FanHouse Gradingtheoffensiveline

As we get ready for the 2009 season, nearly everyone but the Steelers coaching staff sees the offensive line as the weakest link in the team's bid to repeat as Super Bowl champs. In fact, ESPN.com's AFC North blogger James Walker made that case again this week.

But Frank Tursic over at Steel City Insider has gone further to try to figure out whether offensive coordinator Bruce Arians was being completely straightforward when he said that only 19 of the 49 sacks the Steelers gave up last year were the fault of the offensive line.

The Steelers managed to put the memory of the Eagles' debacle behind them with a win against the Ravens, but if you think the team's offensive line and blitz pick-up issues are behind them, you'd be mistaken.

Pittsburgh did handle Rex Ryan's innovative blitz packages better than it did the Eagles' come-from-anywhere blitz, but the Steelers still had trouble picking up blitzers, despite the fact that Baltimore rarely sent more than five pass rushers. The biggest difference between the first-half struggles and the second-half success was the emphasis on quicker passes and Ben Roethlisberger's ability to shrug off unblocked blitzers.

If you pay attention to history at all, you probably know how a blitzkreig works. The idea is that putting pressure on your opponent quicker than he can make decisions, you stay a step ahead and basically force him into paralysis of inaction because he can never make decisions quick enough.

Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Johnson clearly knows what blitzkreig is. His Eagles defense stayed a step ahead of the Steelers offense all night. And in the process, he made every Steeler fan realize that the team's worst nightmare before the season began has just been in hibernation for two weeks.

After giving up nine sacks in a disastrous performance against the Eagles, the Steelers offensive line had no excuses, but this wasn't a case of players getting physically beaten as much as it was the Steelers being outsmarted by a defense. Philadelphia blitzed from every angle, but often Steelers offensive lineman were caught blocking air, as a linebacker or defensive back would take a step or two towards the line in a fake blitz before dropping into coverage. And while the Steelers offensive lineman was standing their confused, another blitzer would be running free into the backfield.

Every week we try to grade the Steelers offensive line with an eye to how they are performing. Click here to see previous Steelers offensive line stories.

Two weeks into the Steelers' season, our worst fears haven't come true.

Ben Roethlisberger has been sacked five times in two games, but he's also found that it's a lot easier to throw if there aren't defensive tackles generating pressure that prevents him from stepping up. And Chris Kemoeatu has not only shown that he can handle a starting job, but he's doing well enough to make me wonder why exactly he wasn't starting instead of Kendall Simmons last year.

Marvel Smith looks fully healthy, while Willie Colon is improving and Justin Hartwig has been quite adequate--that's a significant improvement on what Sean Mahan did last year.

With one game to go until the season starts, which Steelers fan out there feels comfortable with the offensive line?

There may have been a lot of discussion during the offseason about whether Ben Roethlisberger holds on to the ball too long. The Steelers offensive line cleverly figured out a way to difuse that controversy Saturday night. It's hard to worry about that when Roethlisberger never has more than a second or two before he starts dodging pass rushers.

The Vikings have arguably the best front four in football, with three potential Pro Bowlers among the four starters. The Steelers offensive line has one player (Marvel Smith) who has ever gone to the Pro Bowl, and if yesterday is any indication, no one who will challenge for a Pro Bowl spot this year.

The Steelers' first team offense gave up two sacks. By my count, Roethlisberger was also hurried four times in two quarters of action. That's six pass plays busted by the pass rush in 19 attempts (32 percent). And that barely explains how under the gun Roethlisberger was. Throw in some three step drops and the lack of holes for Willie Parker and it's clear that the Steelers offensive line was in over their heads.

The Justin Hartwig-Sean Mahan battle for the starting center job is not exactly the same as when Mike Webster and Ray Mansfield were battling for the job in 1974. It's closer to the Mahan-Chukky Okobi battle from last year--you're not hoping for a star, you're just hoping that the winner will keep Ben Roethlisberger upright.

But since it is the only real starting competition on the team, it's worth taking a closer look at how the two centers fared against Buffalo.

What jumped out most was how few true tests Hartwig and Mahan faced in the game. Buffalo was running a pretty straightforward 4-3 defense, which makes sense since it was a preseason game. But that meant that the Steelers centers had no real challenges on most passing plays--they would simply slide over to help double-team one of the defensive tackles. I counted exactly one blitz and one stunt during the entire first three quarters. Overall both Hartwig and Mahan did a solid job in pass blocking, but it's hard to say that this was a true test.

There's been plenty of coverage of what Marvel Smith's back injury will mean to the Steelers' chances in the playoffs, but there hasn't been any focus on what Smith's injury means to 2008.

If there was ever any doubt that the Steelers were going to draft an offensive tackle early next year, this injury is likely to be the clincher. The Steelers are almost assured of losing Max Starks, the current backup tackle, to free agency after the season. In the past when Smith was healthy, they sometimes got by with Barret Brooks as the primary backup, even though he didn't always have the stamina to play a full game. It's hard to imagine the Steelers will roll the dice like that with Smith battling back problems.

But disc problems are usually chronic issues than don't just clear up with a little bit of rest. There has been nothing written anywhere that says Smith's injury will carry over into 2008, but it also appears that no one has asked if this is a problem that will require surgery or further action to correct it.

Each week I go back and rewatch the Steelers game to take a look at which offensive linemen starred and who left Willie Parker and Ben Roethlisberger on their back. You can see the reports from throughout the season here.

Want to make life easy for the Steelers offensive line? Do what the Bengals did. Don't focus on pressuring Ben Roethlisberger, but instead sit back and hope by flooding the zones you can keep Roethlisberger confused. It worked out great for the Steelers. Roethlisberger had plenty of time to throw and after he adjusted to the wet conditions he began picking the Bengals apart. The Steelers running game wasn't as good, partly because Domata Peko did a good job of creating havoc in the middle, but also partly because the sloppy field and Willie Parker's fumbling problems kept the Steelers from developing consistency.

My apologies for not having a full offensive line writeup this week: Dagger over at Post Game Heroes has broken down the game, but me and my wife's first kid decided to kick my wife into labor at halftime. She's doing great, but this week has been more about changing diapers than re-watching the Dolphins-Steelers game.

But I have seen plenty of mentions of the good game Max Starks played, and how maybe reinstalling him at right tackle (when Marvel Smith returns) could fix some of the Steelers line problems.

It sounds good, but I'm not buying it. Starks is a very good run blocker, and the Dolphins game was the perfect situation for him to shine--he was facing a speed pass rusher on the sloppiest field anyone has ever seen. Pretty quickly it was clear that Jason Taylor was going to be in trouble--the only chance he has to bull rush Starks is if he gets Starks cheating to the outside from the snap. The terrible field took away that fear, so Taylor was left trying to speed rush Starks on a night when Willie Parker wouldn't run a sub-5.0 40.

Each week I go back and rewatch the Steelers game to take a look at which offensive linemen starred and who left Willie Parker and Ben Roethlisberger on their back. You can see the reports from throughout the season here.

Hide the children. This was the game when the Steelers offensive line problems stopped being the subject of Internet cranks like me and diehard fans and became the Steelers apparent No. 1 problem. The Steelers offensive line has failed to generate holes in the running game for nearly a month, and they gave up seven sacks. Add it up and things have to change for the Steelers to do anything come the playoffs. While a lot of focus has been focused on the pass protection issues, but the lack of holes in the running game are even more disconcerting. If the Steelers could run the ball, the pass protection issues would lessen because defenses would have to worry about stopping the run.