The Steelers could be getting into a Catch-22 with Ben Roethlisberger.
The quarterback is mired in a slump to start the season, but the issues, at least according to Roethlisberger, are "mechanical" in nature.
The issue for the team, however, is how to fix those flaws when Roethlisberger is seeing limited practice time in deference to his 39-year-old age and injuries. Roethlisberger had a pectoral muscle injury following the team's Week 2 loss to the Raiders, and is now dealing with a hip contusion after last Sunday's 27-17 loss in Green Bay.
Roethlisberger did not practice Wednesday at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex, as has been the case for the better part of the past five or six years. That would leave him Thursday and Friday to both work out his flaws while also readying himself to face the Broncos this Sunday at Heinz Field.
Roethlisberger said in Green Bay he felt he was dropping his elbow on some throws, leading to some errant passes. He said Wednesday, however, that film study showed something different.
"As a quarterback, there’s so much involved with your lower body. People probably think, as a quarterback or thrower, it’s how’s your arm doing? It’s actually a small part compared to your core, your lower body," Roethlisberger said. "I’ve got to find ways to be better with my lower body. Going back and watching the game, a lot of the throws that I missed were because my lower body wasn’t in sync. Over-striding, not stepping toward my target, things that mechanically I know I can fix and need to fix. Obviously, when you’re in pain, it’s harder to get through those things, but it’s nothing I can’t get through."
Roethlisberger completed 26 of 40 passes for 232 yards, one touchdown and one interception against the Packers. But he and JuJu Smith-Schuster failed to connect on a pair of passes down the seam that would have, at worst, resulted in long completions and quite possibly touchdowns. Roethlisberger also missed on some shorter passes, throwing behind or short of receivers.
It's been a common theme this season, as he's completing 64.1 percent of his passes with just four touchdowns and four interceptions and a passer rating of 78.9. It's his worst stretch since Weeks 3 through 6 of the 2017 season when he had three touchdowns and seven interceptions while completing just 60.4 percent of his passes and posting a passer rating of 67.9.
The difference is that the Steelers split those four games, beating the Ravens and Chiefs while losing to the Bears and Jaguars. This time around, they're off to a 1-3 start that has fans questioning everything they do, including continuing to start Roethlisberger.
Mike Tomlin isn't ready to pull the plug on his two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback.
"Absolutely," Tomlin said Tuesday when asked if he has faith Roethlisberger will turn things around. "What he does and what he's done makes me really comfortable in saying that."
Following that 2017 bad stretch of play, Roethlisberger did turn things around. In his final nine games that season, he completed 65.4 percent of his passes with 21 touchdowns and six interceptions while posting a 103.1 passer rating as the Steelers won eight of those games.
Even though he's now older and coming off a major elbow surgery in 2019, Roethlisberger still believes he has that kind of capability.
"I know that I can play better football. I believe in myself," Roethlisberger said. "I know that no matter what’s going on, I’m going to fight my butt off to get a win. If that’s the way I need to lead right now, showing these guys that I’m going to do everything I can to win a football game, then I’ll keep doing that."
That is part of the problem. While Roethlisberger and Tomlin have seen the quarterback and the Steelers pull out of funks in the past, much of the roster -- particularly on offense -- has not. The only offensive starter who was with the Steelers in that 2017 season was Smith-Schuster.
And the Steelers' youth on offense also has been something that's been an issue with their slow start. It's not all simply on the quarterback. The offensive line, with four new starters, including a pair of rookies, has struggled. And rookie running back Najee Harris took a couple of games to get his feet under him as well, though he's posted more than 91 total yards in each of the past two games.
"We started running the ball a little better last week. That was encouraging," Roethlisberger said of the game against the Packers, where Harris averaged a season-high 4.1 yards per carry.
"The passing game showed some, we went down the field and scored on the opening drive, we hit a deep ball. We’re still missing a couple of things here and there. In terms of running the ball, and ‘splash plays’ in the run game, I think that’s starting to show a little more."
But it hasn't added up to wins -- at least not yet. The Steelers have lost three in a row since their season-opening win at Buffalo and, including the playoffs, have last eight of their past 10 games after opening 11-0 last season.
A change in offensive coordinators from Randy Fichtner to Matt Canada was supposed to help some of the issues that led to that late-season swoon a year ago, but the running game still hasn't gotten fully untracked and it's putting too much pressure on Roethlisberger to carry the offense -- something which he is perhaps no longer capable of doing.
Canada's offense also has scaled down some of the no-huddle offense Roethlisberger used to run so effectively in the past. The Steelers haven't run much no-huddle this season, though Roethlisberger is 15 of 21 for 135 yards in that package.
"It’s more just hurrying it up and calling a two-minute kind of offense," Roethlisberger said. "You hate to have to do it because it means that you’re trying to play catch up. We’d all like to be better on pace and keeping the balance and all of those kinds of things. The times we’ve had to do it, we’ve had to go down the field and score quickly. I think we’ve done that. We’d like to not have to get to it."
To that point, the Steelers ran the no-huddle less in 2020 than in previous years, largely because they won their first 11 games. But Roethlisberger still showed he could be effective in that package, completing 50 of 63 passes for 477 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions, a passer rating of 114.1.
The Steelers, however, have been reticent to do that based on all of the youth and offensive line stability surrounding Roethlisberger.
"He's not limited in any way," Tomlin said. "If there are any alterations to that approach besides the plays themselves — the plays change — it's always got something to do with who's available to us, their level of experience, their ability to execute, particularly in those moments when you're talking no-huddle. Usually, you're talking about those weighty moments, and so you want execution to be at a certain level and you work in the wheelhouse of the people that are in the huddle."
But with the line playing a little better and the younger players now having had a month to adjust to NFL play, the time could be ripe to use that package as an offensive kickstart. At this point, anything is on the table to try to win games, regardless of the health of the quarterback. But benching Roethlisberger isn't on the table right now.
"I don’t want to dwell too much on the physical things that are happening because it sounds like an excuse and I’m not going to make that. I need to be better," Roethlisberger said. "I need to fight through and figure out how to make better decisions, how to make better throws, be a better football player. I’m not going to quit. I’m not doing that. I’m not going to give up on this season. Nobody in the building is. It’s still early, and there’s still a lot of fight left in us."