The Pittsburgh Steelers had a bad offensive performance at the worst possible time on Sunday. Aaron Rodgers’ offense got in field goal range multiple times, but only came away with two of them, and turned the ball over on downs twice in the Cleveland Browns’ half of the field. The effort resulted in six points scored and a massive dropped opportunity to clinch the AFC North.
In the fallout, Aaron Rodgers has taken a lot of criticism for his decision-making. But Ben Roethlisberger can understand why he made some of the decisions he did—starting with the 4th and 1 incompletion to Scotty Miller down the sideline.
“It’s like, okay, I got a one-on-one, he’s got a go route. We got a chance that they’re going to be thinking, we’re gonna run a two-yard, three-yard route. So sometimes that works to your advantage, because the defender is like, he’s itching to stop.” Roethlisberger said Tuesday on his Footbahlin podcast. “Aaron predetermined, I have one-on-one, no safety help, I’m taking the shot. I don’t hate it, I really don’t hate it. My thing was, it wasn’t a good throw.”
Here’s a look at the play Roethlisberger is referring to.
As Roethlisberger says, Rodgers does have a one-on-one matchup down the sideline, with no safety over the top. In most cases, this is a good decision. However, the Browns have two talented cornerbacks, and the Steelers weren’t finding any ways to beat them deep throughout the game. Scotty Miller, Adam Thielen and Marquez Valdes-Scantling just weren’t getting the job done on the outside. Miller certainly didn’t get open here.
When you decide to throw this route, it has to come out of the hand quickly. That doesn’t allow Aaron Rodgers to read anything on the right side of the field, where he has three pass catchers. Thielen is open for an easy first down, but Rodgers doesn’t see him.
It’s not the worst idea to throw the ball down the sideline here, Roethlisberger was right about that. And the Steelers wanted to get it out quickly against Myles Garrett all game long. But even in those circumstances, the throw isn’t good enough to make up for it.
Roethlisberger also had an opinion on the 3rd and goal incompletion in the waning seconds.
“It looks to me like he’s throwing an out-breaking route to Pat Freiermuth… Pat ran up and hooked. Could he [Rodgers] have drilled it on him [Freiermuth]? Maybe. But it looked like it was maybe a read route, a choice route,” Roethlisberger said. “It looked to me like they weren’t on the same page… Again, this is all my speculation, everybody. I don’t know if this is true.”
This is the 3rd and goal play Roethlisberger refers to.
This opinion does make some sense. The ball lands closer to Valdes-Scantling, who had a miscommunication with Rodgers on the play before. But Rodgers does throw it at the exact time Freiermuth would be making his break if he cut to the sideline.
Instead, Freiermuth tries to post up near the goal line. But he’s around multiple Browns defenders there, and didn’t clear the goal line before turning around. If he had run the out instead, he would have been much more open. We don’t know exactly what the expectations or conversations were between the two, but it’s a plausible explanation.
Aaron Rodgers’ understanding of the game is one of the reasons the Steelers wanted him so badly last offseason. For one reason or another, it didn’t show up against the Browns on Sunday. It’s going to have to against Baltimore if the Steelers want to save their season.
