In today’s version of the NFL, quarterbacks like the Kansas City Chiefs’ Patrick Mahomes and the Buffalo Bills’ Josh Allen make the impossible possible when they make plays out of structure. But it wasn’t always that way. When former Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Bill Cowher prowled the sidelines, he expected his quarterback to do what he was told when he was told to do it.
And that just wasn’t Ben Roethlisberger’s modus operandi. So to hear Cowher talk about it, he and offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt had to do something. And that was acting out a trope of countless cop movies and television shows.
“He had a little Josh Allen in him,” Cowher said Thursday on the Rich Eisen Show. “He felt more comfortable outside the pocket, so he could escape the pocket. It became street ball. So he didn’t have to go through progressions, didn’t have to listen to anything. And he was out there making it look so easy. And I remember sitting there with Ken Whisenhunt and I said, ‘You know what, Ken? I’m gonna pull him in and tell him he can’t continue to do it. He’s gotta go through his progressions. I want him to understand this is not sustainable.’ I said, ‘When I get done talking to him, can you tell him it’s okay, just keep doing what you’re doing.’ So it was good cop, bad cop.”
It was a fine line to walk with Roethlisberger. In three years at Miami (Ohio), he completed 65.5 percent of his passes for 10,829 yards and 84 touchdowns. And part of that was his stellar junior campaign where he was named the Mid-American Conference Offensive Player of the Year and Player of the Year. He led the conference in passing attempts, completions, yardage, touchdowns (37!), yards per attempt, yards per game, and QB rating.
So as a head coach, you don’t want to limit what makes your new quarterback great. But at the same time, you also want your offense to do what it’s supposed to do. It puts a lot of strain on an offense if the quarterback is constantly improvising.
So Bill Cowher became bad cop and had to lay down the law to Ben Roethlisberger. And I think we can all picture that in our heads, right? But for that to work, Cowher knew he had to have Ken Whisenhunt soften the blow. After all, Whisenhunt worked much more closely with Roethlisberger. For a young quarterback, knowing your offensive coordinator is on your side after your head coach rips you a new one is a confidence booster.
And Ben Roethlisberger has acknowledged that while he hated it at the time, Bill Cowher’s coaching was a huge part of his development. So while being on the receiving end of good cop/bad cop with The Chin was not fun, it certainly helped push Roethlisberger to the heights he reached during his career.
