OL Question, is the Talent or the coaching??

[BKAnthem]

It seems this group is playing worse than last year, and it's basically the same personnel...... and Scott is a Kugler guy, and now Urbick is starting for the Bills...i don't know if he's playing well though....what say you all?

[DanRooney]

Originally Posted by BKAnthem

It seems this group is playing worse than last year, and it's basically the same personnel...... and Scott is a Kugler guy, and now Urbick is starting for the Bills...i don't know if he's playing well though....what say you all?

Same personnel minus Flozell Adams.

[tanda10506]

Letting Flozell go made a difference. The coaching might be bad, but blocking is blocking TO A POINT, no matter how bad the coaching is it doesn't equal to our lineman losing one on one matchups every play. Coaching makes a difference but on the line it still comes down to blocking the guy in front of you, at least for the tackles, and they aren't doing that.

[Fire Arians]

even if flozell gets beat, it still takes a full 3 seconds to run around him lol

[Rick5895]

When watching the OL, one thing I look for is footwork. Surprisingly Kemo is very agile and moves well, Gilbert seems to alwys take the right steps, sometimes a bit late but that is probably because he is a rookie and still learning and thinking too much. Scott on the other just doesn't move well enough to play LT. We all praised Kugler for the job he did last season, but I see a problem with the Steelers coaches, they play "thier"guys way too long, meaning they leave them in even though they aren't doing the job. Scott should see the pine the rest of the year, I think he would be fine as a backup but certainly not starter material. move Gilbert to LT. Bring someone else in to play RT, maybe the guy they just signed when Colon went down.
I have said this before, as much as talent ..continuity is important on the OL. With the injuries we are having it is impossible to get that continuity to where the players know what each other will do.

[PhantomJB93]

Originally Posted by DanRooney

Same personnel minus Flozell Adams.

But the thing is Flozell arguably played better last year than pretty much any Olineman we've had since Faneca...

It's definitely not coaching, Jonathan Scott and Doug Legursky are players that should be career backups, yet are critical components of our Oline.

Pouncey, Gilbert, and Kemo are fine, and I think Foster can man down another guard position in the short term, but we really need a tackle.

[Atlanta Dan]

It's talent - IMO Kugler is a better coach than his predecessor

They were not All-Pros and injuries are part of the game, but the Steelers caught 2 bad breaks by Starks eating his way out of a job and Colon being lost for the season in week one

However, if Adams would have been signed for another year the Steelers could have put Colon at RG, which is a better fit for him and then could try to see if Gilbert could be thrown into the deep end at LT (which they still may do if they decide to put Essex at RT).

Of course to bring Adams back woudl have required finding $5 million to cut somewhere else, and Aaron Smith apparently has compromising photos of Tomlin and Colbert that made him untouchable (not just this year but not putting him on IR in 2010) even though he has broken down and can no longer play. Smith is exhibit #1 (Farrior may be turning into exhibit #1A) of the danger of holding on to players for old times sake

Bottom line is the Steelers neglected drafting on the OL for years and it has caught up with them

[Steeldude]

it's both talent and coaching.

how can you not tell scott to bend? he was totally upright on seemingly every play

[BengalDestroyer]

I'm not a fan of Kugler or Scott or the cut of Starks or Ubrick. Ubrick was still young enough to come around. Scott has shown NOTHING close to why he's even on the roster let alone a starter... Improve this line a little bit and we're soooo much more better.

[steelfury02]

Don't worry - they'll fix it in time for Batch and/or Dixon to come in