch that edge a tad better at times. Right now he reminds me of Starks when he played right tackle and was in the groove.
In summation, I thought that this game was the worst of the season for Isaac Redman, Jonathan Dwyer, Miller and Johnson. The two running backs left yards out on the field, while Miller and Johnson had fails that would be charged specifically to them. I am willing to bet that both Sean Kugler and Kirby Wilson would agree with my assessment.
