The Steelers wrapped the pre-season with a 24-17 loss in Detroit on Saturday night. While the final result doesn’t matter much, there were some valuable developments in that contest. In particular, the starting offensive line played like a unit showing signs of coming together. The sample size wasn’t ideal — the starters played just two series together against a Detroit defense comprised largely of backups — but in those two series the offense gained 95 yards on 11 plays and scored consecutive touchdowns. It was the first two times some semblance of the starting unit reached the end zone all pre-season. The success of those drives, whether against backups or not, began with the play of the line.

A combination of injuries and experimentation led to a great deal of shuffling of the pieces up front in Pittsburgh’s first two pre-season contests. For the Detroit game, the Steelers settled on a starting unit of Broderick Jones at left tackle, James Daniels at left guard, rookie Zach Frazier at center, Isaac Seumalo at right guard and Dan Moore Jr. at right tackle. They mixed their personnel groups between 11, 12 and 13 but mostly used Darnell Washington as their in-line blocking tight end. On their opening play, they put three tight ends on the field line and got a good  vertical push up front, allowing Najee Harris to plow ahead for five yards on a Duo play. After a poorly executed wide receiver screen to George Pickens lost six yards, the line gave Russell Wilson a deep, clean pocket on a 3rd-and-11 play, allowing time for Pickens to come open on an out-cut past the sticks. Wilson put his throw on target, Pickens made some money after the catch and the Steelers had a gain of 32 yards.

Two plays later, with Cordarrelle Patterson in at running back for the injured Jaylen Warren, Frazier and Seumalo executed a perfect combination block on a wide zone run, springing Patterson into the secondary. The veteran went one-on-one with Detroit’s safety, faked him out of his shorts and sprinted to the end zone. That play is the subject of my film room on the performance of the line against Detroit, which you can access by clicking the link at the bottom of this article.

On Pittsburgh’s second drive, the Steelers took possession after a strip-sack by the relentless Nick Herbig gave them the football in plus territory. Justin Fields replaced Wilson at quarterback and the Steelers again found the end zone. The highlight of this drive was a 22-yard strike from Fields to tight end MyCole Pruitt into a tight window down the seam. Fields was able to set his feet as he stood comfortably in another clean pocket and deliver a perfectly-placed ball. Two plays later, La’Mical Perine walked into the end zone from the 1-yard line after Moore and Pat Freiermuth caved down the left side of Detroit’s defensive line with excellent gap blocks.

It would be silly to say the two series the first unit played in Detroit fixes all concerns about the line. We don’t know how Frazier will hold up for a full game against starting-caliber nose tackles, or whether the group will struggle with all the expected pocket movement from the quarterbacks, or if/when rookie Troy Fautanu will get healthy and enter the lineup. Those concerns will be answered in due time. What we saw in Detroit was encouraging, though, and represents progress over the first two pre-season games. With the season opener less than two weeks away, that’s a good thing.

Check out the video by clicking HERE, or in the player below: