Ben Roethlisberger was going to have to be the key to the Steelers' winning against the Patriots in the season opener. Now more than ever, this is his team. And with the departure of Antonio Brown and Le'Veon Bell, the Steelers offense will need him to be extremely efficient in picking apart defenses for it to lead the Steelers to prominence.
That didn't happen Sunday in the 33-3 beatdown the team took at the hand of the Patriots.
What went wrong for Roethlisberger?
We take a closer look ...
Historically this was the fourth-worst season debut for Roethlisberger as he began his 16th NFL season. He finished the game with 27 completions on 47 attempts for 276 yards, no touchdowns, one interception, a sack taken for a 6-yard loss and a fumble. His 65.6 passer rating on the night ranked behind only his season debuts in 2006 (38.7), 2011 (52.9) and 2018 (60.5).
The Steelers' record in those games is 0-3-1, which is indicative of how important it is for Roethlisberger to at least be efficient if he's not blowing up a defense with his strong arm.
The Classroom before Sunday's game was focused directly on Roethlisberger and his improvement against Bill Belichick's defense over the years. It looked like Roethlisberger finally understood the Patriots' disguises enough over the past two seasons that he only needed improve his accuracy, since his reads had been solid.
Neither was good on Sunday.
Let's look at a missed opportunity on first down. The Steelers spread the field with one running back, one tight end and three receivers available. Their bunched receivers to the right forced the Patriots' zone defense to back off, which allowed JuJu Smith-Schuster to cut underneath of the soft zone and present a target for Roethlisberger for an easy 5-yard completion.
Roethlisberger never saw him though, and tried a difficult pass on a comeback to Donte Moncrief that went incomplete:
Cris Collinsworth said during the NBC broadcast that Smith-Schuster wasn't getting separation. However a review of the all-22 film shows there were several times he got open to present a reasonable target for Roethlisberger that went overlooked.
This was because Roethlisberger couldn't identify coverage packages all night. Watch the below play where the Patriots have both outside cornerbacks backed off 8 yards with two deep safeties. Typically that means Cover 4 is coming and that an underneath pass should be open depending on which side the defense favors.
Roethlisberger goes to the wrong side and targets Ryan Switzer who gets only 1 yard. But if he had looked to his right, Smith-Schuster was in an out route that was cleared out by the route combination and had plenty of space. Instead of targeting his best receiver, he threw it to Switzer and missed on an opportunity to move the sticks:
Roethlisberger looked like he was trying before each snap to identify the coverage, but would then aggressively act on his guess and often be wrong. This is where Belichick got the best of him.
Here's another 1-yard pass to Switzer on which Roethlisberger thought he had a chance for an easy target and an opportunity for Switzer to gain yards after the catch. But Switzer was immediately tackled.
Look closer at the start of the play. The Patriots lined up in press man coverage across the board, minus Patrick Chung on Switzer, and two deep safeties. This is a pre-snap read of Man Cover 2 defense, which would suggest that each cornerback would press their receivers, save for Chung on Switzer.
But once the ball was snapped, notice the top safety to Roethlisberger's left rotated to the middle of the field while the other dropped down. This switched to Man Cover 1, forcing the outside cornerbacks to be more passive in their coverage. If Roethlisberger had recognized it post snap, he would've seen James Washington's hitch route with plenty of space, wide open past the first down marker:
These were situations where Roethlisberger was tricked into targeting his least threatening wide receiver when his best two receivers were open. Belichick's trickery at its finest.
We could go into more plays, but they were more of the same. Either Roethlisberger misidentified the best target, or he found them and misfired, bringing up the accuracy issue I wrote about Saturday.
Instead, let's focus on how what could've helped Roethlisberger; and a possible answer exists in what I wrote about Tom Brady yesterday.
Brady is the master at calling out coverage switches and finding the easy targets for big gains. He dissected the Steelers' defense. But one particular factor he used which Roethlisberger didn't was the concept of pre-snap motions and switches. Brady used pre-snap motions to either force the Steelers to tip their hand on defense or create natural space for his receivers.
Brady completed 24 passes on 36 attempts for 241 yards and three touchdowns. From those plays Brady used pre-snap motions on 25 of those passes, completing 18 times for 244 yards and one touchdown. That means 75 percent of Brady's completions came on plays with pre-snap motions and adjustments, as well as 72 percent of his yards.
Roethlisberger, on the other hand, didn't use pre-snap motions nearly as much. When you watch him before the snap you see him thinking, pointing and talking, but rarely moving his players to force the defense to expose some aspect of its scheme.
He used pre-snap motions only seven times of the 48 times he dropped back to pass, completing five of six attempts for 30 yards, with a sack that lost 6 yards.
Roethlisberger doesn't need to move his players around every play, but he has done it in the past to help him identify what defenses were doing. Pre-snap movement forces defenders to not only run and adjust, but also communicate and think. The more you get defenses to think about a wider variety of threats, the better chance you have at exposing a mistake and finding an open option.
Brady's done that for almost two decades. It's time for Roethlisberger to be as comfortable doing that as he is when he puts on his shoes.
War Room and Carter’s Classroom need your help! We are seeking sponsors for the 2019 NFL season that would be willing to see their brand grow through advertising with us. All interested parties should contact me at christopher@dkpittsburghsports.com.
MORE CLASSROOM
September 9: Brady's defensive dissection
September 7: Ben’s final step to besting Belichick (Ha!)
September 6: Backs are Brady’s edge
September 5: Nelson seeks revenge on Patriots
