Ben Roethlisberger weighs in on Steelers' failed 4th and 1 play call

Every Steelers fan still is talking about fourth-and-one against the Texans. And now we know the thoughts of former Pittsburgh great Ben Roethlisberger.

“I hated the play call,” the ex Steelers quarterback said on his podcast.

So did just about everyone else who has ever waved a Terrible Towel. Here’s the setup. Pittsburgh was down 16-6 as the third quarter chugged along. The Steelers had a nice drive going, with the offense hitting the Texans 33. But on a fourth-and-one, Pittsburgh decided against a 50-yard field goal attempt. It always is an iffy area of the field if a drive stalls. A punt likely would end up in a touchback.

So coach Mike Tomlin and offensive coordinator Matt Canada opted to keep the offense on the field and go for the first down. Tomlin even called a timeout, saying afterwards it was because the official placed the ball farther away than they thought. It still was within a yard of the first down. Quality teams convert that.

Roethlisberger said he anticipated three options. Sneak it with Kenny Pickett. Hand it off to Najee Harris. Or have Pickett fake a handoff to Harris and do some sort of play-action.

“Those are your options. It has to be those three things,” Roethlisberger said. “And they come out here in shotgun and I’m like ‘oh, maybe they’re going to draw them offsides.’

“They snap the ball and I see they’re running a little choice route. And I’m just like ‘oh, no, I don’t believe it.’ Of course, Kenny, he gets sacked. He probably had the backside, in-route, potentially. But again, that’s us looking back on film.”

Instead of the first down, Texans defensive end Jonathan Greenard sacked Pickett. Rather than use a power formation, the Steelers chose shotgun and even had Pickett drop back. The Texans had every option covered in the slow-to-develop play. Pickett twisted to his left and ran into Greenard.

What made things worse — Pickett twisted his knee and left the game. Then the Texans scored after taking possession. That basically was the game. Fortunately, Pickett suffered no structural damage to his knee. He’ll practice on Wednesday, and Tomlin said he’d see how the quarterback’s knee tolerated the workout.

During his weekly Tuesday press conference, Tomlin also offered a reason as to why the Steelers went with the one-back shotgun to convert fourth-and-short. His reasoning sounded like a word salad.

“To be completely transparent with you, we lost a short-yardage personality because of Dan Moore and Pat Freiermuth,” Tomlin said, referring to a tackle and a tight end. “We lost all our big packages. Broderick Jones already was on the field. And so we probably had to get out of our intended box, if you will, in that circumstance because of lack of player availability at that point in the game.”

Moore hurt his knee in the first quarter, while Freiermuth strained a hamstring earlier in the third quarter.

Now come the Baltimore Ravens. And the Steelers definitely will need a better offensive effort.