The Steelers came away with a 34-32 victory in their opening contest against the New York Jets, but they certainly left a lot to be desired in multiple facets.
According to Pro Football Focus, much-maligned left tackle Broderick Jones allowed three sacks and four pressures. QB Aaron Rodgers helped bail the Steelers out with four TD passes, but the line play remains a topic of conversation.
Jones has played the majority of his snaps at right tackle, but was moved to his natural position, due in part
to the return of last year’s first-round pick Troy Fautanu, who, by most accounts, played well on Sunday.
Fautanu joined The Sick Podcast – Steelers Crazy to recap the play of the offensive line as a whole and was self-critical.
“Personally, I’ve got to play better,” Fautanu said. “Obviously, the thing that sticks out is the amount of times Aaron was sacked or hit, or defenders getting close to him. Our job as an offensive lineman is to protect him and to protect whoever has the ball in their hands, and I just feel like we didn’t do that good of a job.”
“[There’s] no excuse, we’ve got to do a better job. We got to take our job a little more personal. When you got a guy like that back there that can do the things that he did, special things are going to happen. So just have to continue to keep working and get better.”
This Sunday, the Steelers will kick off their home slate against the Seattle Seahawks. While the offensive line still has plenty of time to change the narrative, if the protection for Rodgers doesn’t improve, the groans will reverberate across Western Pennsylvania.
