Oct 8, 2017 5 min read

PITTSBURGH – Ben Roethlisberger is a proud, competitive person.

He’s one of those people who hates losing more than he loves winning, exactly the type of player you want as your quarterback.

That’s why there is little doubt that he will bounce back from a five-interception debacle – two of which were returned for touchdowns – Sunday at Heinz Field.

It would be easy to write the obituary on Roethlisberger’s career after a game like this, which resulted in the Steelers losing 30-9 to Jacksonville.

It would be easy to do if we hadn’t seen games like this from Roethlisberger in the past. Maybe not five-interception bad, but bad.

And we’ve seen Roethlisberger go through bad stretches, most notably to open the 2006 season. That’s when he had seven interceptions and no touchdowns in the Steelers’ first three games while coming back from an offseason motorcycle injury then an emergency appendectomy.

Now, Roethlisberger is healthy, or at least as healthy as a 14-year NFL veteran can be. He’s just not playing well.

This hasn’t been a one-week thing. It’s largely been every week.

“I’m not playing well enough,” Roethlisberger said. “Maybe I don’t have it anymore.”

It was more of a rhetorical question than it was a statement.

Make no mistake, Roethlisberger isn’t asking himself that question.

“Nope. If anyone in this room ever has doubt, they shouldn’t be here,” Roethlisberger said. “They shouldn’t have doubt.”

Maybe the Steelers don’t have doubts. Maybe Roethlisberger doesn’t have any questions about whether he can still play the game at a reasonably high level.

It might, however, be time the Steelers realize he’s not the quarterback he was just a couple of seasons ago. That guy who carried this team on his back through some tough times isn’t walking – or limping – back through the locker room door anytime soon.

The quarterback they have now is the one who contemplated retirement at the end of last season, eventually deciding to come back and take another shot at a Super Bowl with this roster.

But he’s no longer a quarterback in his prime.

That does not mean, however, this team cannot have a successful season and get to where it wants to go, though many fans will be jumping off that bandwagon after yesterday’s debacle.

To do so, however, the Steelers have to be less reliant on Roethlisberger being his old self and realize that it has an older Roethlisberger.

It’s something Denver realized in 1997 and 1998 with John Elway. In 1997, the Broncos asked Elway at 37, to throw the ball more than 40 times. They lost all three games. But he never threw it more than 31 times in the postseason, that coming against the Steelers in the AFC Championship, and the Broncos won the Super Bowl.

The next season, Elway, at 38, never attempted more than 36 passes in a game. The Broncos again won the Super Bowl.

What Denver did was ride its running game, with Terrell Davis leading the way.

When the Broncos occasionally needed a big throw from Elway, more often than not, he responded.

That’s not what the Steelers are doing with Roethlisberger right now. He threw the ball 21 times in the first half against the Jaguars and 55 times in the game. Le’Veon Bell, meanwhile, got nine first-half carries and 15 overall just one week after carrying the team to a win at Baltimore. Bell had 35 rushing attempts in that game.

“It was determined by the looks they were giving us. They did a lot of single-high safety,” Roethlisberger said of the first half. “Then, when you’re behind, you’ve got to start trying to come back.”

Perhaps, however, if you don’t allow yourself to be baited into throwing so much, you don’t fall behind.

Some of that responsibility lies on offensive coordinator Todd Haley. But some of it also falls on Roethlisberger. Many times, he has run-pass options he calls at the line of scrimmage. Perhaps it’s time some of that responsibility be taken away from him, especially when he’s not playing particularly well.

The Steelers, and Roethlisberger, need to realize less of him is more. And they need to do so soon.

It was a winning formula in the second half of last season, when he never attempted more than 36 passes during an eight-game winning streak.

It can work, so long as everyone buys into it, particularly the quarterback.

“I’ve been doing this a long time. I’ve had bad games before. I’ve had bad stretches,” Roethlisberger said. “You just find a way to move on and play better.”

Part of doing so would be looking in the mirror and realizing you’re not a kid any longer.

Dale Lolley can be reached at dlolley@observer-reporter.com.