Batch: Roethlisberger is being handcuffed at the line of scrimmage

There are so many questions surrounding this Steelers offense right now. You could point to pretty much every aspect of their game and wonder what in the world is going on and why can’t they be better?

Former Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch, a man who shared a sideline and a QB room with Ben Roethlisberger for seven seasons, joined The Fan Morning Show Friday to share his observations.

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Former Steelers QB Charlie Batch

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When he asked about how you go about fixing the Steelers’ inability to convert on 4^th down, he said this…

“I think it starts with allowing Ben Roethlisberger to audible at the line of scrimmage and get out of plays that are called. That’s something he’s done beautifully throughout the course of his career.”

“Right now, he is handcuffed and he doesn’t have the ability to do that anymore. This reminds me of 2012 when (former OC) Todd Haley first came into the offense. He did not allow Ben Roethlisberger the flexibility at the line of scrimmage to do what he wanted to do. The offense became stagnant.
Then, once they built that relationship as far as trust, then it opened up the offense and you saw his offense flourish. Right now we’re not seeing that in Matt Canada’s offense.

As part of Mike Tomlin’s explanation for the 4^th down failures on Tuesday, he referenced the fact that there is extra preparation that goes into “weighty moments” like that in a game. So, wouldn’t the ability to change the play be part of that preparation?

“Yeah, you would like to see that. He’s done that many times over throughout the course of his career. I witnessed it firsthand standing on that sideline next to him or watching the game unfold. Right now, I’m watching it from the top like everybody else and he does not have that flexibility that way.”

“Remember, I started making these comments last week and they were asked questions about [calling audibles} at the line of scrimmage and nobody refuted that. So right now you heard those comments, ‘Listen, when the play is called, we have to execute it.’ That lets me know that Ben’s not [calling audibles] and he doesn’t have the ability to do so.”