Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger looks at his passing statistics, and they're not all that bad but it's been his play, by his own admission, that's a key factor in Pittsburgh (7-8) failing to make the playoffs for only the fourth time since 2001. ''A lot of it just has to do with me not playing well enough down the stretch,'' Roethlisberger said. ''Fourth-quarter drives or last-minute throws, I'm just not making it happen, so my best answer would be that I just didn't play well enough.'' The Steelers controlled their playoff fate until their 13-10 loss to Cincinnati on Sunday eliminated them from the postseason. Just as had happened one week earlier against Dallas, Roethlisberger threw an interception during a tie game that led to the opponent kicking a winning field goal. Those losses joined others earlier this season against Denver, Oakland and Tennessee in which Pittsburgh not only blew fourth-quarter leads, but had the ball in the final minutes with a chance to drive for a potential winning score. ''In the past, I prided myself and us in fourth-quarter comebacks,'' Roethlisberger said. ''I've always said that you don't want to have them, because that means you haven't done well early in the game, but we've always been good at it. And this year, we just weren't. I don't think there's any rhyme or reason why, (but) it was just a year when I wasn't.'' Source: Associated Press
Step one. Find an OC he can play nice with. Step two. Find receivers who don't drop passes in their breadbaskets. Step three. O-Line. Do something about it.
I'd like to see Ben and Haley one more year and get a little more comfortable with each other. Should be interesting to see what happens with Mike Wallace. They aren't paying him 10.whatever million a year. As for the O-Line, it's definitely improving...this season I thought they were leaps and bounds ahead of the past couple seasons. Injuries killed them there, but I think they'll be much better in that department. Ben's sack total is down a little bit on a per game basis...
They need depth at o-line now. I do agree that on paper the Haley/Big Ben combo should put up big numbers, but you got an ego issue on one site and a butt hurt QB who's still burning a candle for his former OC. Both of them have to come to a middle ground or Haley has to go. At this point you have to cater to the best offensive weapon you have and the cornerstone of the franchise. He knows he's not getting Arians back, so have him involved in the search for the scheme he feels comfortable in. This team will only go as far as Big Ben takes them, so they need to put all their eggs into that basket for one more run.
