A funny thing happened on the way to the quarterback, said the football as it exited Pittsburgh Steelers C Mason Cole’s grasp on Sunday. The veteran lineman struggled with clean snaps on the day, two of which were off target enough to have gotten away from their respective quarterbacks.
Because in this case, there were actually different quarterbacks. The first aborted snap resulted in QB Kenny Pickett getting tackled for no gain. The second one was worse, as Mitch Trubisky could not corral the ball in time before being struck by a defender, separating him from it and allowing the Arizona Cardinals to recover for the takeaway.
Cole is just about the only center Trubisky has worked with since arriving in Pittsburgh, at least in-game. Once he was moved out of the starting lineup, I’m sure he’s gotten in a lot of work with, for example, Nate Herbig this season.
But preparing to start tomorrow against the New England Patriots and given what happened on Sunday, Trubisky told reporters that he is putting in extra work with Cole. “Absolutely”, he said, via the team’s website, referring to extra work both before and after practice, and in between walkthroughs.
Both Trubisky and Cole were signed last March as unrestricted free agents and were part of the opening-day starting lineup in 2022. Trubisky has since given way to Pickett, of course, but Cole has remained the Steelers’ starting center.
His performance has been up and down, but there has been an increase in issues with his snaps in 2023 compared to last year, at least in my observation. That really came to a head on Sunday, as anybody who was watching the game knows quite well.
But it hasn’t been all bad. Cole was pretty awful at the beginning of the season, but the entire offensive line improved significantly in recent weeks, as best illustrated by the Steelers’ success on the ground. His snapping had been an issue here and there, but not reaching quite this level before.
Especially on a short week with a change at quarterback, it’s reasonable for Trubisky to get a good amount of extra work in with his center anyway. But given the recent issues, it makes sense to be proactive and try to make sure that the center exchange is as clean as they can manage it.
The one thing that has been saving the Steelers throughout this season has been their ability to win the turnover battle. Three times this season they have given the ball away more than they have taken it away, and they’ve lost all three of those games. Sunday was one of them.
