More drama between Ben Roethlisberger and first year Offensive coordinator Todd Haley. Just what we need. Ben Roethlisberger came out in a post game interviewed and criticized the play calling. You can check out the video here :
Fine, but it's bizarre. He criticizes the playcall on a Touchdown to Heath Miller. It scored a Touchdown. That's a red Zone 6. Something that the Offense struggled to do under Bruce Arians. the Steelers have a Red zone Scoring percentage (TD) of 54.55% in 2012. It was 50.9% in 2011. Keep in mind that Ben played all of the games in 2011.
My problem here is that Ben has been calling out Todd Haley's play calling, criticizing the plays themselves when he wasn't doing the same thing to Bruce Arians. I'd have not problem with him calling out Todd Haley if the standards were the same but they aren't. He's holding Todd Haley to a different standard that his BFF, Todd Haley and it's not fair to Todd Haley.
Bruce Arians deserved a lot of critique, especially from his Quarterback and never got it yet we are almost through Todd Haley's first season as OC and he has had to run offenses where his Wide Receiver drop balls like they're infected with Aids. He has had to call plays behind an Offensive Line that is currently using a Practice Squad player at RT. He's had to shift his Center to RG due to injury on the line and play his backup Center. He has had his Top WR miss time with an injury, has had to use one of his most dangerous weapons in Heath Miller as a blocker on the line. He is now calling plays behind a rookie RG who hadn't even practiced or dressed this season until a couple of weeks ago. Talk about inexperience at the NFL level! Despite all of this and losing his 1st and 2nd string QB's for a couple of games and not having a consistent Offensive Line to run behind, the Steelers Red Zone Scoring percentage is up about 5% over 2011. The Offense as a whole is scoring more on average per game than in 2011 (21.5 to 20.5). Ben Roethlisberger himself is completing a high percentage of passes than he has since 2009. His Passer Rating is higher than it's been since 2009.
..and Ben Roethlisberger is publicly critiquing the plays?
Where the hell was this years after the playoff game against Jacksonville where Bruce Arians called for Ben to run a bootleg leg, a little hobbled on the feet needing 6-7 yards for a first down with the game on the line? Why wasn't Ben Roethlisberger for 5 years under Bruce Arians complaining and say it's "disappointing" that he wasn't running the No Huddle more? That was his BFF at OC and he couldn't get Bruce Arians to run the no Huddle more but he's complaining that Todd Haley is running it as much as Bruce did?
"we didn't do enough of it in the second half. That's disappointing" ~ Ben Roethlisberger when asked about not running the No Huddle in the 2nd Half
Ironically this is why Todd Haley was chosen as Offensive Coordinator and Ben Roethlisberger was left out of the process. This is part of the reason why Bruce Arians was fired (besides his miserable recent record producing points). Ben was complacent under Bruce Arians, not just as a player who needed to evolve some aspects of his game that Bruce Arians was afraid to touch but with the way the Offense was run as a whole. Ben seemed happy and content to run an offense that was ranking #21 in the NFL in scoring and barely scoring TD's 50% of the time in the Red Zone. He was complacently watching his completion percentage at 61.7% and 63.2% in 2010 and 2011.
Ben.jpgBen never complained. He got too cozy with his Offensive Coordinator. Now he's complaining. He's still disgruntled Bruce Arians is gone, no doubt. He probably still talks to him but more importantly, Ben seems to be caring a little bit more about what is called and done out on the field rather than giving ultimate faith and reliance to someone like Bruce Arians. Should he publicly call out Tod Haley's play calling? Probably not but on one hand it shows that Ben cares, something that you have to question under Bruce Arians since he was silent. Perhaps he was silent because Bruce was his friend and if so... that was a problem.
A problem that is now gone.
So, the media will try to create conflict here. I already have seen local hacks like Dejan Kovacevic trying to turn this into a bigger deal than it is. While Ben should've held Bruce Arians to the same standards that he is holding Todd Haley, the Steelers want this type of competitive fire out of Ben. Now we have a guy that doesn't quit on the field combined with a guy who is more mentally into this game from beginning to end. That's evolution.