No New Lineman

The Steelers went through another round of shock and drama on the offensive line in the Colts game as multiple offensive lineman went down with injuries. Rookie starting right tackle Marcus Gilbert, was the first to go down with an injury to his shoulder, he was replaced by veteran Trai Essex. Shortly after that starting right guard Doug Legursky was taken out of the game with a shoulder injury, he was replaced with veteran Ramon Foster. All seemed well until starting left tackle Jonathan Scott went down with an ankle injury.

The Steelers at this point had no reserve lineman left on the bench since they only carried seven lineman on the roster, five starters and two reserves. Their reserves, Ramon Foster and Trai Essex were already on the field. Fortunately, Marcus Gilbert was able enough to return to the game and bailed the Steelers out of using a tight end to cover Dwight Freeney, but then again Health Miller could have done a better job than Jonathan Scott.

Tomlin has made it known that even with the Steelers circumstances, any lineman that would be signed would not contribute. That is not really a shock to me though because if you sign someone new, he is coming in to be the back up in the worse case scenario that one of your starters go down. The Steelers are extremely thin on the offensive line and need a lot of help, even if the starters return.

Jonathan Scott looked like a fool against All-Pro Dwight Freeney. He was so bad that the Steelers constantly had to put support on the left side in the form of Health Miller. It is sad when Dwight Freeney was a none factor in the second half because Health Miller and Marcus Gilbert were able to keep him in check, mostly one on one.

I think that the Steelers really need to rethink their offensive line, not the back up plan but the starters. Jonathan Scott did not really win a job, he was handed a job when Max Starks and Flozell Adams were released. Scott proved that he is a terrible lineman and looked awful. Freeney who much smaller than Scott was throwing him around and running him over all game. We can only wait and see how the line shapes up this week against the Texans.

As of Thursday night, the Steelers had not yet signed any new lineman and Scott and Legursky are doubtful for the game at Houston. The Steelers do have Trevis Turner and John Malecki on practice squad and on the active roster they have Jamon Meredith, who was signed after Colon went on IR; Meredith was inactive last week versus the Colts.