While the Pittsburgh Steelers defense certainly had a big part in the team’s Sunday road loss to the Chicago Bears, the offense also deserves a good portion of the blame. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger wasn’t very sharp Sunday on his way to completing 22 of 39 total pass attempts for 235 yards with one touchdown. He was also sacked three times during the game.
During his weekly Tuesday morning interview on 93.7 The Fan, Roethlisberger talked about his off performance against the Bears at Soldier Field on Sunday.
“You know, I had a bad day at the office,” Roethlisberger said. “Usually bad days at the office for me are throwing interceptions and not completing balls, and obviously there was the sack-fumble, a guy came off my blindside, but I’ll take the blame for that one for not seeing the hot and getting the ball out of my hands.”
That sack-fumble happened on a 3rd and 8 play from the Bears 38-yard-line with 6:23 left in the first quarter and it included a Chicago defensive back blitzing off the edge. Roethlisberger seemingly never saw the blitzer and thus missed a wide open Eli Rogers on that side of the field. While Rogers was open short of the chains, he still may have had enough room to get the first down. Instead, Roethlisberger stayed locked on wide receiver Antonio Brown, who was running a deep route down the left side of the field.
Tuesday morning, Roethlisberger admitted that he might be locking in too much on Brown right now.
“We just weren’t on our details,” Roethlisberger said. “There were some details that I wasn’t on. Making the right read and throwing, maybe trying to force it to A.B., because A.B. and I have such a relationship and trust that I know he’s going to be doing his right thing every time when other guys might not be on the right step or the right depth.
“I know where A.B.’s going to be and sometimes that forces me to just zone-in to him, because we’ve created big plays and we make things happen. And I just need to be better at taking what the defense gives us and making the right throw. I missed a couple of throws early and was just really disappointed with that performance and the loss and I take the blame. I think if I have an even little bit better of a game, I think we win it.”
Roethlisberger, however, did admit Tuesday morning that the pre-game anthem actions and the events that took place the night before probably also played some role in the team’s poor showing during the game.
“I do,” said Roethlisberger said when asked if he agrees with comments made Tuesday morning by linebacker Arthur Moats that the pre-game anthem events probably distracted the team. “Like you said, I’ll never make excuses, I have to play better. If I play better, we win the football game, I think. But it was definitely on a lot of our minds and a lot of our hearts, dealing with everything that we dealt with the night before. Being up later than usual, the distractions, whatever it is. But we still have to step on the field and play football. At the end of the day, we need to go out and be better football players than we were on Sunday.”
