Roethlisberger Slams Mike Tomlin, Pittsburgh Steelers Head Coach.
The former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback doesn’t have a high opinion of his former team after last Thursday night’s 21-18 drubbing at the hands of the woeful New England Patriots. One of his targets was former head coach Mike Tomlin.
Roethlisberger played for Tomlin for the last 15 seasons of his 18-year NFL career. Last Thursday night, he couldn’t believe Tomlin was calling two timeouts at the end of the fourth quarter of last Thursday’s loss to the Patriots.
The former Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback doesn’t have a high opinion of his former team after last Thursday night’s 21-18 overtime loss to the woeful New England Patriots, and one of his critics is head coach Mike Tomlin. “You can’t afford to call two timeouts in the back half of a game and not have them at the end of the game, that’s a bad coaching thing to do,” Big Ben, who was Tomlin’s play-caller for the last 15 seasons of his 18-year NFL career, told his podcast, “Footbalhin”. “I can’t believe Tom called those two timeouts.” Pittsburgh’s late attempt to force overtime lasted two plays, with the ball on the Patriots’ 42-yard-line as time expired. “If we had a better time management with those timeouts, we might have had the tying field goal,” he said.
There’s a certain sense of urgency that comes with these situations because of how valuable timeouts are, and we saw that in this game,” he said. “If we had one more timeout, we’d have a completion and we could work the center of the field, and all we have to do is put Chris Boswell (Boswell) on the 60-yard line, give him a chance, and he’ll give us a chance to tie it up. I like the chances we have in overtime because we scored all our points early, and the momentum has changed.” The Steelers, who have dropped three of four, are fighting for the last playoff spot in the AFC. If they don’t make it, it’ll be the second straight year they’ve missed the playoffs after finishing.500 or better, and the second time in three seasons in a row. The Steelers have never been below.500 in Roetlisberger’s career and have made the playoffs 12 times in 19 seasons. After winning Super Bowls in 2005 and 2008, Pittsburgh hasn’t been to the playoffs since. He doesn’t like what he’s seeing right now.
I know that the farther you get away from it, the more difficult it becomes unless it’s been passed down and carried on in the proper manner,” Roethlisberger added. “I think that that has been lost on this group. I have a feeling that some of the guys aren’t on the team for the team’s sake, they’re on the team for their own gain. And now some of the other guys are saying the same.” The Steelers (7-6) sit third in the AFC North, and are one of six AFC teams with a winning record. Pittsburgh will host the 7-6 Indianapolis Colts (8-6) on Saturday.
