With this being a short week for the Pittsburgh Steelers the team isn’t likely to have much, if any, new installation when it comes to their offensive and defensive schemes for their Thursday night home game against the Tennessee Titans. Because of that, we’re likely to see the offense do what they think they do best Thursday night, only faster, which means more no-huddle. Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger hinted as much during his Tuesday talk with the media.
“Actually, it’s easier because that’s kind of something, you have the no-huddle in, it’s been in since day one,” said Roethlisberger when asked if a short week makes it harder to run more no-huddle offense during games. “So, rather than install a bunch of new plays, you go with what you know and have been doing for a long time.”
Roethlisberger was then asked if newer players such as rookie wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster and tight end Vance McDonald are all up to speed on the hand signals and communication that goes along with running the no-huddle offense.
“Yes, absolutely,” Roethlisberger said. “Those are the guys that you have the biggest questions about, but I haven’t seen one iota of doubt, question or anything from them.”
While the Steelers haven’t used no-huddle a lot so far this season with the reason behind that likely being that six of their first nine game were on the road, they did run it a little Sunday afternoon in their win over the Indianapolis Colts. On those eight listed no-huddle plays against the Colts, four came in the second quarter and included Roethlisberger throwing incomplete on three of them with one other one being a 4-yard run by running back Le’Veon Bell.
In the second half of the game against the Colts, the Steelers ran four more no-huddle plays and they were all passes with three of them being completed for 61 yards. Of those four plays, two of them were consecutive completed passes to wide receivers Martavis Bryant and Antonio Brown with less than a minute to play in the fourth quarter that set up the game-winning field goal.
We’ll certainly be tracking the amount of no-huddle offense run Thursday night by Roethlisberger and company against the Titans and if the results are good, we might see it used more frequently during the teams final six games and especially those played at Heinz Field.
Ben Roethlisberger discusses preparing for a Dick LeBeau defense, and what to expect from the Titans on Thursday. pic.twitter.com/sKdcjWVWxL
— Pittsburgh Steelers (@steelers) November 14, 2017
