Not all the Steelers problems can be blamed on Ben Roethlisberger

The Steelers’ topic came up Friday night on the Sirius-XM program Late Hits with Alex Marvez and Gil Brandt aired on NFL radio.

A Caller asked the hosts about the Steelers, leading to a discussion about whose fault it was over their poor offensive showing between the latter half of the 2020 and the start of the 2021 NFL seasons. The relative conclusion between both hosts is that Ben Roethlisberger is the easy scapegoat for the Steelers’ rash of problems, however, not the root cause of their issues.

Their views have some merit. It’s easy to say Roethlisberger is too old and too stationary and lacks the mobility and ability he once had to make great plays or extend plays, and he is over the hill as a quarterback. Not that any of those points do not have some validity.

That said, is he really playing at a level below what he is capable? Is he doing anything less than what coaches ask of Tom Brady or Aaron Rodgers, both of whom are as old as or older than Ben Roethlisberger?

Obviously not. So then, where does the problem lie? As the hosts noted, the first issue is the rushing game. Sure they did address the need in the draft, and it is not that the rookie Najee Harris is not producing for the Steelers, it’s a team, not a player issue.  In the last 13 games, the black and gold have not rushed as a team for more than 100 yards.

In eight of those games, they have not rushed for more than 50 yards.  They will not improve much until they can start opening holes, allowing greater run production, and taking some of the pressure off the quarterback to singlehandedly win games for the Steelers.