OAKLAND, Calif. -- To listen to Ben Roethlisberger, it was Mike Tomlin's decision not to put him back into Sunday's 24-21 loss to the Raiders until 5:20 remained.
Of course, by then, the Steelers trailed, 17-14, with the defense finally breaking after bending here and there throughout the contest.
"I was just waiting for coach to tell me when to go," Roethlisberger would say after the game.
Tomlin, meanwhile, said the quarterback "probably could've come back in a series or two sooner, but we were in a rhythm and flow of the game. He was ready to go when he got back out there."
Roethlisberger most certainly looked like he was ready to go back in sooner. He jogged back across the field with a little more than eight minutes remaining in the third quarter. He stretched and warmed up on the sideline after watching his backup, Josh Dobbs, throw an interception at midfield on the penultimate play of the third quarter.
But when the Steelers' defense came up with a stop on that drive, the warming up stopped. When the Steelers got the ball back at their own 32, it was Dobbs who came back out. And quickly led a three-and-out.
Some rhythm.
From the time Roethlisberger came back onto the field until the time he played again, the Steelers gained 20 yards, with 10 of that coming on a Dobbs scramble.
There are fifth-grade socials with more rhythm than that.
It was very apparent Roethlisberger was only going back into that game if the Steelers needed some kind of late-game heroics.
But if he was healthy enough to come back in, he most certainly should have.
Tomlin does have the ultimate call on that. He's the head coach. But Tomlin can't honestly believe the Steelers had found any kind of rhythm with Dobbs running the show. He couldn't possibly have been counting on his defense to continue to come up with stops.
So either Roethlisberger was waiting for a pain-killing shot to kick in -- which is completely possible -- or he was waiting to play the hero.
Either way, it doesn't matter. The end result was another inexplicable loss in Oakland. It's the only AFC road venue in which Roethlisberger has never won. And considering the Raiders probably won't be playing here again after this season, it's a place he won't ever get one.
If Roethlisberger was healthy enough to go into the game earlier, he should have gone back into the game earlier, not if or when the Raiders took the lead.
• So what now?
A month ago this team was riding high on a six-game winning streak. Now, it's losing games to the lowly Raiders and barely clinging to its playoff hopes.
This team has gotten hot in the past and now has the tall task of doing so against the likes of the Patriots at home and the Saints on the road in the next two weeks.
The Steelers still control their own playoff destiny, but it's a precarious hold.
"We're not at the right time now," Roethlisberger said when asked about getting hot at the right time.
"We've got three (games) left against really good football teams. It doesn't get any easier."
No, it does not.
• So much for Jaylen Samuels and Stevan Ridley providing a rushing attack.
Those two combined for 32 yards against a defense that came in allowing a league-worst 153.3 yards per game. And it wasn't for lack of trying. They had 16 combined carries. Dobbs was the Steelers' most effective runner, gaining 15 yards on a pair of scrambles.
There were conflicting national reports Sunday about James Conner being back next week to play the Patriots.
But don't expect that to happen.
It was more of a failure of the offensive line than anything. Sure, the running backs could be more decisive, but a line with this kind of talent should win the line of scrimmage against that Raiders defensive line.
• Samuels, by the way, is fine as a pass catching weapon. But the Steelers are fooling themselves if they think he's a true running back. He just doesn't have any wiggle -- or speed -- to play that position in this league.
• What to do with Chris Boswell?
It's hard to blame him for slipping and falling on his final field goal attempt:
But his earlier miss from 39 yards in the second quarter? Well, that's a different story.
It would be one thing if Boswell had been making his kicks regularly. But with his two misses Sunday, he's now 10 of 16 on field goal attempts this season. And he's missed five PATs.
Nobody makes them all -- ask Gary Anderson -- but this isn't what was expected after Boswell was 35 of 38 on field goal attempts last season. Four of those kicks were game winners. And it all earned him a trip to the Pro Bowl.
It also earned him a big, fat raise as he signed a five-year, $20-million contract extension in the offseason.
Funny thing is, all that money and now he can't buy a big kick.
"It's disappointing," Boswell said Sunday. "That's all I'm going to say."
It would cost the Steelers $4.8 million in dead cap space to release him this offseason. Of course, they have the extra money thanks to Le'Veon Bell.
But they'd be far better off if their Pro Bowl kicker figured out his issues. Instead, he just seems to get more surly with every miss.
• Typically, when you give up a touchdown pass, it's because the offense does something to trick you and force, here's that magical word, a miscommunication.
So it was with the Raiders' first touchdown in the fourth quarter.
On this touchdown pass to tight end Lee Smith, it looks like Smith simply beats Vince Williams off the line of scrimmage.
And perhaps that was the case. But it looks more like Williams bites on a so-so play-action fake to the running back, then tries to catch up. That one false step is all Smith needs.
Bud Dupree and Coty Sensabaugh also both break from left to right with top target Jared Cook, with Dupree seeing the ball in the air and trying to recover to help Williams.
And Derek Carr does a nice job of looking to his right before going back to the left.
It was a well designed -- and simple -- play. And it created just enough false steps from the Steelers defenders to leave it wide open.
This isn't a scheme issue. Williams should be able to run with Smith.
• The field conditions weren't great. And, as multiple Steelers noted, they were the same for both teams.
But they did benefit the Raiders, who were the lesser talented team. It also was a big reason why they had so much success throwing to their multiple tight ends.
The big plodders were better suited for these conditions.
• That said, it's hard to believe Antonio Brown wasn't more involved in the game plan. The most talented player in this game had five catches for 35 yards on seven targets.
• When the Raiders hit a 39-yard pass from Carr to Seth Roberts to the Pittsburgh 7 coming out of the two-minute warning, Tomlin should have used his two remaining timeouts to give his offense more time or at least allow his defense time to reset.
I asked him about that decision after the game.
"I wanted to keep a timeout for the offense," Tomlin said. "I kind of have that mentality. And I did. I wasn't sure JuJu was going to get out of bounds on the subsequent possession. I thought we had a chance to stop them. ... We used one for the fourth down, to no avail."
That's all well and good. But it might have been nice to have an extra 30 or so seconds at the end of this thing.
• Everything to me keeps coming back to the decision, however it was arrived at, to not put Roethlisberger back into the game.
It essentially led to a wasted 25 minutes for the offense. The defense was getting stops during that period and yet the offense -- without Conner and Roethlisberger -- was stuck in park.
That allowed an inferior opponent that is still playing hard to stick around and gain some confidence and momentum.
