The Pittsburgh Steelers had a brutal night offensively in the preseason Week 2 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Saturday, and the offensive line was a major culprit.
Granted, neither Russell Wilson or Justin Fields was anything to write home about, but the offensive line did them no favors. In all, the pair was sacked four times and was under pressure for much of the evening. The result was check downs and less-than manageable third-down situations.
In the day after the game, Pro Football Focus has released its grades and stats from the contest, giving us a better idea of who was the most responsible for issues upfront, although we already knew Broderick Jones had a big hand in them.
Nevertheless, here's a look at who was assigned the blame on Saturday night, per PFF. The number in parentheses is the player's pass-blocking grade.
Pittsburgh Steelers pass protection stats
OT Broderick Jones: 3 pressures, 2 sacks (40.8)
OG Anderson Hardy: 2 pressures, 1 sack (45.0)
TE Darnell Washington: 1 pressure, 1 sack (59.0)
OG Isaac Seumalo: 1 pressure, 1 sack (47.4)
OG Dylan Cook: 1 pressure (59.0)
OT Devery Hamilton: 1 pressure (75.7)
OT Tyler Beach: 1 pressure (70.1)
Now, let's inject some positivity into this. Here's the top-five pass-blocking grades among offensive linemen. Two rookies, Zach Frazier and Mason McCormick, shined.
OT Dan Moore: 84.9
OG Mason McCormick: 83.2
OG Spencer Anderson: 82.3
C Zach Frazier: 82.3
OG James Daniels: 82.0
That's a total of 10 pressures and five sacks recorded by PFF. The box score showed four sacks on Steelers quarterbacks, so PFF must've credited one of the sacks to two different offensive linemen. Believe it or not, that's actually three less pressures than PFF recorded for Steelers offensive linemen in preseason Week 1.
The biggest concern here is obviously Jones, whose three pressures resulted in two sacks. The second-year offensive lineman is dealing with an elbow injury, so it's possible that hampered his play.
Whatever the case may be, pass protection is going to be a major point of emphasis going into preseason Week 3.
