Over the past few weeks, the Pittsburgh Steelers have struggled to protect the quarterback. Specifically during this four-game losing streak, sacks have been allowed at an egregious clip, with the team forfeiting 3.5 per game and a total of 14.
Hearing those numbers raw, you may think the Steelers’ offensive line resembles a block of Swiss cheese, but head coach Mike Tomlin begs to differ. On Friday’s episode of the Mike Tomlin Show via Steelers.com, he voiced that the unit has been “more than serviceable.”
“I think they’ve been more than serviceable to be quite honest with you,” said Tomlin during Friday’s show. “Oftentimes sacks is a reflection of their performance, but sacks is an 11-man job. Receivers gotta get open, quarterbacks gotta distribute the ball and do so in a timely manner, running backs have to blitz pickup. So, their demise has been overstated over the course of the last month because of the number of sacks we’ve given up.”
To Tomlin’s point, this has been a sticking point with Russell Wilson throughout his career. He has a tendency to hold the ball too long and take unnecessary sacks. In fact, he has taken the third-most sacks in NFL history, trailing just Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers. While this may be looked at as indicative of just a long NFL tenure, that’s only half true. Rodgers and Brady have played in 49 and 139 more games than Wilson, yet he only trails them by 11 (Rodgers) and five (Brady). A disproportionate amount, illustrating Wilson’s propensity to be taken down.
With Wilson at quarterback, the team gives up an average of three sacks per game. With Justin Fields, that number is 2.6.
This isn’t supposed to be a bashing of Wilson, though. I echo Tomlin’s sentiment that this falls across the board. In fact, I’m not sure many quarterbacks who would be able to succeed with an uninspiring wide receiver room that, outside of George Pickens and Calvin Austin, struggle to get open.
Let’s also not forget that the Steelers’ line is a very young group, so growing pains are something to be expected. It’s also something that Tomlin has been able to find a silver lining in.
“I’ve been pleased with the overall trajectory of the group, particularly the young interior guys and the contributions and the development that we’ve gotten from them over the course of the journey,” said Tomlin. “I expect that to continue as we get into this tournament and things get hot. They got to show they belong.”
Hopefully, the offensive line and the other position groups rise to the occasion and minimize the sacks as the Steelers head into their Wild Card matchup against the Ravens.
