Leaders lead, even when the path they put their followers on is one that leads to disaster. That's what happened when the Steelers' offense stalled for 3 1/2 quarters Sunday with Ben Roethlisberger back from knee surgery.
Roethlisberger is the captain of a team that has multiple elite players on offense and the capabilities to be the highest scoring unit in the NFL. However, that can only be achieved if he plays at the level expected of an elite quarterback with more than a decade of experience. Many have rushed to criticize the coaching staff and held back criticisms of Roethlisberger's poor performance while citing his return from injury.
This film review will go over why more of his mistakes appeared to be mental or from a lack of focus than from recovery from his injured leg:
MISSED SPLASH PLAYS
The Ravens' offense was stifled by a solid performance from the Steelers' defense for all but one play, a 95-yard touchdown catch and run from Mike Wallace.
But that was it, outside of that one play, Joe Flacco only had 146 yards on 29 attempts, was sacked three times and threw an interception. The ground game was stuffed and held to 50 yards on 29 attempts, a 1.7 yards per rush average with the longest run being Flacco's 14-yard scramble on a broken play.
So where was the Steelers' splash plays? They came too late from the offense. These are two examples of opportunities Roethlisberger had and just missed.
The first play was an early third-down shot to Darrius Heyward-Bey, one that looks like Roethlisberger either missed on the pass or was targeting Heyward-Bey's back-shoulder. Heyward-Bey's specialty is not making back-shoulder catches 20 yards downfield, which leads me to believe that Ben needed to throw it deep to give his speedster the opportunity to get behind the defense and make a big play.
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