Roethlisberger: 'Maybe the tradition of the Pittsburgh Steelers is done'
Ben Roethlisberger - the Steelers' all-time passing leader - isn't impressed with what Pittsburgh has done this season.
"Maybe the tradition of the Pittsburgh Steelers is done," the retired quarterback recently said on his podcast, "Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger," according to ESPN.
His comments come after the Steelers lost back-to-back home games to the Arizona Cardinals and New England Patriots, teams that had two wins each entering their matchups with Pittsburgh. Roethlisberger specifically took issue with the 21-18 defeat to the Patriots and how head coach Mike Tomlin - who worked several years with Roethlisberger - used his timeouts.
"You can't afford, in the second half of games, to burn silly timeouts and to not have them late in the game," Roethlisberger said. "To me, that's bad coaching."
Pittsburgh boasts a top-10 defense this season but its offense has struggled, averaging 16.2 points per game. The Steelers fired offensive coordinator Matt Canada in November but have failed to score more than 18 points in a game in three contests since.
Kenny Pickett has been Pittsburgh's starting quarterback all season, but the former first-round pick suffered an ankle injury versus Arizona. Mitch Trubisky started versus the Patriots.
"Who is grabbing someone by the facemask and saying, 'That's not what we do,'" Roethlisberger added. "Is that happening? Yes, you have guys on defense doing it, but you need guys on other sides of the ball doing it. ... You need someone to stand up in that room, on offense, and be like, 'Hey, this isn't what it means to wear the black and gold.'"
Despite losing three of their last four games, the Steelers are still the AFC's No. 6 seed at 7-6. However, five other teams enter Week 15 with that same record, including the Indianapolis Colts, who host Pittsburgh on Saturday.
Tomlin has never had a losing season since becoming Steelers head coach in 2007. The 51-year-old has posted a 170-99-2 record in the NFL.
Pittsburgh played three Super Bowls with Roethlisberger at quarterback, winning two of them. The 2004 first-round selection retired after the 2021 campaign.