The Steelers' offensive line was always going to be a project this season, but the apparent progress of just a month ago has run a hard fade route since then.
Inconsistent performances happen more often with inexperienced players, but picking apart the most inconsistent components of this line reveals that most issues stem from a simple lack of cohesion.
The offense averaged 55.25 rushing yards across its first four games, in addition to allowing 2.5 sacks. In the following five games, those figures improved to 126.2 rushing yards and 1.6 sacks.
Not bad, right?
As most lines go, the center plays a big role in how the group comes together. Or doesn't. That's where Kendrick Green's play fits. Trai Turner's talked a lot this season about Green's growth as a player, but there are several facets to Green's game that require further growth, not only as as he adjusts to the NFL but also to being a full-time center.
He needs improve as a communicator, one who understands how each lineman plays off the other. But maybe more than anything, he has to work on the basics of winning at the point of attack. Back in October, I wrote about Green needing to improve his handwork as a center to establish better leverage against defensive linemen. That's still been a struggled, including in the 41-10 loss this past Sunday in Cincinnati.
Watch this play when Najee Harris gained only 3 yards because of Green losing his battle up front. You can see the Bengals' Larry Ogunjobi get inside Green's frame before the center's hands can stop Ogunjobi from controlling the gap. The result is Ogunjobi shedding Green and making the play to cut down Harris before he charged forward for a bigger gain:
Green's gotten better at this part, but it's still an inconsistency and, thus, a liability.
Offensive line scout Duke Manyweather has studied Green's work early on this season and likes what he's seen in the basics, calling for patience:
I can tell you this, Green doesn’t need to get stronger. He needs to get better with his hands! Center is still new for him. He will get there.
— Duke Manyweather (@BigDuke50) November 22, 2021
Green and Moore have gotten better each week, give them time. https://t.co/kOQo4ZR3Ow
Green's had plenty of positive moments, for sure, but he's still far from a player who can consistently adapt to challenges from various defensive fronts every week. He's had a hard time identifying the proper player to pick up on stunt twists, for example, the kind that force the offensive line to communicate and pass off defensive linemen to each other.
Watch this play where he stayed in his proper gap in pass protection, but overlooked Sam Hubbard's twist to the inside that eventually got to Ben Roethlisberger for a sack:
That's been a problem, but it's not the biggest problem in the Steelers' pass protection.
Roethlisberger's one of the NFL's least-pressured quarterbacks with only 17.3 percent of his dropbacks resulting in a pressure. But he also throws the ball the quickest among all starting quarterbacks, averaging a release time of 2.32 seconds, per Pro Football Focus.
No, what's really needed is mutual trust.
Watch this pass play when Roethlisberger successfully finds Pat Freiermuth for a first down, and how the Bengals got pressure simply by rushing up the middle and forcing the Steelers to communicate. That's what generates a free pass rusher. Notice how Turner initially does a good job by picking up his man, but instead of passing his man off and picking up the linebacker blitz, he sticks with him on the stunt and leaves his gap at right guard wide open against Roethlisberger:
This play worked out, but you can see where the lack of cohesion lead to bigger problems.
Watch another example of that, this time when Turner pulls and runs right into B.J. Finney, who was pulling in the opposite direction. The result is both looking silly and Anthony McFarland not getting a chance to explode through the hole:
Sure, Finney was making his first start of the season. But mistakes like this can prove costly in big moments and lead to tackles for loss that this offense can't afford.
This, more than anything, is where the line has to drastically improve. Not necessarily with a personnel switch, but with attention to detail.
Watch this run get blown up because Green thinks he's blocking at the second level when that's actually Finney's responsibility, and Green's over-eagerness leads to Chukwuma Okorafor trying to block two defenders at the point of attack:
The challenge becomes even more pressing this week against the Ravens, a team with several talented defensive lineman who Mike Tomlin addressed Tuesday as threats to wreck the Steelers' offense.
"They’ve got quality players at all levels," Tomlin said. "They’ve got some goons up front. Calais Campbell and Brandon Williams have been around for a long time, guys that, quite frankly, require four hands on them to move them, to get them moved and to create running lanes and so forth."
Both Campbell and Williams were outstanding defenders even when the Steelers' offensive line featured Maurkice Pouncey and David DeCastro as still really good players. If this group can find a way to stand up to Campbell in Williams, it will put them back on schedule.