"I wasn't good enough today. There were times we looked good, and a lot of times we didn't. So, gotta get it figured out."
I'd just asked Ben Roethlisberger, minutes removed from the Steelers' 26-17 loss to the Raiders on this homecoming Sunday at Heinz Field, if he'd felt the offense had ever found any real rhythm through the afternoon. It was the first question fired his way and, as ever with Ben, he was going to give the answer he wanted regardless.
Which, in this case, was rooted in self-deprecation.
Asked about cracking the code of constantly encountering single-high defenses, essentially daring him to throw deep, ever since John Harbaugh and the Ravens did that to him midway through the 2020 season, he replied, "I just need to be better."
Asked what might be the identity of this offense through two games, he replied, "The best way to figure out an identity is for the quarterback to play better. So that's what I need to do. So, I'll work on me getting myself ready to go and making better reads, better throws and trying to put us in a situation to win a football game."
Asked to be more specific about what he can do, he replied, "Well, I'll maybe have a better answer once I look back on it. Right now, my play's just not good enough. If I played better, we'd have a chance to win the football game. So that loss, I'll take that. I apologize to the fans for that home opener. They were awesome. And it's disappointing that we didn't get that."
One gets the message. Only it's the wrong message.
Oh, Ben wasn't great: 27 of 40 for 295 yards, a touchdown, a pick, a couple sacks. He's been sharper and, in fact, he was sharper in the second half of the opening win over the Bills in Orchard Park, N.Y.
But to condense any analysis of this offense's countless shortcomings to any single position, even quarterback, is silly. And be very sure he knows it, too, since, later in this very same session, he'd acknowledge when asked about the running game, "We need to do everything better right now on offense. We don't need to point at one thing. We need to point at the whole thing."
That's more like it. But to have covered Ben for nearly two decades is to know that this is how he reacts when he's ... well, "frustrated" was a word he used once in this session, along with three "frustrating" references. He blames himself and, to an extent, means it. But he's doing so partly as a cover to vent whatever else might also be "frustrating" him.
Because, to be brutally blunt here, not much else matters about this team if this side of the football can't progress from its currently punchless, often putrid state. Not losing nearly half of the defense -- T.J. Watt, Tyson Alualu, Joe Haden, Devin Bush, Stephon Tuitt -- to injury, with those first two occurring on this day. Not the caliber of the opponent, though Derek Carr made for a superior passing counterpart with 382 yards, two touchdowns and virtually no run support.
The offense isn't optional. Been writing that for months. We just witnessed a full season, both the 11-0 and the 1-5, of what happens when the offense is optional. Eventually, the defense dies off from too many snaps, too much attrition, and the rest gets exposed.
And wow, with all these injuries on that side of the ball, maybe we're already at DEFCON-7 on this front, right?
Ben didn't -- and couldn't, really -- elaborate on all his exasperation, but nothing's stopping me from doing exactly that sort of speculation.
Let's start with the curious case of Chase Claypool, a player football experts far and wide have pegged as a breakthrough candidate in his second NFL season. Because, you know, he's as talented as he is tall:
That's 52 yards in the fourth quarter. Nice. Pushed off a little, but it's not a penalty if there's no flag.
That's ... not nice. Claypool was targeted nine times and caught three balls. Say what one will about degree of difficulty, but it can't go unnoticed that Diontae Johnson caught 9 of 12 targets, JuJu Smith-Schuster 6 of 7, Najee Harris 5 of 5, and Pat Freiermuth 4 of 4, so can't all be Ben misfires.
Claypool can make a bigger difference. Maybe the biggest difference within his position group.
Asked what he thought of the offense, Claypool replied, "I think the biggest thing was leaving a lot on the table on third downs and big downs that we needed to convert to keep the drive alive. Just minor details in the plays and the routes."
And who runs those?
Then there's the painfully obvious stuff, like the running and the blocking ... or the blocking and the running, to assign the proper order.
Najee's shown he can hit holes, just as much as this crazy-young line's shown it can't create them. I can drip-drip-drip through all the data -- the kid carried 10 times for 38 yards -- or I can just point out semi-jokingly that nearly every picture snapped of him here by Getty photographer Justin K. Aller looked a lot like this:
JUSTIN K. ALLER / GETTY
Najee Harris is stuffed by Carl Nassib and the Raiders in the second quarter Sunday at Heinz Field.
Asked what he thought of the offense, Najee replied, "We had some moments, but like anything else, we’ve just got to find ways to improve more, fix our flaws, fix our mistakes. We had a lot of mistakes."
Mm-hm.
And then there's the less obvious, the less known factor of Matt Canada's playcalling.
