Breaking down Ben Roethlisberger’s struggles against Baltimore
By Keith Myers
The Pittsburgh Steelers managed to score just six points on Thursday against the Baltimore Ravens. Their offense struggled to move the football throughout the game. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger ended the game with just 217 passing yards even though the Steelers were behind for almost the entire game.
When examining the coaches tape, a few issues stood out. Right tackle Marcus Gilbert struggled in pass protection and gave up two sacks. Left guard Roman Foster was ineffective blocking for both the run and pass. Tight end Heath Miller no longer appears to have the ability to get separation from linebackers with regularity.
Those issues were bad at times, but they weren’t what caused the majority of Pittsburgh’s drives to fail. The biggest problems for the Steelers came from their two-time Pro Bowl quarterback, Ben Roethlisberger.
Roethlisberger struggled with basic quarterbacking fundamentals in this game. He made poor choices with the football and then couldn’t consistently get the ball to his receivers.
Lets take a look at a few examples from Roethlisberger’s rough game on Thursday night.
Accuracy Problems
Looking through the tape from Thursday, the first thing that stood out was Roethlisberger’s lack of accuracy. There was a large number of passes that were simply inaccurate. His receivers were able to get open, but Roethlisberger simply failed to deliver a catchable ball.
There was also no consistency in this problem for the veteran quarterback. It wasn’t like he was just missing his targets high, like some quarterbacks often do. In the above example, Roethlisberger failed to lead his receiver who was running across the field. In this next play, the pass was horribly under-thrown.
This play could have been a long touchdown had the ball the properly thrown, or at least a long completion that flipped field position if it had been close to being on target. Instead, it was just another in a long line of wasted opportunities for the Steelers offense.
Roethlisberger even struggled on short passes. On the next play, the ball flight is shown. The pass is thrown well wide of the intended target leaving no chance for a completion. There is just no reason for a quarterback with Roethlisberger’s skills to miss by that much on a short pass.
These are just a few examples of a much bigger problem. Roethlisberger was off-target on many other throws as well, even a couple in which his receivers were able to make spectacular catches. An NFL quarterback simply must be able to deliver a more accurate pass than Roethlisberger was able to in this game.
When a quarterback cannot deliver the ball to open receivers with any regularity, no offense will be able to consistently move the football and score points.
Poor Decisions
Compounding the problem for Roethlisberger was that he also struggled just to made the correct read and get the ball to the correct receiver. A quarterback must always weight down-and-distance when going through their progressions, and Roethlisberger made some key mistakes in this regard.
Third and 12 is never an easy conversion in the NFL, but a quarterback has to give his team a shot by making good decisions with the football. Completing a three-yard pass on third-and-twelve doesn’t help a football team win games.
Unfortunately, that is exactly what Roethlisberger did on this next play.
The worst part is that this wasn’t even an underneath route where the player had a chance to catch and run. It was a stop-route, so the receivers feet weren’t moving when he caught the ball. The linebacker is also closing fast, so this play is over the moment the ball arrives
There is simply no reason to throw this pass. The Steelers have four other receivers out in routes on the play, and at least two of them will have a better chance of getting a first down.
Roethlisberger is also not under pressure in any way when he throws the ball. There is also no containment on the right side of the formation should he need to buy time to allow a receiver a chance to get open deep enough to extend the drive.
Another example of a poor decision from Roethlisberger can be seen below. This play is particularly frustrating to watch because, before the throw, Roethlisberger does everything right. He manipulates the coverage with his eyes, and then climbs the ladder in the pocket to avoid the outside pressure.
Unfortunately, he decides to throw the ball to the tightly covered tight end in the seam (green) instead of the wide open receiver on the left (red). Had Roethlisberger thrown to the correct receiver the Steelers would have gotten a first down inside the redzone. Instead, the drive stalled after yet another incompletion.
Putting it all together
Ben Roethlisberger did not have a good football game on Thursday. He failed to make the correct reads on a number of plays, and struggled to get the ball to his receivers where it could be caught.
Roethlisberger must rebound next week against Carolina. This Pittsburgh isn’t good enough to win when their quarterback doesn’t play well.
Roethlisberger has been a very good quarterback in the NFL for over a decade now. He’s been selected to two Pro Bowls and has won two Super Bowls. He’s earned the right to have a bad game occasionally without people jumping to conclusions about his ability to lead a football team.
Unfortunately, if he strings together a few performances like this one, Roethlisberger may find himself facing a level of criticism that he hasn’t faced at any point in his career.