The Pittsburgh Steelers have been plagued by inconsistent quarterback play this season, as Kenny Pickett has yet to put a stretch together where he does enough to provide confidence that he’s a good quarterback. While he’s had moments, it hasn’t been consistent enough, and now he’s going to miss time with an ankle injury. Former Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger was a guest on the DVE Morning Show on WDVE today, and he talked about ways the Steelers can simplify their offense for Pickett and Mitch Trubisky, who is going to take over the reins as starter.
“Sometimes you can do things where it’s a side. You call the same play, if it’s one high you throw to the right, if it’s two high you throw to the left. So you can do things like that where it’s literally, you make it as simple as you can for a quarterback,” Roethlisberger said. “Literally when the ball’s snapped and you can see the snap and the ball and you can see the defense, ok, there’s two high safeties I’m working left or I’m working right, whatever it is. And that’s about as simple as you can make it for guys.”
Roethlisberger said running an offense where the side of the field you work being predicated on how many high safeties there are works, and it’s not just a dumbed-down version of an offense. For the Steelers, anything that can get their quarterbacks into rhythm and allow them to see the field better would help. Pickett has struggled a little bit this season with locking in on a read and not fully going through his progressions and scanning the field, which is one of his biggest issues. That’s something that’s going to have to improve going forward, and maybe simplifying his reads is a way to make that happen.
Going forward on a short week, Roethlisberger said that when he was with the Steelers, they limited the package of plays they would use for a Thursday game. He thinks the team should do so this week, while prioritizing getting Trubisky on the move and having him use his legs.
“Sometimes less is more. I’ll just be honest. That’s why sometimes short weeks, we would just say with Randy [Fichtner], or Todd [Haley], [Bruce Arians], you have your call sheet, the front side is all your plays that you’re going into, the backside was like your no-huddle plays,” Roethlisberger said. “So you can kind of look over, short week, throw the front side out, we’re only going no-huddle stuff. Now whether the coach is calling it or you’re calling it, those are things that you’ve done since day one. From the first day of training camp, so when you have a short week and don’t have time to put a bunch of new stuff in, you go with what you know and what you do best. That’s why I think moving Mitch around would be really beneficial.”
Trubisky didn’t run with the ball a lot during his stint as Pittsburgh’s starter last season, but he did run the ball seven times in the first four games last year and is a mobile quarterback. Getting Trubisky on the move is something that he has shown he’s comfortable with, and it could open up the field for the Steelers. Even if he’s not scrambling or has a designed run, he can roll out and extend plays and not just be a sitting duck in the pocket.
The larger point is that the Steelers need to run what they’re comfortable with, even if it’s a simpler playbook than usual. Especially with Trubisky making his first start of the season on a short week, the Steelers won’t have the opportunity to really tinker all that much with the playbook. Doing things that Trubisky is comfortable with and running the plays that the Steelers have had success with, run and pass, is going to help them beat the Patriots.
The Steelers already have had one Thursday night game this year, a 20-16 win over the Tennessee Titans in Week Nine that was the first game their running game really got clicking this year. I’d expect the team to lean on the run again with both Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren hitting their stride. The Patriots do have a good defense, but they’ve been down two key pieces this year in CB Christian Gonzalez and OLB Matthew Judon, although it’s still a unit that’s limited opposing offenses. They’ve allowed just 26 points in their last three games, but their offense has been so bad that they’ve lost all three games.
The Steelers need to win on Thursday. It’s going to be an ugly, slugfest of a game with two good defenses and two bad offenses, but that emphasizes the need for the Steelers to stick with what works and not try to get too cute against New England on Thursday, especially with their backup quarterback starting. A loss to the Patriots would be devastating and put Pittsburgh’s playoff hopes in serious peril, and after the Steelers’ major letdown against the Cardinals on Sunday, they can’t afford another one.
If Pittsburgh wins, it will be in a decent spot at 8-5. The Steelers are going to have to make sure they’re doing whatever is possible offensively to make things easy and ensure they can get the win at Acrisure Stadium.
