The Pittsburgh Steelers haven’t run a ton of no-huddle this year. And Ben Roethlisberger recently publicly noted that. So sitting down with Bob Labriola in this past week’s Coordinator’s Corner, Todd Haley was asked if no huddle is still part of the offense.
In short, yes it is, according to Haley.
“It’s something that we work on every single day,” he told Labriola. “Sometimes, you don’t even know we’ve been in it. We had a couple third downs against Kansas City that were big conversions that we went to for just one play. But it’s something we put a lot of time into. And each game is going to tell the story on how much it’s used.”
Haley did acknowledge that its use has “waned over the last quarter” of the season. That may have something to do with how often Pittsburgh has been on the road this year, making that type of communication even more difficult. The second half of the season is much kinder. After traveling to Indianapolis this week, they’ll play four of their next five games at home.
Clearly though, Roethlisberger does well out of the no-huddle with that kind of freedom and pace. Back in 2015, Mike Tomlin cited that as the reason for why he was playing so well.
“We operated out of no huddle a little bit and brought the game to him. It’s less gameplan specific and more Football 101.”
According to Pro Football Reference, Roethlisberger is 33/53 (62.6%) for 383 yards, zero touchdowns, and an interception when working out of the no huddle this year. Those numbers are down compared to last season and maybe another reason why the team has shied away from it. But the Steelers being ahead of so many recent games may also be playing a role, the team opting against it to drain the clock and play more conventionally.
It’s one of several areas Roethlisberger will look to improve on during the second half of the season.
