Roethlisberger may have just explained some of Pittsburgh's terrible playcalling
The performance of the Pittsburgh Steelers in the team’s disappointing 45-42 loss to Jacksonville in Sunday’s AFC divisional round playoff game has raised plenty of questions about head coach Mike Tomlin and some of his decision-making.
Why did the team, trailing by a touchdown, try an onside kick with more than two minutes remaining and two timeouts available?
Why did the Steelers, needing two scores, basically let time expire in an effort to score a late touchdown, leaving no time for an onside kick?
And why didn’t the Steelers allow quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to simply run a quarterback sneak on either of the team’s fourth-and-1 plays in the game?
Roethlisberger, in a subtle way, suggested it’s Tomlin’s fault.
On his weekly radio show on KDKA-FM in Pittsburgh, Roethlisberger was asked why he didn’t simply run a quarterback sneak on the two failed fourth-down attempts when video suggested there was room to do so.
Roethlisberger said he isn’t allowed to check out of whatever play offensive coordinator Todd Haley calls and run a quarterback sneak instead, no matter how the defense is aligned.
“I’d love to,” Roethlisberger said about running the ball. “I actually literally tuned in to you guys for two minutes and heard you guys and the fans bashing us for not quarterback sneaking and not believing me when I say that we don’t run it and I want to do it. Since it’s my show now, I can speak freely and tell you guys, my co-hosts, that I truly have never said ‘I don’t want to run it’ and I don’t have the freedom to check to a quarterback sneak because we don’t have that call if we’re not in the huddle.”
Roethlisberger said he has asked Tomlin for the freedom to call for a sneak at the line of scrimmage, but the 14-year-veteran hasn’t been given permission to do so.
“When we get to like the 2-yard line, two-point play, to spread the defense out and go empty and run quarterback draw. I’ve asked for that,” Roethlisberger said. “He [Tomlin] laughs at me and says ‘Ben, maybe in your younger days, not now.’
“I still ask for those things. I would love the quarterback sneak. Hopefully we’ll get into more of it.”
As for why he just doesn’t call a sneak and worry about the consequences later, Roethlisberger had an easy answer.
“If you’re at the line of scrimmage, we don’t have a call to get to a quarterback sneak. … Am I supposed to whisper to everyone, ‘Quarterback sneak’?”
On the two failed fourth-down plays Pittsburgh ran Sunday, one was a rushing attempt by Le’Veon Bell that lost four yards, and the other was an incomplete pass to JuJu Smith-Schuster. Jacksonville went on to score touchdowns on the possessions immediately following the failed attempts.
Making the decision not to have Roethlisberger try to gain the first downs on his own even more curious is the fact he had tremendous success earlier in his career converting in similar situations.
Ben Roethlisberger on 4th-and-1 rush attempts in his career, including playoffs:
19 attempts
18 first downsHighest success rate (94.7 percent) of any player with over 10 attempts since 2004 (including playoffs)
Steelers on 4th-and-1 today:
0-for-2 (Bell run, Ben pass)— NFL Research (@NFLResearch) January 14, 2018
It would seem that Tomlin need look no further than AFC rival New England to realize the power of the quarterback sneak. Prior to this season, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady had run almost twice as many quarterback sneaks (124) as any other active quarterback, and had success 91 percent of the time.
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