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After miraculously starting the season 6-3, the Pittsburgh Steelers are in free fall.
And former star quarterback Ben Roethlisberger says that head coach Mike Tomlin needs to bear some of the blame.
Pittsburgh has lost three of its last four games to fall to 7-6, and the last two losses have each come to teams that were 2-10 entering the contest.
On his podcast, “Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger,” the future hall of famer called out the team, Tomlin and the organization at-large.
“You can’t afford the second half of games to burn silly timeouts and not to have them late in the game,” Roethlisberger said. “To me, that’s bad coaching.”
He then explained how Tomlin’s timeout usage cost the Steelers late in their 21-18 loss to the New England Patriots.
“When it’s fourth and one, you have to take a timeout to figure out if you’re gonna go for it or not go for it like some of that stuff. Preserving timeouts at the end of a game are so valuable,” he added. “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 (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.”
Ben Roethlisberger Wonders If ‘Tradition Of The Pittsburgh Steelers Is Done’
Roethlisberger suggested that the in-game issues point to larger troubles within the organization.
“Maybe the tradition of the Pittsburgh Steelers is done,” he said.
“Who is grabbing someone by the face mask and saying, ‘That’s not what we do.’ Is that happening?” Roethlisberger said. “Yes, you have guys on defense doing it, but you need guys on both 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.”’
He noted that former teammates Jerome Bettis and Alan Faneca took control when he was a young player.
“This isn’t what has been handed down from those teams of the ’70s. The Steel Curtain, the four Super Bowls, the Nolls, the Bradshaws, the Blounts. All those people, it’s unbelievable,” he said. “I’ve felt that certain guys on the team aren’t in it for the team, they’re in it for themselves.”
The Steelers currently hold the sixth spot in the AFC playoff field. But they’re locked in a six-way tie for the spot and still have four games yet to play.