Ben Roethlisberger says Steelers tradition might be done, cites ‘bad coaching’

Ben Roethlisberger is no stranger to criticizing his longtime team in retirement. Following the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 21-18 loss to the New England Patriots, the two-time Super Bowl champion didn’t hold back.

“Maybe the tradition of the Pittsburgh Steelers is done,” he said on an episode of his podcast, “Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger” published Monday.

The 41-year-old took issue with multiple aspects of the team’s Week 14 loss. He started by picking apart the second half, which saw the team attempt to rally without a full host of timeouts.

Before Roethlisberger retired in 2022, he played for Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin from 2004 to 2021. But Tomlin’s past with Roethlisberger didn’t prevent the former quarterback from targeting him.

“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.”

He went on to offer his own perspective on how the game should’ve been managed:

“There’s some feel you have to have in those situations because timeouts can be so valuable, as we saw in this game,” he said. “If we have one more timeout there, we get a completion, we can work the middle of the field and all you got to do is give Boz [Chris Boswell] a 60-yard chance. Give him a chance and he’ll tie the game. I like my chances in overtime because they scored all their points early and the momentum had shifted.”

For Roethlisberger, the Steelers’ current position isn’t a familiar one. He never experienced a losing campaign during his 18 seasons with Pittsburgh, appearing in three Super Bowls. The current Steelers are 7-6 after last week’s matchup, which followed another defeat to the Arizona Cardinals.

Amid difficulties on offense, Pittsburgh’s roster has offered plenty of verbal and physical displays of frustration — on and off the field. Roethlisberger seems to think the issue comes down to a lack of leadership in the Steelers’ locker room.

“Who is grabbing someone by the face…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2023-12-13 23:33:51

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