PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It was first acknowledged by Mike Tomlin on Tuesday and Ben Roethlisberger carried the torch of their disappointment about the lack of physical play from their team.
“I just don’t think we are being as physical as we should be and need to be all the time,” Roethlisberger said Wednesday about some of their offensive problems. “It’s something that we always took pride in right, it’s the Pittsburgh Steelers and being physical.”
“There haven’t been a lot of situations where we can say that, but definitively, I thought they were the more physical group not only in the box and in-box
play but in some of the perimeter play,” Tomlin said.
That’s a key point that Roethlisberger brings up, it’s not just about the five guys up front.
“When you talk about physicality, that’s where everyone looks,” Roethlisberger said. “Your eyes go to O-line, D-line because that’s every single play you have to be physical. So I think it naturally falls in that area. I don’t think that all of the fingers should be pointed there by any means. I think when we talk about physicality; I think the line takes it personal, because they want to be physical.”
“I think people just think that’s where it is, but really it’s about picking up blitzes. It’s about getting the tough yard. It’s about blocking on the perimeter.”
“Sometimes physicality is mental too. You have to be mentally tough. All of those things combined can help turn this thing around and we can hit the plays that are there to be had.”
“It is disappointing, but part of fixing it is first acknowledging it,” Tomlin said. “That’s what we did yesterday. We watched the tape, and part of watching the tape is looking at the tape and analyzing that component of play and making the commitment and then plotting the course of action procedurally from a prep standpoint to make sure we position ourselves so our next week doesn’t look like that.”
Could part of solution be putting more players in pads and have more contact in practice this week?
“Certainly there’s an opportunity for that,” Tomlin said. “We’re excited about that because we have a legitimate week’s prep this week. We are excited, potentially, about that.”