Whereas the Steelers’ offensive line held up in go safety, the work in the run recreation remains to be slowly growing. Final night time’s beginning working again, rookie Kaleb Johnson, discovered working lanes slender, if not illusory. With four-fifths of the beginning offensive line within the recreation, one would have hoped for higher—one being Chris Hoke.
“The place I wish to see enchancment from preseason Recreation 1 to preseason Recreation 2 is on the line of scrimmage”, Hoke mentioned on the Steelers Additional Level postgame present in regards to the run recreation. “They did an excellent job defending the quarterback. Let’s do some bit higher at getting some motion on the line of scrimmage. I assumed the blokes received knocked again just a little bit. There weren’t a variety of working lanes. I feel they’ll see that once they watch the movie”.
The Steelers drafted Kaleb Johnson, together with the brand new offensive line, to jumpstart the run recreation. The rookie third-round decide gained simply 20 yards, nevertheless, on eight speeding makes an attempt in his preseason debut. His longest run was simply seven yards, and it was a well-earned seven.
Of his eight official runs, Johnson did produce a profitable play on 5 of them. In a three-play sequence, he picked up 4 yards on first down, 5 on second, and two on third down. It’s simply 11 yards, however every run saved the Steelers forward of the chains at that time within the recreation.
However the Steelers additionally struggled to maintain their positioning within the run recreation, and the stats alone don’t present it. Johnson had a lack of two negated by penalty, for instance, to pair together with his three-yard loss. What Hoke took most umbrage with, although, was once they introduced Johnson again on to transform on 4th and 1 and failed.
“I noticed a few guys once they introduced the receivers in from the weak aspect, there was that 4th and 1 that led to one of many touchdowns for the Jaguars and Kaleb Johnson ran the ball off the best aspect and Robert Woods received knocked again just a little bit”, Hoke mentioned of the Steelers’ run recreation. “He’s received to be more durable in there and seal off the within so Kaleb Johnson can get downhill so there’s some enchancment. There’s some enchancment [needed in] run blocking however general bodily they performed nicely. It’s simply getting a hat on a hat and shifting guys”.
The Steelers really signed Woods maybe as a lot for the run recreation as for the go recreation, if no more. And it’s “simply” the preseason, granted, however a failure like that issues. The incapability of the Steelers’ run recreation to transform on 4 and 1 led to a turnover on downs on their very own 44 and the Jaguars rapidly took the lead. In a recreation that truly mattered, that could possibly be the distinction between a win and a loss.
