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Grading The Line: Marvel Smith's Misery

Posted Dec 17, 2007 8:01AM By JJ Cooper (RSS feed)

Filed Under: Steelers, AFC North, Pittsburgh

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Each week I go back and rewatch the Steelers game to take a look at which offensive linemen starred and who left Willie Parker and Ben Roethlisberger on their back. You can see the reports from throughout the season here.

Quick Summary
There aren't many really good weeks for the Steelers offensive line, and this one definitely doesn't qualify as anything but ugly. Marvel Smith played poorly enough to be benched, Ben Roethlisberger once again was running for his life and the Steelers junked the running game despite plenty of success. The truly frustrating thing is that Pittsburgh's line was just physically beaten. Jacksonville didn't use any elaborate blitz schemes to confuse the Steelers, they simply rushed their front four linemen on 36 of the 38 pass plays by my count. They didn't need to blitz, as the Steelers couldn't block four men.


Sacks
It's hard to explain how bad this was. The Jaguars had recorded 27 sacks in 13 games coming into Sunday, roughly two per game. Nine of those sacks were by players who missed the Steelers game with injuries. Add in a bad field that slowed down speed rushers and it should have been an easy assignment for the Steelers offensive line. Instead Pittsburgh gave up five sacks in 38 pass plays with Marvel Smith giving up 3 1/2 or four sacks, depending on how you assign the blame. Willie Colon shared one of the sacks with Smith, while Alan Faneca gave up one, but on that one, you could blame it on Smith and Colon again, as their men flushed Roethlisberger, allowing Faneca's man to pick up a garbage sack.

Under Pressure
Even when he wasn't sacked, Ben Roethlisberger didn't have a whole lot of time to set his feet. The worst example came late in the first quarter when the Steelers kept in a tight end and running block to help block on a deep pass to Santonio Holmes. With the Steelers using seven men to block four pass rushers, Roethlisberger should have had all day to throw. Instead both defensive ends beat their men (Heath Miller and Marvel Smith) to the outside, while Kendall Simmons lost his man on the inside, so Roethlisberger was pressured by three man on a max protect play--that's flat out embarrassing. By my count Marvel Smith gave up five pressures in addition to his 3 1/2 sacks; Simmons gave up four pressures; Colon gave up two and Heath Miller gave up one.

On The Run
At least the running game was better. The Steelers created some holes for Willie Parker, and he took advantage for one of his best games of the season. Not only were the big plays back (four runs of 10+ yards), but he also avoided the lost-yardage plays and stuffs that have plagued the Steelers' running game all season. He gained four or more yards on 10 of his 14 carries.

Individual Reports
The Steelers faced a 4-3 defense on Sunday. Regular readers of Grading The Line will know that that usually means Kendall Simmons struggles while Sean Mahan, freed from blocking a man directly over his nose, plays better. It lived up to expectations on Sunday. Mahan played pretty well. He did a good job of getting out to block linebackers, held his own in pass protection and generally looked pretty athletic.

Player + -
Sean Mahan
 4 3
Willie Colon
 4 4
Heath Miller
 3 1
Alan Faneca 3 2
Marvel Smith
 1 9
Kendall Simmons
 0 7
Matt Spaeth
 1 0
Santonio Holmes
 2 0
Hines Ward
 2 0
Simmons on the other hand found that John Henderson is too much for him to handle. On three running plays where the Steelers were stopped for little or no gain, Simmons was to blame as he was either driven into the backfield or failed to stick his block. He also gave up four pressures in pass protection.

Alan Faneca was Faneca, which means he was reliable, solid and rarely in trouble. He did give up one sack, but as explained above, it really was more the fault of the tackles them him.

Willie Colon's play has dropped off as the season has gone along, but he still is playing adequately. While he wasn't nearly the open gate that Marvel Smith was on Sunday, Colon did struggle at times with speed rushes (two pressures), although he also laid some nice blocks in the running game.

But Colon looked great compared to Marvel Smith. Smith's back injury flared up a couple of weeks ago, but he looked OK in his return last week against the Patriots. Apparently the injury bit him hard on Sunday. Smith simply couldn't beat speed rushers to the corner as the Jags quickly learned. And once he found he couldn't handle a rush to the outside, it left him vulnerable to inside moves, as he overcompensated by flying to the corner on every pass play. The result was a disaster. You could charge Smith with anywhere from three for all five sacks, but it's safe to say he had a role in all five sacks. He also gave up five additional pressures before finally being lifted on the last drive for Max Starks. It's fair to criticize the Steelers for not making the move earlier. Once Starks was in the game, the Jags' pass rush from Roethlisberger's blind side disappeared. If Smith was hurt, the Steelers would have been wise to make a move earlier, and if he wasn't hurt, the Steelers have a lot bigger problems--a left tackle needs to be more reliable than Smith was on Sunday.

Matt Spaeth actually had a very nice block on a running play. It was so unusual that I felt it needed to be mentioned. The Steelers wide receivers also did a very good job blocking on running plays.

Tags: GradingTheOLine

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