A lot went wrong for the Atlanta Falcons' offense in their Week 1 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers. In fact, outside of the usual awesome game from their otherworldly running back Bijan Robinson, just about everything else did.
To review, star wide receiver Drake London only saw four targets the whole game, catching two of them and totaling a meager 29 yards. At tight end Kyle Pitts only saw one target the entire afternoon. Robinson wound up leading the team in receiving by a wide margin, totaling 90 yards through the air - 61 more than any other Falcons player.
At quarterback Cooper Rush flopped, proving just as conservative as Tua Tagovailoa and not as accurate, to boot. He also threw two interceptions and posted a 51.9 passer rating and a 2.6
QBR.
In the trenches the offensive line wasn't terrible but it wasn't good, either. Rush took four sacks, losing 25 yards in the process - plus five quarterback hits. Meanwhile, the Falcons only averaged 3.9 yards per carry in the run game. For a bonus, every starter up front committed a penalty except center Ryan Neuzil.
Head coach Kevin Stefanski defended his offensive line after the game, though. Here's what he had to say, per Josh Kendall at The Athletic.
"It’s not just the offensive line’s job to protect... It’s wide receivers getting open, being great with your chips, ball coming out when the ball is supposed to come out. It’s not fair to just point to the offensive line when it comes to that. You give (Pittsburgh) credit, but there are definitely things we could have done better.”
In their defense, Pittsburgh's front-seven represents a tough matchup and Rush was at least partially responsible for a couple of the sacks he took.
That being said, this is supposed to be one of the best offensive line units in the league - they were consistently ranked in or near the top 10 this offseason and new assistant Bill Callahan has a reputation as the best OL coach in the business.
Despite all that, this unit failed in its debut and has to do a lot better, no matter who's in the backfield next week.
This article originally appeared on Falcons Wire: Kevin Stefanski defends Falcons offensive line after rough debut
