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Ben Roethlisberger is running the 29th-ranked scoring offense in the NFL

By Ray Fittipaldo 10 years ago

I was doing some reading this morning about the 1989 Cleveland Browns and came upon a parallel with the 2012-13 Steelers I found interesting. After going 9-6-1 and making the AFC championship game for the third time in four years, the Cleveland front office order head coach Bud Carson to make changes to his coaching staff.

According to “Bad Rad Football Nomad”, an autobiography of sorts by longtime NFL coach Dan Radakovich, Carson was told to fire offensive coordinator Marc Trestman and a number of other coaches following the loss to the Broncos in the AFC title game.

Radakovich, who won two Super Bowls as a Steelers assistant in 1974 and ‘75, was moved from linebackers coach to offensive line coach and ordered to change the terminology of the offense so Carson, a defensive coach, could understand it.

A new offensive coordinator, Jim Shofner, was brought in to run the offense. Here is an enlightening passage from the book: “Now all of the offensive players, plus the new coordinator, plus the new assistants all had to learn new terminology because of a new coordinator. Looking back, I wonder how we could make all these changes and succeed. The answer is we didn’t.”

The Browns were 3-13 in 1990 followed by three more losing seasons until they finally made the playoffs again in 1994. Carson was fired after the ’90 season and never became a head coach again.

This got me to thinking about the Steelers and the whole Bruce Arians affair again. Since the beginning of last season when Todd Haley arrived as the new coordinator, there has been much reporting on Haley’s terminology and how it has affected Ben Roethlisberger and the offense. Anyone remember the Oakland game last season when Roethlisberger told reporters afterward that he started using Arians’ terminology in the middle of the game without telling Haley?

The offense had its issues under Arians, but there was no denying he oversaw an offense that was conducive to the team winning. The Steelers made the playoffs four out of the five seasons he ran the offense.

Was Arians fired, retired? It really doesn’t matter. The point is a change was made following a season in which the team was 12-4 and made the playoffs.

In the past 22 games without Arians calling the plays the Steelers have 10 wins and 13 losses. This season they are averaging 17.9 points per game, which ranks 29th out of 32 teams in the NFL. They have managed to score more than 20 points in a game twice this season, both losses.

Last season, in Todd Haley’s first as offensive coordinator, the Steelers were 22nd in the NFL in scoring with 21 points per game.

In 2011, the final season under Arians, the Steelers were 21st averaging 20.3 points per game. But in 2010, when they were AFC champions, they were 12th and averaged 23.4 per game. In 2008, the year they won the Super Bowl, they averaged 21.7. Even in 2009, a year they did not make the playoffs, the offense averaged 23 points per game, which was 12th in the league.

But in many ways, this isn’t about numbers. It’s about a comfort level with the quarterback and his play-caller.

This is not a knock against Haley, who clearly has personnel issues to deal with when devising game plans. He is working with a patchwork offensive line and a receiving corps that lacks height and a quality deep threat.

Haley’s offense racks up yards, but can’t score touchdowns. There are lots of issues to dissect with his offense, both from a personnel side and a play-calling side.

But in this discussion, Haley is an innocent bystander.

The point is a decision was made by the organization to change coordinators after going 55-25 during the regular season with Arians in charge.

Haley and Roethlisberger continue to say the right things when asked, but something appears to be amiss with this offense. The bottom line is Roethlisberger is not having the same success with Haley that he did with Arians.

To be sure, there are other reasons the Steelers are 2-5 and streaking toward a losing season, but the decision to change coaches following the 2011 continues to be easily second-guessed.

If there is an organization that understands the concept of coaching continuity it’s the Steelers, who have had three head coaches since 1969. It's 20-20 hindsight, but the question persists whether continuity within the assistant ranks was vastly underestimated 22 months ago.

TROUBLING POSTGAME QUOTES

There were a couple of head-scratching postgame quotes from Roethlisberger following the loss to the Raiders. Both had to do with his decision to call a timeout on the final drive when the play clock was winding down.

"I know timeouts are valuable, but for an offense that wasn't scoring touchdowns, so is 5 yards," he said.

Another quote: “It was a tough call. I guess maybe tomorrow coach [Tomlin] will tell me what he wants to do in that situation.”

If Roethlisberger truly does have to wait to see what the coaches want from him in that situation it’s a shocking admission from someone who has been a starting quarterback in the league since 2004. One would think after a decade in the league two-minute scenarios such as the one they faced yesterday would be second nature. With Roethlisberger it does not appear that way.

SUISHAM MISSES COSTLY

Kicker Shaun Suisham has been a tremendous pickup for the Steelers since he came on board late during the 2010 season. Dating to the beginning of last season he has made 43 of his past 48 field goals. But four of those misses were killer.

With a chance to turn their season around and get to 3-4 against the Raiders yesterday, Suisham missed kicks of 32 and 34 yards in the 21-18 loss. Now the Steelers are 2-5 and the season for all intents and purposes is over.

Two of the other three misses came last season against Cincinnati when a playoff berth was on the line in the 15th game of the season at Heinz Field. Suisham missed twice in the 13-10 loss. One of those misses was a 24-yarder, the other a 53-yarder.

Once again on Sunday, Suisham was doomed by short kicks that are considered layups by NFL standards. Suisham has been clutch with six game-winning kicks since becoming a Steeler and he should not be blamed for the loss to the Raiders, but his few misses have been very untimely.