Offensive Line Shuffle

The NFL has been home to some of the most famous shuffles in history. In 1985 it was the Super Bowl Shuffle performed by the Chicago Bears. In 1989 it was the Icky Shuffle, performed by Bengals fullback Icky Woods after every touchdown. 2011 is no different as the Steelers will continue their tradition of the Offensive Line Shuffle.

So, lets recap the "shuffle" thus far. The Steelers released long time tackle Max Starks and NFL veteran Flozell Adams before camp. They tried almost every player at every position on the line during the short camp and preseason. With the offensive line looking rather suspect, the Steelers resigned former Steeler Trai Essex. The Steelers also signed second year pro John Malecki who spent time with the Titans, Browns and Buccaneers during his rookie year in 2010.

It appeared going into the third preseason game that the Steelers had decided Jonathan Scott, Chris Kemoeatu, Maurkice Pouncey, Tony Hills and Willie Colon were their best bet. That was until the Steelers released Tony Hills, who they felt wasn't up to par and replaced him with Doug Legursky.

After the whipping in week one at the hands of Baltimore, Colon was lost for the season and the Steelers signed Jamon Meredith to take his spot on the roster. Marcus Gilbert was then moved up the depth chart to the starting right tackle, where he will most likely play the rest of the season barring an absolute collapse or injury.

I know that most people are critical of the offensive line issues in Pittsburgh, but I am not one of them. The shaky Steeler lines have held up on the way to two Super Bowls and the first week of the season gave me more hope. That seems like a shocking statement after the seven turnover performance but really only two of the turnovers could be considered the line's fault.

The first Roethlisberger interception was a deflection on the defensive line, the second was a horrible under throw and the third was a terrible over throw. Mewelde Moore's fumble was his fault alone and the second Roethlisberger fumble was a prime example of him holding onto the ball too long and not protecting it. The Rashard Mendenhall and first Roethlisberger fumbles were the only turnovers that I felt were on the line. The offensive line was not heavily penalized neither, except Willie Colon who is now gone for the season.

The optimism comes from the effective running game in the first half. The Steelers started the game off with two runs for 12 yards but only ran seven more times over the rest of the half. Mendenhall ended the first half with eight carries for 44 yards, an average of five and a half yards per carry. The issue was that he had only four carries for three yards in the second half mostly because of the his fumble early in the third quarter. The forced fumbled resulted in a touchdown for the Ravens and that forced the Steeler to go more pass heavy.

For the game, Issac Redman carried three times for 12 yards, averaging four yards per carry. Ben had a scramble for nine yards and Rashard had twelve carries for 45 yards, an average of just under four yards. A more consistent rushing presence in the second half could have limited the turnovers and kept the Steelers in the game. The problem with that is Bruce Arians does not like to run and doesn't give the line a chance to control the game via the run.

Since Arians has taken over as offensive coordinator the Steelers have steadily moved away from the run game and move farther towards a pass first team. Now, the Steelers have the receivers for that but the line is built for short term blocking. The line can hold up for the run and they proved that in the first half of the Baltimore game.

The only real question is how far does the Steelers "shuffle" go before its too much. The line needs to gel together and hopefully that starts in week two when the Steelers host the Seattle Seahawks.