Calinger: Maybe it’s time for Big Ben to move on
By J.W. Calinger
ISL Correspondent
After what could be the worst game of his career, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said, “Maybe I don’t have it any more.”
A person always could say he was just demoralized by a lousy performance. Who wouldn’t be, after throwing five interceptions, two being returned for touchdowns? I’m not so sure. I think Big Ben really is starting to doubt his own ability.
First, if Roethlisberger doesn’t believe in himself any more, he ought to retire. Or, at the very least, he ought to figure out a way to bow out gracefully – maybe he has an injury that technically could get him on injured reserve – and help coach backup Landry Jones or rookie Joshua Dobbs the rest of the season.
I don’t see Head Coach Mike Tomlin letting that happen, though I think he should; if I were head coach
of a team, I’d rather have a less talented player who wanted to win.
The real problem I have with Roethlisberger declaring that he doesn’t have it any more, though, is the way he is blaming time itself for problems that are largely his own fault. While he’s had quite a few brilliant performances over the years, he also has had weaknesses he’s never been willing to correct, and all those years of relative apathy have resulted in a season, thus far, in which the Steelers have a high-powered receiving corps and a Pro Bowl-level running back, yet were anemic against the Browns, more anemic against the Bears, and just plain awful against the Jaguars.
I’ve noted that quarterbacks, oddly enough, have many of the same issues that other people have – more, perhaps, because of how they’re in the spotlight – and Roethlisberger always has been somewhat vain, impatient, and reckless. It’s shown in his off-the- field behavior, such as when he was stupid enough to ride a high-powered crotch-rocket without a helmet and to get drunk and possibly engage in criminal behavior with women. But, he’s been just as vain on the field. He’s been generally unwilling to throw the ball away and to say, “Better luck next down”, and he hated checking down until Le’Veon Bell came along at running back, and was able to turn a check-down or screen pass into big yards.
In January 2014, I wrote, on this very site, about how Roethlisberger made then-offensive coordinator Bruce Arians look so horrible that Pittsburgh fans, including me, were calling for his head. Arians, of course, turned out to be an amazing coach, first with the Colts, now with the Cardinals, and he was amazing because he had quarterbacks who were, and are, willing to listen to him. Big Ben, though, isn’t willing to listen; he has to play his way, not even wanting to learn anything new, and for every brilliant play or performance of his, there have been multiple ones in which his faults cost his team the game.
There are some plays every quarterback simply needs to master. The end zone fade is one, as is the goal-line play action in which the tight end is wide open in the end zone. Roethlisberger hasn’t thrown either one in years, if ever. Timing passes also are critical, as are relatively indefensible passes like the perfect sideline fade, and I haven’t seen him throw those with consistency, either. Further, Big Ben hates passing out of power formations. It makes sense to learn how – tight ends running a seam route or running backs going into the flat can get some great yardage. As things are, a power formation means run, or maybe the occasional play-action. Big Ben wants to run a University of Oregon-style spread formation, only without his running the ball.
If that spread would win games, I’d understand keeping with it. Thing is, opponents largely have adapted. Five weeks into the season, Bell has had one good performance – opponents have started stacking the line of scrimmage to stop his patented hesitation at the line of scrimmage before choosing a hole and getting seven yards. Bell, of course, hasn’t adapted either; he still won’t lower his shoulder and plow for a couple of yards, and the running back who will, rookie James Conner, gets what I consider inadequate playing time. Still, I imagine Roethlisberger has a lot of authority to set up the offense the way he wants it, and if he wanted some more power running, the Steelers would have it. So, he ultimately is responsible for the lack of a running game as well. Big Ben isn’t the only quarterback who has had this problem and paid for it.
Brett Favre was such a ball hog that he refused to let two perfectly good running backs, Ahman Green in Green Bay and Adrian Peterson in Minnesota, take the game on their shoulders every so often. He just had to be Brett Favre, and so his last few seasons each ended with an interception, and he retired with exactly one Super Bowl ring. Peyton Manning nearly didn’t get that second Super Bowl ring because he couldn’t handle the idea of adding to his game plans. He couldn’t handle power formations either, and because he couldn’t, Denver was humiliated in the Super Bowl against Seattle. The one Super Bowl ring he had with Indianapolis, he had because, for once in his career, he trusted his running backs and his kicker to win games for him.
Then you have Tom Brady, who has won five rings because, as painful as it is for a Steelers fan to say so, he got it right. He feels absolutely no shame in throwing the ball away, and he’ll hand off to the running back out of the I formation every time if that’s what it takes for the team to win.
Had Roethlisberger worked on some fundamentals over the course of his career, he might have won at least one more Super Bowl, maybe two, and he would have been mentioned in the same breath as Brady and Manning. As things are, he supposedly is pondering retirement, and because of that, or maybe because he never learned to change a thing over the course of a decade and change, he’s sputtering as if he were trying to drive a sports car down the Pennsylvania Turnpike despite not knowing how to drive a stick.
Roethlisberger took back his comment about not having it any more, but I think he was right the first time, in that he really doesn’t believe in himself. If he doesn’t, this season basically amounts to a farewell tour, in which he won’t even get fired up for a game until we’re nearly out of the playoff race, or until we’re going against a division rival in Ohio. I’m a fan, and I’ll keep watching those games, but as much as I hate to do it, I’ll keep wishing he either gets his act together, or that he gets benched. If we’re going to lose, I’d rather lose with a quarterback who at least wants to learn, and who wants to win.
