Things might not have looked all that good at first glance on Sunday from a protection standpoint from the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offensive line.
The Steelers allowed five sacks, nine quarterback hits and 23 total pressures in 51 drop backs in a 30-7 loss to the San Francisco 49ers at Acrisure Stadium. Three of the five starting offensive linemen — those being left tackle Dan Moore Jr., center Mason Cole and right guard James Daniels — all graded out at 27.9 overall or worse in pass blocking from Pro Football Focus in the Week One loss.
The numbers aren’t pretty at all, but for head coach Mike Tomlin, he believes that the Steelers did “an awesome job” from a protection standpoint until the team became one-dimensional late.
“I thought they did an awesome job, particularly from a protection standpoint, minimizing [Nick] Bosa,” Tomlin said to reporters Tuesday, according to video via the Steelers YouTube page. “And really I thought from a protection standpoint we were really solid until the very end when we got really one-dimensional. Upward and onward with that group, man. Upward and onward with all of us. We realized how we performed, we own it.
“We’re ready to get back out there and get back in the world of the competitors.”
Though the numbers are rather ugly at first glance, there’s some context needed. Pickett was hit just once while throwing a pass on Sunday and that came early in the second quarter on a dropped interception by 49ers linebacker Fred Warner. On top of being hit just once while throwing, Pickett had an average time of 2.85 seconds to throw, according to Pro Football Focus.
Moore was the worst-graded offensive tackle out of 75 in the NFL in Week One, grading out at a 33.7 overall, including a 22.8 in pass protection. That includes six pressures, two hits and one sack in the loss. The sack he allowed came after he shifted over late in the game to replace RT Chukwuma Okorafor, who exited with concussion-like symptoms, putting rookie Broderick Jones in the game at left tackle for four snaps.
On paper, the protection wasn’t good enough from the Steelers. Three players at a 27.9 or worse in pass protection shows that. But the All-22 tape might tell a different story. We’ll have to see if that is the case, as Tomlin wouldn’t come out and praise play the way he did if it was poor.
The Steelers did a decent job holding Bosa at bay, keeping him off the stats sheet from a sack perspective. However, according to PFF Bosa had a pass rush win rate of 25.9 in 16 pass-rush reps, which is higher than T.J. Watt had in the loss. Bosa also generated four pressures in his 16 pass-rush snaps.
Something is not exactly adding up, but it’s just one game for the offensive line. It was a very difficult matchup, and the linemen took their lumps. As Tomlin says though, onward and upward for the group. We’ll see if the offensive line can bounce back in Week Two.
