Despite the 34-31 loss to the Oakland Raiders on Sunday, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had a solid performance, and evidently that performance included him calling some plays that weren\’t even in the Todd Haley Rosetta Stone playbook.
Ken Laird of Trib Live Radio reported via Twitter after the game that Roethlisberger, who was 36-of-49 passing in the game for 384 yards and 4 touchdowns, said that he called plays from years past.
“I felt like offensively we kind of did the things we wanted to do; no huddle the whole second half,” said Roethlisberger via Laird. “It felt like we moved the ball down the field; there were plays out there that I called that weren’t in our playbook. I know it sounds crazy; things that we’ve had from years past that guys were on the same page and it worked. I take my hat off to the line, receivers, tight ends, because they made plays.”
Well, this certainly might cause a stir, but you have to admit that the way the running game has performed over the first three games, combined with how well Roethlisberger has done running the no-huddle, that it is not too surprising that things have gone off script in the new offense.
Roethlisberger is a unique quarterback and his playing style can\’t be mimicked. He just makes plays, even if it looks like it is school yard in nature. He is going to take sacks as a result, but he his also going to make plays more often than not. Just look at his career numbers on third downs.
This should make for an interesting bye week for sure, and if Haley, or Art Rooney II for that matter, both think they are going to be able to change the way Roethlisberger plays, they both have another thing coming. The Steelers quarterback wants to throw the ball and he is not going to be happy, or effective, unless he does it the way he has throughout his career.
