As the first half ended last Sunday, the Steelers seemed ready to walk out of Acrisure Stadium with a victory and a 5-2 record. They were up 16-7 and had done a good job of quieting Green Bay’s offense.
However, the second half was a completely different story. The Steelers were outscored 28-9 during those last two quarters, with the Packers clearly making better adjustments as the game went along. According to former Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, that’s part of a trend.
“It seems like the last two weeks, second halves have been all the other team. None of us,” Roethlisberger said Tuesday on his Footbahlin podcast. “Now, is that coaching, is it players, is it adjustments? Is it lack of adjustments? I don’t know. But it just feels like, the second half of ballgames, we stink. I’m just asking a question. Are we making the proper adjustments?”
It’s certainly a fair question for Ben to ask. In each of their last two ugly losses, the Steelers haven’t made any adjustments at all. Against the Packers last week, they seemed to regress on both sides of the ball. The Packers couldn’t stop the run in the first half. And yet, with a two-possession lead, the Steelers came out with three pass plays and a three-and-out to start the second half. That’s just not a smart game plan.
Defensively, they had no answers. The Steelers made no efforts to disguise their man coverage and cover 3 sets, allowing Jordan Love to pick them apart easily. Meanwhile, the Packers found ways to neutralize the Steelers’ passing attack and plugged gaps the few times the Steelers did run the ball in the second half. The Steelers were outcoached, and it was clear to see.
Roethlisberger was especially puzzled by how the offense fizzled over the last two quarters.
“Before the last drive, we had 49 yards in the second half of offense. In the first half, it was like 130, 140. Like, that’s a big thing,” Roethlisberger said. “You can’t play checkers against chess.”
The second-half issues are proving to be a real struggle this year. In Week 2, the Steelers went into halftime with a 14-7 lead over Seattle. Then, they were outscored 24-3 in the second half and lost. They nearly threw away a massive lead against Minnesota in Week 4. And even in games against New York and Cincinnati, when they were thrashed defensively throughout the game, they had no solutions at halftime. After that loss to the Bengals, the Steelers were criticized heavily for their lack of adjustments, with Roethlisberger himself being one of them.
Overall, the Steelers just aren’t making enough adjustments on both sides of the ball. The losses to Seattle and Green Bay are evidence of that. The players executed well in each of those first halves. But after halftime, each game slipped out of their hands quickly. That points to coaching, as the players aren’t going to regress over the course of one game. Better adjustments are needed for the Steelers to break their losing streak this Sunday against Indianapolis.
