Retired Steelers quarterback and future Hall of Famer Ben Roethlisberger has some thoughts on the Steelers offense moving forward after last Thursday’s loss to Cleveland.
Roethlisberger questioned some of the calls Head Coach Mike Tomlin made during his most recent episode of the Footbahlin’ podcast.
He said the missed Chris Boswell field goal seemed “rushed.”
“Was it a late field goal call? Was Coach Tomlin thinking about punting first and then he’s like ‘let’s go field goal’ because it looked like the play clock was getting low,” said Roethlisberger.
He also didn’t blame Boswell, especially in the elements that they were playing in.
“I wondered . . . some of the 4th downs, some of the decisions Coach T was choosing, like I wondered int hat kind of a game when you know that they’re struggling on offense and your defense is playing well, like did he ever consider putting on some of those 4th downs,” added Roethlisberger.
The Steelers were 1 for 3 on 4th down attempts against the Browns.
Roethlisberger said that he likes seeing Justin Fields included in the offense, but that he can’t be used on just 3rd and 4th down and that the Steelers should have five to seven plays as a package and “used sparingly and at the right time.”
With Fields’ athleticism, Roethlisberger says the Steeler should have Wilson and Fields on the field at the same time for some plays.
“I would like to see, like line him up at receiver a couple of times, put him at different spots because what that does, even if you don’t do anything with it is again, anytime you can force an opponent to spend 5 minutes on something that they might never see, it takes them away from what they will see,” said Roethlisberger.
Joe Starkey said He agreed with every single thing that Roethlisberger said and doesn’t understand why Wilson and Fields can’t be on the field together at times.
“How do we not know that Justin Fields can’t take a handoff or a pitch out or a catch a pass, how do we know he’s not Kordell Stewart?” asked Starkey.