We've all heard the words of wisdom regarding not overexerting things at the outset, whether it be a race or a game.
"Slow and steady wins the race." The fable about the tortoise and the hare.
But in the NFL, slow starts can doom a team. That's especially true if those slow starts turn into slow halves or entire games, and that's been the issue the Steelers have been fighting for some time now.
After failing to score a touchdown in the first quarter again in last week's 24-10 loss to the Bengals, the Steelers (1-2) are one of just two teams that have yet to score a point in the first quarter this season. They also have just 14 points in the first half of their first three games, leading to going to the locker room at the half of each of those games with a deficit. It's something they can't afford to do as they prepare to head to Green Bay to face Aaron Rodgers and the Packers this weekend.
A defense that is allowing just 11 points per game in the first half thus far helps -- down from an average of 12 points per game in the first half in 2020 -- but with the offense struggling to score points in general, the slow starts have doomed the Steelers the past two weeks in a pair of losses.
How to fix it?
"That’s the million-dollar question, starting fast. I’ll just speak to me. I need to start faster," Ben Roethlisberger said Wednesday. "Traditionally, I’ve never been a fast-start guy. My college coach (Terry Hoeppner) said the same thing. He’d say, ‘We’ve got to get you going faster in practices.’ I need to start faster. I know the coaches are doing a great job scripting things, whether it be screens or getting the ball out, just plays that you really like. As an offense, we need to start faster, but it starts with me. That’s kind of the key to a successful day is starting fast."
The Steelers changed offensive coordinators in the offseason, elevating quarterbacks coach Matt Canada to replace Randy Fichtner. But the results thus far have been the same.
The Steelers still come up with a script of plays to run on its first drive or two each game, but they have two first downs and 40 total yards on their three opening drives this season. And they have now gone 12 consecutive games without scoring on their opening possession, gaining 145 total yards and recording just nine first downs.
Not only are they failing to put points on the board, the slow starts are dooming the Steelers in a battle for field possession early in games as the offense struggles to find some footing.
"The way they do the beginning script is each coach kind of gets their top five, 10 favorite plays," Roethlisberger said of the script under Canada. "They talk about it and formulate it and bring it to me Saturday morning. We look at it and talk about it and make some last-minute tweaks. I’m still very involved with it."
Roethlisberger is completing 65.4 percent of his passes in the first quarter this season, but has only thrown for 118 yards, with an average per attempt of just 4.5 yards. He's also thrown two of his three interceptions in the first quarter this season.
It's not all that different than last season, when he completed just 58.2 percent of his first-quarter throws with two touchdown passes and one interception and averaged 4.9 yards per pass attempt.
And contrary to Roethlisberger's belief that he's a slow starter, his career numbers suggest otherwise. He has a 94.2 career first-quarter passer rating with 82 touchdown passes and 43 interceptions.
But at 39, perhaps his body needs to get warmed up. And they had better figure out how to do that soon.
"We need to just execute the plays that are called," he said. "Our coach does a great job of taking the blame, and he doesn’t need to take any more. We as players need to take more accountability and blame that the plan is right. We need to execute the plan and make it work."
There have, at times, been extenuating circumstances. In the loss to the Bengals last week, for example, the slow start extended beyond Roethlisberger. The Steelers had three penalties in their first eight offensive snaps, two of which negated a 10-yard run and a 12-yard catch by Najee Harris.
"I acknowledge we’ve got to get better. That getting better is multi-pronged in a lot of areas and we intend to continue to work in those areas in an effort to improve it," Mike Tomlin said. "We don't get to count those 10-plus yard runs they called back, but they're on video. We're capable of winning the line of scrimmage and having explosion runs at the beginning of the game. We’ve got to play cleaner. If we do it, we get a better taste in our mouths and it sets a trajectory that allows us to go on and continue to work our plan in the way in which we intended.
"But when you’re highly penalized and you're not getting offensive rhythm or occupying possession of the football due to those things, then your personality’s in question, your planning, your scheme is in question, the quality of the players in which you do it with is in question."
None more so than Roethlisberger.
"I’ve got to be better," he said. "I don’t want to say we need to start fast — we do. But it starts with the guy that has the ball in his hands."