Steelers’ offensive issues might go far beyond just Ben Roethlisberger

While going no-huddle is working for the Pittsburgh Steelers, it is revealing other offensive issues far beyond a Ben Roethlisberger past his prime.

With four games left in the regular season, look for Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers to pick up the pace.

And that is exactly what they are doing. Pittsburgh went no-huddle or with a hurry-up offense vs. the Minnesota Vikings. Though they lost the game in Minneapolis two Thursday nights ago, going up-tempo played a big part in the Steelers almost pulling off a miraculous comeback. While this two-minute offense seemed to help the Steelers, it revealed offensive issues bigger than Big Ben.

Not playing with pace initially signifies a lack of confidence in an inexperienced offensive, as well as potential distrust between Roethlisberger and offensive coordinator Matt Canada to some degree when it comes to play-calling.

Pittsburgh Steelers’ offensive issues may go far beyond Ben Roethlisberger

Going slower with an inexperienced offensive line is totally understandable. It has to be a cohesive unit to go up-tempo. Otherwise, there is going to be one false start penalty after another. That is a great way to slow an offense down. As far as the potential mistrust between quarterback and offensive coordinator, this does not bode well for Pittsburgh after Roethlisberger calls it a career.

See, when the Steelers operate with pace in their no-huddle offensive approach, Roethlisberger is the one directing traffic and calling the plays. The players seem to be comfortable with it because Roethlisberger is comfortable with it. Though Canada seems to be fine with going up-tempo, the players siding with Roethlisberger more and more in his final year hurts the team down the line.

Frankly, going up-tempo seems to be a short-term win that could potentially yield a long-term problem in Pittsburgh offensively. As long as Canada is the offensive coordinator, his players on his side of the ball have to trust him. While hitching one’s wagon and confidence on a future Pro Football Hall of Famer in the twilight of his illustrious career is great and all, it is about to be over.

Ultimately, it might serve the Steelers to have an unproven quarterback at the professional level start games for them next year. They don’t need to target a free agent, but pick Roethlisberger’s successor in the draft. This will give back more control to the offense to Canada to hopefully hasten the Steelers’ brief rebuilding process once Roethlisberger retires. The rookie will listen.

If going up-tempo gets the Steelers to the playoffs, that is great and all, but it could have negative effects long-term after Roethlisberger eventually retires.