Steelers Weakest Link for Week 5 against the Jacksonville Jaguars
This week’s “Weakest Link” was both difficult and easy to arrive at. For weeks, we’ve been waiting patiently for the Steelers offense to click. Three of those four weeks were on the road, and with the Steelers returning to Heinz Field on Sunday, I don’t anticipate seeing the same jitters that make this team often fold on road trips.
Therefore, this week’s pick is the offensive line. And for several reasons.
First, the Steelers are the second-most penalized team in the NFL with 37 calls against them. (The 49ers are first with 39.) Pittsburgh is also tied for first in most penalty yards with Kansas City. Each team has 316 penalty yards.
Of those 39 calls, nine have been for offensive holding (89 yards) seven for false starts (35 yards) and two for delay of game (ten yards). While a few of those flags have been attributed to non-linemen, such as Ben Roethlisberger (quarterback charged with delay of game) and JuJu Smith-Schuster, it’s the offensive line who needs to get it together.
Offensive linemen have had nine penalties called against them. Aside from JuJu Smith-Schuster (who has four penalties so far), the Steelers linemen are the most egregious “rule breakers” on the offense. Maurkice Pouncey, David DeCastro, Chris Hubbard, and Alejandro Villanueva each have at least two calls against them this season.
That wouldn’t appear to be so bad if two of those players weren’t perennial Pro Bowlers.
In other words, the Steelers need to clean up drive-killing penalties. Playing at home is a start, as crowd noise shouldn’t be a factor.
Getting healthy is the second key, as quite literally, the Steelers offensive line has been weakened by injuries and illness throughout the first quarter of this season. B.J. Finney and Chris Hubbard have filled in decently for Big Al, Ramon Foster, and Marcus Gilbert, but Pittsburgh, like any other team, could stand to have some consistency.
I believe that they will get there, which is why choosing the offensive line as a weak link was a difficult choice for this game. However, when looking at how they match up against the Jaguars front four of Calais Campbell, Dante Fowler Jr., Malik Jackson, and Yannick Ngakoue, the guys in the trenches definitely need to bring their “A” game this Sunday.
If they don’t, the Steelers offense could stall. And without any points being put on the board, we all know how that could turn out!
