The Pittsburgh Steelers offensive line allowed seven sacks over the first two weeks of the season, but facing a New England Patriots team that entered Week 3 with nine sacks, the Steelers didn’t allow a single sack. By no means was it a perfect game, as the Steelers still struggled to run the ball and QB Aaron Rodgers was under duress throughout the game. But after the game, Rodgers said the offensive line rebounded after being “upset” after last week.
“It’s a group effort. I’ve tried to take accountability the last couple weeks on sacks that were probably my fault. Today, I moved around just enough. There’s some things to clean up, but I have a lot of confidence in those guys. I thought [Arthur Smith] did a good job keeping them off-balance with some different protection schemes, some moving the pocket stuff. But I thought those guys played well, they were a little upset after last week, I thought they played with a better attitude this week,” Rodgers said in his postgame press conference via the team’s YouTube channel.
The line has been one of the biggest issues for the Steelers this season, but things got off to a promising start with the Steelers running the ball for 33 yards on their opening drive, which ended in a touchdown. But Pittsburgh finished with just 64 yards rushing, averaging 2.5 yards per carry, while the Patriots had three quarterback hits on Rodgers and kept the pressure coming throughout the game.
Rodgers showed off some decent mobility and used his legs well, but the line has to continue to be better. Not allowing a sack today is an improvement, but they still don’t look like a good unit. There was almost no push up front after the opening drive, and it’s a unit that just hasn’t seemed to develop.
Smith deserves the credit from Rodgers for scheming some things up, especially in the quick game, to allow the pass rush to not be much of an issue. It can be a frustrating offense at times, but the Steelers need to operate within the quick game to protect Rodgers and hide some of the issues of their line.
OT Broderick Jones has struggled all season, Troy Fautanu hasn’t been all that much better on the opposite side, and after looking like a future All-Pro last season, C Zach Frazier got pushed around a bit today. Ultimately, they did enough, as the Steelers walked away with a win. But the offense wasn’t good for most of the day and the line can be pointed to as a big reason why.
Things aren’t going to get easier with the Minnesota Vikings up in Week 4, and then Myles Garrett and the Cleveland Browns after the bye in Week 6. It’s good that Rodgers continues to give his line a public vote of confidence, but he’s certainly right that there are things that need to be fixed. If the line plays the way they did today and have for the first three weeks going forward, the offense is going to continue to look ugly.
