It’s hard to grade out any worse than the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offensive line did in Saturday’s loss to the Indianapolis Colts. Particularly in pass protection, Pittsburgh received ugly marks across the board.
Per Pro Football Focus, of the 42 qualifying linemen who have played so far this week — the Thursday game along with the trio of Saturday contests — the three worst pass protectors were Steelers. And given how bad their grades are, the Sunday slate might not change things.
Left tackle Dan Moore Jr., right tackle Broderick Jones, and right guard James Daniels all sat in the bottom three, 40-42, of PFF’s grading. Daniels in particular received a literal goose egg, a pass-blocking score of zero. Here are the numbers.
Lowest OL Pass Blocking Scores – Week 15 (entering Sunday)
40. Dan Moore Jr. – 27.5
41. Broderick Jones – 19.3
42. James Daniels – 0.0
Yikes.
And sure, maybe Moore and Jones could move up a couple spots if other players struggle Sunday. But their grades will still be among the week’s worst. For perspective, across Week 14, only four linemen had a worse pass protection grade than Moore’s 27.5 and none had a worse figure than Jones’. Of course, Daniels isn’t going anywhere.
While QB Mitch Trubisky did not play well in Saturday’s loss, eventually benched for Mason Rudolph, the line did little to help him. Trubisky was under pressure throughout with he and Rudolph sacked four times. Half of them came on possession downs, third and fourth down, as the Steelers’ struggles there continue. On the season, they’re converting barely more than one-third of them as a team, a figure that ranks 26th in football.
We’ll have to go through the All-22 tape and see exactly what went wrong but the tape is likely going to only offer a harsher critique of the front five. In addition to poor pass protection, penalties were also a problem with Daniels, Moore, and center Mason Cole all penalized as the Steelers racked up 101 yards in penalties.
In terms of pass protection, the two Steelers who escaped the basement didn’t fare much better. Center Mason Cole ranked 33rd out of the 42 qualifiers with a 50.9 pass-protection grade while LG Isaac Seumalo ranked 36th with a 47.0 pass-protection grade.
As for overall grades, Daniels has the worst so far of the week, coming in at 28.1. It’s easily the worst single-game grade he’s ever received, never finishing below the 40s before, let alone in the 20s. No Steeler ranks higher than 32nd, Seumalo’s 55.3, while the rest are in the high 30s or low 40s.
We’ll see if shaking up the offensive line is part of the changes Mike Tomlin promised following the loss. If there is a change to be made, perhaps Chukwuma Okorafor re-enters the starting lineup. He could go back to right tackle with Jones sliding over to the left or replace Moore at left tackle himself, though Okorafor hasn’t played the blindside in years. Nate Herbig is also a theoretical option to replace Cole as center although that seems like a less likely option.
