Not all Steelers problems can be blamed on Ben Roethlisberger

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The subject of the Steelers was brought up on Friday night on the Sirius-XM Late Hits show with Alex Marvez and Gil Brandt which aired on NFL radio.

A caller asked the hosts about the Steelers, which led to a discussion of blame for their poor offensive performance between the second half of the 2020 seasons and the start of the 2021 NFL seasons. The relative conclusion between the two hosts is that Ben Roethlisberger is the easy scapegoat for the Steelers’ troubles, but not the root cause of their troubles.

Their opinions have some merit. It’s easy to say that Roethlisberger is too old and too stationary and doesn’t have the mobility and ability he once had to make big plays or extend plays, and he’s over the hill as a quarterback. Not that any of these points have some validity.

Having said that, is he really playing at a lower level than he’s capable of? Is he doing anything less than what coaches ask of Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers, both as old or older than Ben Roethlisberger?

Obviously not. So where’s the problem ? As the hosts noted, the first problem is rushed play. Of course, they answered the need in the draft, and it’s not that rookie Najee Harris isn’t producing for the Steelers, it’s a team, not a player issue. In the last 13 games, the Black and Gold have not rushed as a team for more than 100 yards.

In eight of those matches, they didn’t run more than 50 yards. They won’t improve much until they can start opening holes, allowing for more playoff production and relieving some of the pressure from the quarterback to single-handedly win games for the Steelers.

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