The Pittsburgh Steelers suffered a disgraceful loss to the 2-10 New England Patriots in their recent home game. They have faced a lackluster season, especially now losing to the Patriots, who have been struggling themselves throughout the entire season. Witnessing the franchise in a difficult spot, Steelers legend Ben Roethlisberger expressed his discontent with HC Mike Tomlin’s bad calls.
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Ben Roethlisberger has been a cornerstone of the Steelers’ success over the years. However, his former team’s catastrophic performance made him openly criticize Tomlin for what he deemed as ‘bad coaching’. The former NFL star believes that the traditional Steelers’ approach is over, as their rivals are no longer afraid to face them on the field.
During the match, the Steelers couldn’t overcome a 3-point lead, even though they had over 11 minutes left in the clock after scoring their second touchdown in the fourth quarter. In Roethlisberger’s view, a timeout could have been extremely helpful and might have given the team a winning chance. Therefore, he took a dig at Tomlin for using timeouts before the fourth quarter. He said,
“You can’t afford in the second half of games to burn silly timeouts and not to have them late in the game. To me, that’s bad coaching.”
Wow… #Steelers legend Ben Roethlisberger ripped Mike Tomlin and the #Steelers, saying that tradition “is done,” per the @nypost.
“At the end of that game, if we have one more timeout, we have another chance,” Roethlisberger said about TOMLIN. “You can’t afford in the second… pic.twitter.com/qUK5xuEftI
— MLFootball (@_MLFootball) December 13, 2023
However, the legend’s assessment of the team’s struggles consisted of a lot of ‘maybe’s’. Even the 41-year-old legend found it hard to pin down the current issues of the team on his ‘Footbahlin’ podcast.
“Maybe the tradition of the Pittsburgh Steelers is done. Maybe it needs to be formed a new kind of way, I don’t know,” Big Ben added.
The Steelers have significantly struggled this season, especially in their last two games. They found themselves in a tough spot against the Arizona Cardinals, with a final score of 24-10. Once again, the Steelers found a new low this week with a final score of 18-21 against their biggest AFC rivals.
Is Ben Roethlisberger Right About Mike Tomlin?
The Steelers faced a series of challenges that further compounded their struggles this season. The matchup against the Patriots was filled with critical mistakes and missed opportunities, which only made things worse.
The Black and the Gold faced a controversial false start penalty against Christian Kuntz on a fourth-and-3. It caused a blow to the team’s momentum, leading to a below-average score.
Had the management been better, their victories against the Arizona Cardinals and New England Patriots would have given the team a great head start. Again, they had the opportunity of being the runner-up in AFC North, which now seems to be hanging by a thread.
As the Pittsburgh Steelers continue to navigate a season laden with subpar management, paying attention to the words of someone as seasoned as Ben Roethlisberger seems to be their only choice.
