Head coach Marvin Lewis praises the offensive line's performance against New Orleans

by Josh Kirkendall on Aug 17, 2009 8:44 PM EDT in Analysis

After Friday's game, I promoted the hell out of the starting offensive line, citing examples of gaping holes for Cedric Benson. We also examined why and where protection broke down during passing downs. My conclusion is that man-on-man, they performed better than I expected. The biggest critique I could come up with was mental mistakes -- while mental mistakes are often just as disastrous as being physically overpowering, this unit of rag-tag first-timers is miles ahead of where we were with the offensive line in 2008.

We weren't the only ones that praised the line. Cedric Benson said "For the first preseason game there were a lot of positive things that came out. A lot of holes. The offensive line did a great job. I thought we did a good job in achieving what we were trying to achieve as far as being physical and opening up some holes. I thought we were good in the run game."

Carson Palmer was equally impressed. "We did a great job in pass protection. We had some really nice holes for Cedric (Benson). We did a good job up front. When I came out, I told Bobbie I (felt) I had a halo. Huge, five-yard radius in the pocket every time." The starting running back and quarterback both praised the starting offensive line's performance, collectively calling it great.

Now you can include Marvin Lewis as one that said the offensive line passed their first test with flying colors. “I felt good about both the running game and protection. They did a good job playing together and being in the right spots. There was a little bit of miscommunication, but overall they did a really good job.”

In reality, this doesn't mean a thing for Thursday night's game against the Patriots. They're going to have to perform like this Thursday, then next week, the week after that, and the 20 games after that (I don't think we get a bye week on Wild Card weekend). So while it might be a little early to call your favorite Steelers fan and say, "we're going to roll over your asses", we're, as they say, on track.

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How about Marvin praising Dan Coats? Looks like he may be able to help the loss of Reggie Kelly

"Ghiaciuc's play was a distraction"

by Joe Goodberry on Aug 17, 2009 11:37 PM EDT reply actions

A little too positive maybe

Didn’t we also have like 5 penalties on the offensive line. I agree the pass protection and run blocking was good, but if we don’t cut down of our whistles it won’t matter at all.

by The Dealio on Aug 18, 2009 12:33 PM EDT reply actions

I am ok with the effort

The mistakes were procedural and not indicative of pure ability. Those kinds of problems will improve. NO has a very good Dline – big, experienced and fast. It was a very good test and IMO they passed with a B grade – maybe a B-. Not bad considering it was their first real test as a unit. They did show that they can match up physically which is particularly good news regarding Cook at center. It appears that the word on him playing tough and nasty were pretty spot on. It would be different if they were being overpowered physically but they seemed to hold their own.RBs need to do a better job on blitz pickup but you can’t put that on the Oline.

I will say that our D is getting a real test in the first 2 games as NO and NE have the top 2 QBs in the NFL according to most of the experts. If our D can get thru this next game with their dignity in tact we could get a few answers there as well. BTW I like O Sullivan’s efforts last week and I am interested in seeing what he can do with the #1 O unit against a #1 D unit. If he can stand up and do more than just be a stop gap it will put my mind at ease because I do not think Jordon Palmer is going to be NFL caliber.

" My enemy said "Love your enemy". I obeyed and loved myself." Gibran

by JUNGLEJOHN on Aug 18, 2009 2:01 PM EDT reply actions