We all knew the Steelers' offensive line was going to be a project throughout 2021. That part of the Steelers struggling with just 50 points scored in three games as the NFL's 28th best offense isn't surprising.
But what is surprising is how lost Ben Roethlisberger has looked during the team's first three games. There are certainly several plays where he has to mitigate poor offensive line play and protect himself with early throws, but that was an expected weakness the 18-year quarterback was supposed to mitigate to some degree while a group with two starting rookies from the third and fourth rounds figured it out.
Matt Canada still needs to find easier methods for Roethlisberger to get the ball out quickly in a way that allows the Steelers' playmakers to beat defenders in space with one-on-one opportunities. Mike Tomlin even addressed that opportunity as the offense's biggest strength amid its struggles.
"We’ve got a quality set of eligibles," Tomlin said Tuesday when asked of his offense's strengths. "Those guys are somewhat young but they're not young in football experience. Guys like JuJu (Smith-Schuster) and (Chase) Claypool and Diontae (Johnson) and James Washington have made a lot of plays for us. We have good, quality talent, and a variety of talent at the tight end position in different skillsets. Pat [Freiermuth], although new, has added to that. You've seen evidence of that over the course of the first couple of weeks. Although he lacks experience, Najee Harris has shown in a very short period of time that he is game and capable of doing what's required in terms of being a featured runner."
I wrote in last week's Carter's Classroom how throwing easy underneath passes to Harris could settle things for Roethlisberger and open up the rest of the offense. The Steelers did that part, targeting Harris 19 times to get him 14 catches, the most by a running back and third most by any player in team history.
And it wasn't until the Steelers' fifth drive against the Bengals that Harris caught his first pass in the game. It opened up the rest of the offense for the Steelers' only touchdown drive of the game. Even with Roethlisberger's struggles early in the season, defenses have to respect the Steelers assortment of offensive threats.
Watch how much space got created when the Steelers used a bunch-left formation to run three receivers on crossing routes while Freiermuth crossed against them. That was all it took for Harris' route to the flat to go unnoticed before he got a big gain to set up the Steelers' eventual touchdown:
But the next step to maximizing the use of Harris as a receiving threat was how to follow up the underneath passes to him with passes further down the field to keep the Bengals' defense unbalanced with a variety of passing concepts Roethlisberger could target.
That didn't happen as the game continued, even when the opportunities were presented from Matt Canada's play calls. The bigger problem came from how unsure Roethlisberger looked as the Bengals rotated their safeties to disguise coverage packages and force him to hesitate.
Watch this play when Roethlisberger had time in the pocket and how he initially reacted to the Bengals' single-high safety look. Roethlisberger starts the play staring to his left for Washington and Harris, but the Bengals rotated their single-high safety to that side of the field, allowing for their underneath coverage to occupy the spaces Roethlisberger wanted to attack:
Instead of quickly rotating through his reads, Roethlisberger took far too long to find Smith-Schuster as an open target and launched a late throw which led to the hit that knocked Smith-Schuster out of the game.
The offensive line is definitely the Steelers' weakest offensive position group, but Roethlisberger's experience through 236 games should make him more comfortably in command of an offense to make his reads faster and sharper, even when the pre-snap disguises of opponents initially fool him.
During Roethlisberger's prime years, being forced off his launch spot because of pressure wasn't nearly as much of an issue because he had the athleticism to extend plays and find open receivers. But at 39 years old, he doesn't have the same ability to do so, and must find ways to escape such situations by knowing when and where to use his safety valve options.
That's what he didn't do in his second interception of the game. As Roethlisberger moved up in the pocket to buy more time, his reaction was to look in front of him for an easy target to Smith-Schuster. But in doing so, he threw a pass into triple coverage. Instead, he passed up on hitting Derek Watt in the left flat, where he could've caught an easy pass and had a good chance to convert. He also didn't try to hit Harris in the right flat, who only had Mike Hilton in front of him:
Even with having to leave his launch spot, Roethlisberger should've been able to see that and adjust with a read, but that's where his weakness in reading defenses has failed him the most.
It's a real question of whether Roethlisberger can carry the offense anymore, as he has several times over his career. In years past, receivers could run wrong routes, linemen miss blocking assignments, and he would still find ways to make plays, or at least give his teammates a chance to be playmakers.
Watch this play action shot play where Roethlisberger held onto the ball for eight seconds before taking the first hit and then being sacked. You can see Claypool ran a deep crossing route from the left side of the formation while Washington ran a deep corner route to the same side of the field. But that's not normal schematics, and I doubt that was the play Canada would've drawn up.
A typical shot play with two deep receivers would have both attack different parts of the field, which tells me Washington made a mistake in running a corner route, and instead, should've ran deep crossing pattern opposite of Claypool. If Washington did that, he becomes a better target for Roethlisberger, even with another defensive back coming to help the middle of the field:
But even with that, Roethlisberger had plenty of time to realize what happened and check it down to Harris and give him a one-on-one opportunity in space on first down. He didn't do that, and took a very unnecessary sack.
Roethlisberger's struggles are compounded by his uncertainty not just in the offensive line, but with what appears to be his own confidence to make proper reads and throws. It's something he's gone through several times before in his career, but at 39, bouncing back looks more difficult.
And in those difficulties, Roethlisberger's mistakes start to compound and lead to bigger issues. The 4th and 10 pass to Harris in the flat during the fourth quarter that went for no gain was explained away by Tomlin saying the Steelers "fired all their bullets" when asked about it after the game. But how the play looked from the onset didn't look like an exasperated play call, but too quick of a commitment from Roethlisberger.
Look how quickly Roethlisberger checked down to Harris on a 4th and 10 pass with several defenders in front of him while multiple receiving options were further downfield. Unless Canada's play call was to throw it to Harris in less than a second, regardless of coverage, this didn't make sense. And if you watch the All-22 film, Roethlisberger could've floated a touchdown pass to Cody White in the back of the end zone:
The offense has a high number of problems, but Roethlisberger's issues with processing and reading the field is one that needs to be fixed if the unit turns things around in the coming weeks.
A young, inexperienced offensive line like the Steelers' group would normally take several weeks to coalesce into a formidable unit, and with the fact that they didn't get to spend much time working together in training camp due to injuries, their setbacks are expected.
Roethlisberger's reading problems are different. It would be one thing if Roethlisberger's arm was as bad as Drew Brees' was in 2020 or Peyton Manning during his final season, that would be one issue. But Roethlisberger can still hit the occasional deep ball and isn't nearly in a state like they were physically.
If he's to show that he's not finished, it's going to take him showing that from the neck up with his decision making in the coming weeks.