PITTSBURGH — The limitations that exist with the Steelers offense seemingly go beyond the pectoral injury that will bother Ben Roethlisberger but not prevent him from playing against the Cincinnati Bengals.
The lack of production from the running game, the failure to consistently connect on passes beyond five yards and whether the Steelers have or have not done away with their no-huddle attack — a topic of much disagreement — are the main reasons the Steelers have scored just three touchdowns in two games with Matt Canada’s new offense.
For now, the biggest issue will revolve around Roethlisberger’s effectiveness against the Bengals after he injured his left pectoral muscle in the first quarter of Sunday’s loss to the Las Vegas Raiders.
Roethlisberger said on Wednesday the injury bothered him the rest of the game, but he’s “going to do everything I can” to be ready for Sunday’s 1 p.m. game at Heinz Field against the Bengals. Roethlisberger did not practice on Wednesday, but he is expected to play in the game.
The injury is to his left pectoral muscle, away from his throwing side, but Roethlisberger said it hurts “when I reach for something outside the framework of my body or when I push up off the ground.”
Roethlisberger had to do a lot of getting off the ground against the Raiders after being sacked three times and hit 10 other times — five by defensive end Maxx Crosby. Even coach Mike Tomlin admitted Roethlisberger “took too many hits” against the Raiders.
Asked if he can remember the last time he was hit that many times in a game, Roethlisberger said, “I don’t know. We knew going in they had a good rush with high-motor guys that were going to get after it. So you have to prepare for that. But we all need to be better to eliminate hits, to have a better run game, to have more big plays, to be more efficient. It’s on all of us to help those things.”
And those have been lacking.
The Steelers are last in the league in rushing after two games (114 yards on 35 attempts) and connected on just two of eight passes beyond 10 yards against the Raiders. Of Roethlisberger’s 27 completions, 17 were within six yards of the line of scrimmage.
“Chase [Claypool] and I missed too many of those deep ones,” Roethlisberger said. “I think if you could connect — I know we connected on one, Diontae [Johnson] got one — but we missed a couple of them. If we connect on even one early, I think it can change the outcome of the way defenses play you.”
And it doesn’t appear Roethlisberger has a no-huddle offense — at least, one to which he is accustomed — to pump some life into the attack.
Tomlin disputed his quarterback’s postgame assertion that the Steelers no longer have a no-huddle attack and instead use what they call their two-minute offense — both of which do not involve a huddle. Tomlin said the Steelers have the no-huddle offense in their playbook, it just wasn’t in the game plan against the Raiders.
Roethlisberger, though, appeared to discount that explanation and reiterate the Steelers do not have the same no-huddle attack they have used for years.
“We don’t have it in the sense we had in years past — a whole menu of plays I can go to and call,” Roethlisberger said. “You always have a no-huddle in the sense you have a two-minute offense and you’re not huddling in that two-minute offense. In that sense, we have 10 to 12 plays, where in the past we had 50 to 100 plays. It’s different the way we run it. It depends on how you technically define the no-huddle offense.”
Roethlisberger acknowledged part of the reason is because of the number of new players on offense, including four rookies, and the newness of Canada’s offense.
“You let the coordinator call the plays and we need to execute the plays he calls because we had a good plan,” Roethlisberger said. “We just didn’t execute well enough.”
