No Matter What O-Line Coach Says, Mahan Wasn't Fine Last Year

You can't fault him for saying it, because you have to defend your players, but Steelers offensive line coach Larry Zierlein let out a whopper of a lie yesterday when talking about center Sean Mahan.

"We're not listening to the fans," Zierlein said. "Sean did fine for us last year."

If the Steelers actually believed that, there would be reasons to be very, very worried. But the reality is that there's no sign that they think any differently than the fans. If the Steelers though that Mahan did fine last year, they wouldn't have signed Justin Hartwig to a reasonably large deal to try to beat him out. If they thought that Mahan did well last year, Mike Tomlin wouldn't have commented on the team's inability to handle teams that put big nose tackles over center.
And if Mahan had done a good job last year, the Steelers wouldn't have lost to the Jets--Dewayne Robertson treated him like a doggie chew toy to be tossed around the turf. Yes, that's the same Dewayne Robertson who's better known as a draft bust.

It's a sign of how bad Mahan was last year that he's become a target of fans ire. How many offensive linemen, especially interior offensive linemen, ever get noticed by anybody? Next week, I'll throw out the question of why doesn't Kendall Simmons receive the same heat from the fans.

Now Mahan will likely look adequate tonight against the Eagles. Philadelphia runs a 4-3 defense, and if Mahan is uncovered, he does OK. He's not great, but during the 2007 season, if he was facing a 4-3 defense, he was mediocre. But put a big man across the line from him, and he quickly looks like an undersized long snapper filling in for the center. The problem with that is that the Steelers face almost all of the 3-4 defenses in the league this year.

By my count, there are eight teams that predominantly run the 3-4, including the Steelers. Pittsburgh will play four of them. They'll face the Browns twice (where Shaun Rogers would be drooling at a chance to manhandle Mahan), the Cowboys, the Patriots and the Chargers. Jamaal Williams, the Chargers nose tackle, is considered by many to be better than Casey Hampton. Match him up against Sean Mahan and you're talking about building a gameplan around double teams because you know he'll destroy Mahan.

Dagger over at Post Game Heroes did some further analysis about Mahan's problems. I don't agree with all of his statistical points (some of the lineman did much of their damage against Kendall Simmons), but the photos he has of Mahan getting blown into the backfield are a pretty clear indication of the problem.