Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said Antonio Brown should not have run out of bounds on the final play of the game when the Steelers trailed the Cowboys by five points. He said he had a conversation with Brown about it, but Brown said Tuesday night on his radio show on 102.5 WDVE that he cannot recall such a conversation taking place.
Common football sense tells us Brown should have known to keep the play alive by any means necessary, but his quarterback defended him Wednesday morning when asked about the ending that has fans miffed as much as the head coach.
"They had eight, nine guys way back," Roethlisberger said. "There is no real play call designed for that other than a Hail Mary, and I couldn't throw it that far I don't think. You kind of just get the ball to someone, and really, whatever happens, happens. It turns into a free-for-all. Sometimes good things happen. Sometimes bad things happen.
"If you look at the film, he's running down the left side. He was on the single side by himself. All the other receivers were to the right. If you watch it, we're sprinting down the field for that free-for-all. He kind of gets surrounded by some Cowboys pretty quick. No one in here has ever been in a situation where you have six or seven grown men who are some of the most physical people in the world coming after you. A.B. isn't the biggest guy in the world. I don't know what he's supposed to do, throw it over his head, kick it backward? It's easy to say watching the game, why don't you do this or do that. Until you're in that situation, you don't know what to do."
The Steelers scored 30 points against the Cowboys to up their season scoring average at home to 28.8 points per game. In their first four road games they're averaging 17.5 per game. After scoring 38 in the opener at Washington, they've scored 3, 15 and 14 points in losses to the Eagles, Dolphins and Ravens.
With four of the next five games on the road, including a game Sunday in Cleveland, the Steelers have to figure out what's been ailing the offense away from home.
"The comfort level of being at home, using the cadence," said Roethlisberger, trying to explain why the offense has fared so much better at home this season. "When we go on the road, it's obviously louder. We have to use silent count. Sometimes timing can be off a little bit, but there are no real excuses. We need to step up. We pride ourselves here, in years past, being a great road football team. We need to do that and we have to start this week."
The opponent this week might help the Steelers. Cleveland is one of the worst defenses in the league and allows more than 30 points per game.
Weather, however could be a factor. Early forecasts are for heavy winds in northwest Ohio by Sunday afternoon.
"I assume weather will be a factor," Roethlisberger said. "I saw 30 mph winds. I assume there won't be many deep balls unless you're going with the wind."
