Discussions around the water cooler in Pittsburgh offices have been lacking the usual celebratory and optimistic tone that football fans here have become accustomed to having on Monday mornings. Our Steelers are 2-5 and in dead last in a mostly mediocre AFC North. Questions about who should be cut loose and what future additions need to be made are running rampant and everyone has an opinion regarding how to fix the problems. Analyze this team in the short-term or the long-term, and you will find dozens of topics to ponder.
A friend recently brought one in particular to the forefront, and he raises a fair and significant point worth considering. ” Big Ben” Roethlisberger, team captain and ten-year veteran, is 31 years old and, arguably, at the beginning of a career decline in production and ability. As any NFL broadcaster or television analyst will be sure to tell you, Roethlisberger’s greatest weapon is his ability to stand tall in the pocket and avoid pressure. Surely as he gets older, that elusiveness will slip away and he will take even more and more hits. His offensive linemen, either due to slews of injuries or general lack of talent (or sometimes both), have not been able to keep their QB on his feet for several years now. A banged-up Ben has missed quite a bit of time and every hit takes a toll on the longevity of the Steelers greatest investment.
It is an investment that promised Roethlisberger $102 million over eight years when he signed an extension in 2008. He will be a Steeler at least through 2015 though he has proclaimed repeatedly that he wishes to retire here, so further extensions could eventually come to fruition. With at least two more seasons guaranteed wearing black and gold, consider the state of the organization, the trends of the star quarterback, and begin to wonder and worry about the possibility that Big Ben’s remaining years in Pittsburgh will go to waste.
Despite struggling at times in 2013 with accuracy, poor decision-making, bad clock management, and well-documented differences with offensive coordinator Todd Haley, there have also been a number of times Roethlisberger has looked like the two-time Super Bowl champion we fondly remember. Give the man (or any QB, really) some semblance of a running game to rely on, a few quality targets in the passing game, and some protection for crying out loud, and he will undoubtedly win a ton of games and keep Pittsburgh in contention year in and year out. He has certainly been given none of those things in this season that, nearly at the midpoint, has been a disaster to date. It has been a trying season and the rest may be a lost cause, with difficult matchups still to come including at New England, Baltimore, and Green Bay and home versus playoff-contending Detroit and division-leader Cincinnati.
The fear is that the constant pressure from defenses walking past the patchwork offensive line could injure Roethlisberger yet again. Or, if he does manage to stay on the field, the failures and the frustrations will lead to unrest with fans, his teammates, and the coaching staff. Mike Tomlin and Kevin Colbert, two of the prime decision-makers on the sidelines and in the front office, need to act quickly to keep the organization’s most-prized possession in years happy and focused on returning the Steelers to contention. The 2013 campaign can end at 2-14, somewhere in the middle at 6-10, or at 11-5 with a shocking playoff run…we will only know after the games have been played. But if another disturbing loss to the likes of Oakland is any indication of what is to come the rest of the way, Roethlisberger and the once-feared Steelers have a great deal of soul-searching to do before they can right the ship.
With each passing day, each blown coverage against an opposing linebacker, every bobbled reception-turned-interception, each two-yard loss on a draw and every screen on third-and-15, “Big Ben’s” clock is ticking. Cliché as that may be, it is a dark reality that a franchise and a fan base face in today’s NFL. Since he burst onto the scene in 2004 in relief of an ailing Tommy Maddox, Roethlisberger has spoiled this city with three Super Bowl appearances, two rings, and perennial hope. Here’s to at least two more years, perhaps more, of No. 7 leading the way.