There's still so much dink to this offense that it's difficult to discern from the Randy Fichtner brand. To an extent, that's understandable. Ben was hit 10 times by the Raiders, a pace that'd have him in traction by Thanksgiving. But the more I see of Canada and, in particular, his wholly redrawn wide receiver route trees, the more I'm wondering if they ever take into account first-down markers and the like.
This sequence in the second quarter made me nuts:
I mean, if I'm Ben, I wouldn't throw to Najee underneath, either. He's halfway to the sticks and being hawked. But I sure wouldn't have every other receiver on the roster shopping for schoolbooks up the hill at CCAC or wherever they might've ventured off the left of the screen there. This happened more than once, and I'd like to think it was part of what Mike Tomlin referenced after the game when he said, "I didn't think we had enough detail or enough playmaking on possession downs."
Oddly, all three of this offense's scoring drives were fueled by splash plays. That's not rhythm, to swing back to the question I asked Ben. That's not sustainable.
Another one on Canada: Roger Goodell can't fine coordinators for utilizing the tight ends.
This was as close as Ben would come to blurting out other reasons he was truly "frustrated," when asked why the offensive sets almost religiously stuck with three or four wide receivers: "You know what? You'll have to ask Coach Canada that. That's what he's calling and what we're going with. We got some really good football players that you want to get on the football field. So, if you don't have them out there, they're sitting on the bench doing nothing."
Ow.
Anyone care to reassess that apology now?
JUSTIN K. ALLER / GETTY
Ben Roethlisberger throws in the first quarter Sunday.
• I can't recall any recent loss in which Tomlin was as broadly buried by the fan base -- social media, etc. -- for something that made zero impact on the outcome.
Meaning, of course, his call to punt in the fourth quarter.
To review: The Steelers faced fourth-and-1 at their 34 with 8:36 remaining and the Raiders leading, 23-14. So two scores were needed.
We can agree on that much?
OK, cool. Now forget that Carr was cutting everyone apart. And that Najee and the running game were averaging 2.8 yards per carry. And anything else that isn't something that actually occurred next.
Which was this: Pressley Harvin III boomed a 58-yard punt that pinned the Raiders way back at their 8. And after an 11-yard run, they went three-and-out and punted. The Steelers took over at their 32 with 5:51 remaining.
We can agree on that, as well, I'm sure. These are just facts.
So, sticking with facts: What was lost?
Yep. Two yards and 2:45 off the clock.
Next, the Steelers moved 30 yards, and Chris Boswell kicked a 56-yard field goal to trim the Raiders' lead to 23-17. Or one score. With nearly six minutes available to get the next.
I'll ask again: What was lost?
I get that the head coach isn't popular with some fans. I get that he's outright hated by some fans. I get that he's won three playoff games in the past decade. I get that he doesn't excel at everything and, on this day, he and his staff made what I felt were real and costly mistakes.
Citing this punt as one of them only cheapens any general anti-Tomlin argument, as it has no basis in fact. It made some fans angry in the moment, and it apparently was so angry that they didn't eventually notice it had zero impact on the outcome.
• This might generate more discussion and debate than it deserves, since every quarterback everywhere prefers to go for it rather than to punt, but Ben was asked if, in his 18th NFL season, he can approach Tomlin and insist on going for it, and he replied, "Not when the punt team's running on the field."
Asked if he had any chance to offer input, he replied, "You saw me. I'm standing there. I don't have a choice."
Asked if he did, indeed, want to go for it, he replied with a silent smile.
That's fun, but I'll repeat: Every. Quarterback. Everywhere.
• All right, fine, I saw this happen Sunday night, too:
"LAMAR! Do you want to go for this?" 😈 pic.twitter.com/ZfdJowmWyT
— NFL (@NFL) September 20, 2021
But let's not pretend Harbaugh didn't already know what Lamar Jackson's answer would be.
• Want a valid criticism of Tomlin?
How about not going for two points following Najee's touchdown just before all of this?
The touchdown itself pulled the Steelers within 16-13 early in the fourth quarter. Without having a handy copy of the Dick Vermeil cheat sheet, sure seems to me that the only gain to a PAT there -- which Boswell converted, by the way -- is that another field goal brings the lead. But sorry, I'm hungry for points in that setting. And that goes double when it's weighed that the Raiders' next touchdown -- which came on their next possession, by the way -- would give them a two-score advantage by virtue of having a nine-point lead rather than eight.
• To add to that, heck, the one thing the Canada offense has done well to date is finish once close, as evidenced by this gorgeous inside handoff to JuJu for the Steelers' first touchdown:
I swear, I lost the ball watching it live. No idea who had it. Sublime.
Could've made a fine two-point play, as well, right?
