After spending my entire morning preparing bierocks with sides of queso and chips, it was time to sit down and drink......eeeerrr watch the game! In my heart of hearts I expected a ass kicking to be delivered but the Black and Gold exceeded my hopes!  The following is my take on Kimo's performance:

1. Dominate road grader. I know I am not sharing any insider news here but seeing it in real life game action is reassuring.  Any scrub in Kemo's way wished he was not active for game day.......in straight ahead blocking.
2. Kemo also had quite the impact at the second level. On a handful of plays Kemo chipped his man at the line and DESTROYED the LB at the second level. I was impressed. He also pulled with the ability to make you not worry about Big Red not being on the roster. Although with our new zone blocking scheme,  this will be less involved in the playbook.
3. Pass blocking was good.  Anyone lined up in front of Kemo was neutralized and he seemed to have his head on a swivel and be able to help Hartwig or Smith when he did not have a man head up.
4. The negative. Kemo either did not have the desire or speed to put his head in front of his man to prevent backside pursuit, and this resulted in at least two tackles by his man on the weak side. I hope it was just lack of effort from the play not being on his side. I think this can and will be corrected after this weeks film study.

Overall, the line played very well. I believe that the fact our center wasn't put into Roethlisberger's lap every play had a lot to do with that. Kemo WILL be the lineman we follow on short yardage plays for the rest of the year without question.

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