An exchange today between guard Kendrick Green and a reporter succinctly summarized what kind of night it had been for the offensive line in general and Green in particular in Jacksonville.
Green was asked about the clip of a play making the rounds on Twitter on which Green had been quickly and cleanly beaten on a swim move by Jaguars defensive end Arden Key.
"I don't know which one you're talking about," Green responded.
"I think it was No. 49," the reporter clarified.
"Well, he beat me a few times," Green replied.
The below-the-line performance was reviewed in detail by head coach Mike Tomlin in front of the group.
"'Coach T' kinda put us up on the board, me specifically, in front of the team meeting," Green acknowledged. "That never feels good.
"He's not even cussing you out or anything like that. He's just like, 'This is what you are. This is what you put on film,' and it's fair. It's not like it's uncalled for, it's completely fair.
"You gotta own it. You put it on film. There's more than just the people in our room watching this. There's 31 other teams out there watching, as well. I don't really care too much about what's on social media and what guys are saying, that don't really move us. But your peers see that, they're gonna come at you with the same things."
Tomlin had assessed the offensive line's performance in the immediate aftermath of Saturday night's 16-15 victory over the Jaguars as inadequate to the extent that an accurate assessment of quarterback Mitch Trubisky's play was unattainable.
"We've got to do a better job in protecting him and having some semblance of a running game if you want a fair evaluation, and I'm just being bluntly honest," Tomlin had stated.
Miscommunication and poor technique were the most often cited culprits among the linemen in assessing what had gone wrong against the Jaguars.
"Sometimes you're gonna get beat, right? center Mason Cole said. "The thing is minimizing that, playing the right technique, knowing what we're doing and all doing it together.
"Some of the penalties and stuff that we had, we gotta get it fixed."
Trubisky wasn't the only QB pressured consistently by the Jaguars.
And the ground game accounted for just 24 yards on 14 carries (10 yards on 10 carries by running backs).
Guard Kevin Dotson, who has been alternating with Green at left guard while a starter is determined at the position, had a simple solution.
"Do better."
Individually and collectively.
"We all just need to focus on our technique," right guard James Daniels said. "We have times where four people are doing things right then one person is doing things wrong.
"We just need to focus on every single person individually doing things right, and then as a whole it all works out together."
Added Cole: "Our ability's there and we know we can use great technique. We just gotta trust ourselves in using the technique and really play to win the rep, not play to not lose."
Work on that resumed this afternoon.
"'Coach T' challenged us, Coach Meyer (offensive line coach Pat) challenged us," Green said. "We're gonna go out and get to work, that's for certain."