• As long as I'm complimenting, it'd feel wrong to not pause and appreciate Najee's touchdown:
Easy to envision so many more in the future, isn't it?
Just give him some room to operate.
• If two players spit in each other's faces, and both get ejected, I'm not sure what else there is to deliberate.
• Hope this comes across crystal clear: Minkah Fitzpatrick didn't bite on an underneath route. He migrated toward Darren Waller, who otherwise would've been left all alone. Allowing Henry Ruggs III to blow by Ahkello Witherspoon for the backbreaking 61-yard touchdown was all about ... Carr's gorgeous pass under duress and Ruggs' ridiculous speed.
Sometimes the other guys just beat you.
• Hearing 'Renegade' right before Isaiahh Loudermilk and Jamir Jones hit the field is about as sobering ... as it should be.
I try never to react to injury developments until they're as certain as they can be, but Alualu's fractured ankle could keep him out half the season. I appreciate Chris Wormley, but I appreciate all the more that Tuitt could be back within two weeks. As for T.J. and the rest, let's see the prognoses.
I do know this: Conditioning people hate groin injuries. They're slow to recover and, even once they do, they pop right back out of whack. T.J., Haden and Bush all require explosiveness to be themselves.
• Jon Gruden was asked if the Raiders capitalized on T.J.'s absence, and he responded in style: "We're missing enough players. I don't give a damn who's out there for them."
God bless football.
JUSTIN K. ALLER / GETTY
Ben Roethlisberger throws in the second quarter Sunday in front of 63,707 fans at Heinz Field.
• This home opener marked a return home for the Nation, with an actual attendance of 63,707 showing exceptional energy both outside and inside the place ... at least until the Raiders did all their dousing.
This opener also marked the unfortunate return of the completely incorrect narrative that having yellow seats means having a lot of empty or unsold seats. So, in turn, I'll resurrect my three counters to this completely incorrect narrative, in no notable order:
1. The official seating capacity at Heinz Field, since the south-end expansion in 2015, is 68,400. Again, that's seating capacity. As anyone who's ever spent a minute inside the place for an NFL game can attest, thousands of fans -- literally thousands -- don't use their seats, preferring instead to perch on one of the two rotundas (see photo just above) or on the two elevated walkways at the north end, or on the giant plaza atop the south-end expansion. And on this day, from what I heard from fans, the 82-degree temps and exposed sun chased more away than usual.
2. The Steelers' announced attendance, to repeat, is the actual attendance. They're one of only two teams left in all of major-league sports who choose to go by turnstile count. It's not tickets sold, not tickets in circulation. It's the actual number of humans who enter the place with a ticket. It's recorded by Heinz Field security, reported to the team by Heinz Field security.
3. The reason the capacity isn't achieved anymore has little to do with Pittsburgh, believe it or not. Roughly half of the Steelers' season-ticket base lives outside the Western Pennsylvania region. Because of that, obviously, roughly half has a long way to travel to get to games. That's why our Downtown hotels overflow on NFL weekends. When these fans decide not to use or resell their tickets, there's nothing the team can do. They've pleaded with these fans in the past to move the tickets, even offering to buy them back, but not everyone participates.
There. Clip and save. Share with a friend.
Because almost everything else that's spoken about crowds at Heinz Field is flat-out wrong.
• Regardless, it was beautiful to see so many fans return to their natural habitat. That's a W under any circumstance.
DEJAN KOVACEVIC / DKPS
Fans file through security at Heinz Field's main entrance Sunday.
THE ESSENTIALS
• Boxscore
• Live file
• Scoreboard
• Schedule
• Standings
• Statistics
THE INJURIES
• T.J. Watt, Steelers linebacker, hurt his groin in the second quarter and didn't return. His status initially was questionable, and he was downgraded to out after halftime. Tomlin's only update afterward: "He wasn't able to continue."
• Tyson Alualu, Steelers defensive tackle, broke his right ankle in the first quarter, was carted off and didn't return. He was ruled out minutes after leaving the field. Tomlin: "Obviously, he will be down for an extended period of time."
• Diontae Johnson, Steelers wide receiver, hurt his right knee on the game's final play. He had to be helped off by two people, unable to put weight on the right leg. Tomlin: "It's being evaluated."
• Joe Haden, Steelers cornerback, was inactive because of a groin injury.
• Devin Bush, Steelers linebacker, was inactive because of a groin injury. "Both soft tissue injuries," Tomlin said of Haden and Bush. "I don't know their status. I know they weren't available today."
THE AFC NORTH
• Baltimore
• Cincinnati
• Cleveland
THE SCHEDULE
Next up: Bengals.
THE MULTIMEDIA
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THE CONTENT
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