After the 2024 NFL Draft, Mike Tomlin said in an interview that the Pittsburgh Steelers “just wanna roll people.” He was talking about the number of offensive linemen they drafted, but it speaks to the mentality of the team in general. That was on full display in Week 1 against the Atlanta Falcons as dominant trench play on both sides of the ball led to a Steelers victory.
In a chart put together by Ben Baldwin on X, the dominant trench play is very clearly illustrated. He compiled grades from Pro Football Focus when offensive linemen were dropping back in true pass sets. This grade tosses out screen passes, play-action (where offensive linemen are normally doing a jump set), and rollout plays where linemen are forced to pass block on the move.
You can ignore the top chart. The true pass set grades are on the bottom.
His method, noted at the bottom, applied weights to the different positions for the “AVG” score he gives to aggregate the entire offensive line. Since there is only one center, they hold less weight than the average grade of the two guards, and the tackles are the most important going up against the pass rush specialists on the edge.
The Steelers were fourth overall on this list, with a 69 average grade for the entire offensive line. C Zach Frazier and the tackles, Dan Moore Jr. and Broderick Jones, had solid scores. The guards had a rough outing in true pass sets, but it was second-year OG Spencer Anderson’s first career start as a former seventh-round pick. Still, the fourth-best grade in football in this key area of offensive line play is great, considering what the unit was a year ago at this time.
The same can be said about the defensive line. This doesn’t necessarily show their grades, but it does show what they did to the Falcons’ offensive line.
You may need to click on his tweet to expand the photo, but the Falcons are ranked 31st after what the Steelers’ defensive line did to them. That is not a huge surprise, but it’s still interesting to see the numbers aggregated like that. They had an average of 40 for the whole group. Their guards performed the best with a 45, and their center had an extremely low 19.
Their offensive line is a solid unit, too. For example, PFF had them as the sixth-best offensive line in their preseason rankings. They also have continuity on their side, returning all five starters from a year ago. OT Jake Matthews is a former Pro Bowler, and OG Chris Lindstrom is a multi-time Pro Bowler and second-team All-Pro.
None of that mattered. The Steelers’ defensive front had a combined 23 tackles, two sacks, seven QB hits, and 13 pressures.
If you were wondering how the Steelers won this game in which they scored zero touchdowns, the dominant trench play was a big part of it.
