Steelers Offensive Line Had Solid Outing Last Time Out Against Baltimore

by Blitzburgh on Jan 16, 2009 10:48 AM EST Comment 14 comments

The last time these two hated rivals met - in Week 14 at Baltimore - the Pittsburgh Steelers offensive line had a much better day than people gave them credit for. The Ravens had three sacks on the day, sure, but Ben Roethlisberger also threw it 40 times for 246 yards. Because the Steelers mustered only 13 points and gave up 3 sacks for the day, the offensive line was again criticized as being the weak link behind the offense. There's some truth to that, but it doesn't tell the whole story.

The first two Ravens sacks came on stunts drawn up by Ravens defensive coordinator Rex Ryan. The first sent Ray Lewis free up the middle; the second sent both Lewis and Ed Reed up the middle. Let's take a look at both of them and see who the guilty party was on each play.

Sack #1

In the frame above, I have highlighted three Ravens defenders. The LB is Ray Lewis who is blitzing on the play, and ultimately the one who got to Big Ben. The bottom Raven will be picked up by Willie Colon, who I show picking him up with the gold arrow. Next to him is Darnell Stapleton, who unnecessarily chases the third boxed Raven. He didn't need to though - his buddies to the left - Justin Hartwig and Chris K had that under control. The result as you'll see was..

Stapleton just makes a bad read here. He thinks that he needs to help out Hartwig but as we can see...

Not the case. Stapleton's attention was needed on Ray Lewis, who was coming right towards him. Stapleton's left blocking nobody as Lewis runs by him.

Good work by Rex Ryan designing a blitz that exploited the relative inexperience of G Darnell Stapleton. It's a good thing that the Steelers offensive lineman have been spending extra time in the film room together because you can bet on Ryan trying to confuse the Steelers offensive line with new blitz looks.

SACK #2

On this play, the Ravens sent 7 guys at Big Ben.

As you can see though, there are 7 Steelers in there to block (#5 for Pitt is Starks, not Holmes; #7 for Baltimore is Ed Reed not yet pictured). This means there should be enough Steelers to pick up the 7 guys Baltimore is sending.

As you can see, I've highlighted both Ed Reed and Mewelde Moore, who needs to be the last line of defense for Ben Roethlisberger. Is he?

He is not. Moore is doing nothing on the play. As you can see as well, the Steelers offensive line had done its job otherwise. This was a simple blown assignment by Moore.

Here's hoping everybody asked to block this coming Sunday is on the ball both mentally and physically. As I've shown, two of the three Ravens sacks the last time we met came on mental miscues by Darnell Stapleton and Mewelde Moore. Neither were the result of being overmatched physically.

We can do this! Go Steelers!

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That first one was a block by Stapleton short of a big play. It wasn’t a tough read, but he just never noticed Lewis. Look how his head is completely looking the other way.

I also remember thinking that as a whole, our line played decently. They don’t have a great pass rusher anywhere on their defense, which helps us out tremendously.

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by BadMaafala on Jan 16, 2009 10:57 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

Nice pics ...

and it is clear that DS ended up with nothing to do but look at the other girls dancing. I don’t have the film, but I’m wondering what led up to him being in a position where he needed to make a read. That is hard to see from a still pic. It appears to me that in the original set, there were three guys that needed to be picked up by JH, WC and DS with a receiver opposite RL. Did the play’s action indicate anything that would have led DS to think RL was out of the picture?

by tenthmtnman on Jan 16, 2009 11:23 AM EST reply actions 0 recs

i dont think so

Its not entirely clear from these images, but in the very first one, you can see that there are three Ravens defenders lined up either across from Hartwig or to his left. And three Steelers OL to pick them up.

What I think isnt quite clear is that the guy that Stapleton helped on started by heading towards Hartwig. In other words, the first frame shows the play RIGHT after it was snapped as that guy headed towards Hartwig,. Stapleton sensed that and chipped on him when he didn’t need to.

by Blitzburgh on Jan 16, 2009 11:28 AM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Nice anlaysis

I think we saw Kemo get confused on a similar stunt to the left side earlier this season where he was basically left to guard air. In that play the OLB took our TE to the outside, and the DE took our OT and OG inside while the MLB came through the gap.

Hopefully these guys have seen these tactics enough on the field and in film to be ready. However, I have seen that boxed guy on the line take on 2 blockers and HOLD/pull the outside guy, pulling him towards the center and creating a nice hole. I hope the refs are watching for that b/c I’ve seen it quite a few times this season and only flagged for once (and i think it wasn’t even a Steeler’s game, maybe Bengals-Ravens).

by HarryBTs on Jan 16, 2009 12:50 PM EST reply actions 0 recs

very very true

thanks by the way.

but your point about blitzers grabbibg and pulling is a very astute one. Wish I could see that in these frames but I can’t but you’re right it’s one way they can kind of help open up the holes themselves, without having to rely on missed assignments and reads from the OL exclusively. great point.

by Blitzburgh on Jan 16, 2009 12:53 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

well...

now i don’t know what would tick me off more… Seeing these guys stupidly guarding air, or the refs missing that call! I guess i’d rather be mad at the refs than the steeler’s OL.

One other thing I hope i see is DS fire off the snap on run plays. NFL network has been running steeler’s games all week, and on some of the plays where the run is blown up in the backfield it is b/c our linemen are waiting for the defender to come to them. grrrrrr. DS lost that battle a few times with Ngata b/c he stood straight up instead of firing forward. Ngata is a load and if we are going to use 2 guys on him, we better at least keep him outta the backfield. If it’s not a pass play, we need to dictate the run blocking, not the other way around. double grrrrr.

by HarryBTs on Jan 16, 2009 1:24 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

interesting

With our new zone blocking scheme this year, the defense is actually supposed to dictate where the RB goes. The problem is that we’re terrible in zone blocking, and Kemo in particular just stands there. These young linemen are much better when they can fire off the line in man blocking, confident of who they’re supposed to block.

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by BadMaafala on Jan 16, 2009 1:52 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

The defense does dictate where the RB goes – into their arms.

by steelguy99 on Jan 16, 2009 1:59 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

ahhh

i didn’t think about that being a result of the zone blocking. interesting. so your saying he waits b/c he wants to know where who is going to show up in the hole? yeah, we can’t have that moment of indecision against the fatties in the middle. especially one with a motor like ngata. maybe that works against AFC west 4-3’s but not the plugs in the middle.

by HarryBTs on Jan 16, 2009 2:08 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

You guys see this video?

http://www.nfl.com/videos?videoId=09000d5d80e23f12

One, it shows how inept these guys are. The second play they mention Russel easily falls forward for the 1st down. Secondly, it shows what a hard time we have moving Ngata at the point of attack, even with two guys going full metal.

by steelguy99 on Jan 16, 2009 2:11 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

By “these guys” I mean the announcers.

by steelguy99 on Jan 16, 2009 2:14 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

Baldy's Finger

How gross is Baldy’s pinkie finger. I think he feels it is some sort of badge of courage the way it points the wrong way – football scars and all that. You’d think he’s got enough cash laying around to get that thing pointing straight again. Freaks me out every time I watch Playbook on NFLnetwork!

by HarryBTs on Jan 16, 2009 5:05 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs

I think it’s part of it. Part of it might be poor position coaching, part might be indecisiveness or something else. From what I’ve seen, though, Kemo and Stapleton are much better when they man block (aka they don’t suck), which has been one of my biggest issues with Arians this year – sticking with something that clearly isn’t working.

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by BadMaafala on Jan 16, 2009 3:25 PM EST up reply actions 0 recs