The Pittsburgh Steelers pride themselves as an organization for keeping team matters within the locker room. Very rarely does the media and fans hear of turmoil inside closed doors. This may be the ‘old fashioned’ approach taken by the front office or the underly understanding from players and coaches of how the business side of football is conducted. The transition of coaches falls into that ‘hush hush’ category.
After winning Super Bowl XL a year prior, former head coach, Bill Cowher guided the Steelers to an 8-8 record in 2006 which would ultimately be his final season coaching in the NFL. After a tumultuous search and hiring process, Mike Tomlin was brought in to take over the team that Cowher built. But being a defensive-minded coach, Tomlin was seemingly lost in coaching a 25-year-old Ben Roethlisberger and the offense; so, Roethlisberger would take matters into his own hands.
Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger and head coach, Mike Tomlin against the Cleveland Browns in September, 2007. | Credit: Ken Blaze/AP
No one had a better front seat to Roethlisberger’s development than Charlie Batch. After four years with the Detroit Lions, Batch joined the Steelers in 2003 and would be the backup to Roethlisberger until his retirement in 2012. Being older than Roethlisberger and having one of the best minds of the game, Batch would be heavily involved with the game plan with Roethlisberger and diagnosing the plays on the sideline.
Paired with Batch was then offensive coordinator, Bruce Arians, who also had a great relationship with Roethlisberger. Tomlin had all of the right pieces to keep Roethlisberger developing without having to shoulder that responsibility alone. But as one of the youngest head coaches in NFL history who only knew defense, Tomlin could sometimes simply watch as Roethlisberger ran his own offense.
Batch joined Roethlisberger on his podcast Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger to catch up. The two re-hashed their playing days together and talked about the early days of Tomlin and how he’s progressed as a head coach. As the two former quarterbacks reminisced, Batch described how Roethlisberger would go rogue on offense to keep drives alive:
“Remember 2007. Tomlin, he’s trying to learn Ben, right. He’s trying to figure this out. So, Ben would always press it; he had a great nod, great impact on the game, like literally always understood situations. He’s running down, and it's fourth and one, and B.A. [Bruce Arians] was like, ‘What’s he doing?’ And I was like, ‘He’s got this, let him go,’ ‘what play is he calling? [laughs],’ ‘I don’t know.’ And Mike’s like, ‘Ahhhh!’ He runs down the field like 30 yards. He calls a timeout and Ben was like, ‘I got the freaking look I’m looking for! I was gonna run it!’” Batch explained.“So he comes back and Tomlin’s like, he looks and I said, ‘Trust me, coach. He understands the situation. If he doesn’t like it, he’ll call a timeout, or delay of game and we’ll punt it.’ And from that moment on, he trusted your judgement in that particular situation.”
PITTSBURGH - NOVEMBER 11: Ben Roethlisberger #7 of the Pittsburgh Steelers directs on the run during the NHL game against the Cleveland Browns on November 11, 2007 at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Rick Stewart/Getty Images)
If we think back to Tomin’s first season, the Steelers finished 10-6 and was crowned the AFC North division champions. Although the season ended with a gut-wrenching home loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in the Wild Card round of the playoffs, Tomlin set the tone early in his career that he’s able to get the team to the playoffs. Meanwhile, Roethlisberger’s 2007 season was one of his best.
He finished with 32 touchdowns, which is tied for the third most in a season of his career, and the highest touchdown percentage of his entire career (7.9 percent). But a couple of years later, Batch explained Tomlin was still learning how Roethlisberger operated the offense; and all he could do was watch from the sideline:
“Now, we fast forward, we get to [2009 or 2011], we were in Oakland,” Batch began. “All of a sudden, we don’t have a play. Third down, it didn’t work. Its literally fourth and two and we’re sitting back and we’re like, ‘Ben’s gonna try to call them offsides,’ and B.A. is like, ‘Okay, I’m not really sure what he’s gonna do.’ And Mike T. looks at me, Coach Tomlin looks at me, ‘What you [Ben] gonna do, Charlie?’ And I’m like, ‘I’m not sure.’ And he looks at me again and he’s like, ‘What’s he gonna do?’ And I said, ‘I think he's gonna snap the ball [laughs].’And Mike, he’s stuck like, ‘Ugh, I want to take the field goal,’ and he’s [Ben] like, ‘No, I want the touchdown,’ and literally, you snap the ball, you throw it to [Jericho Cotchery]. He picks up the first down and Mike looks at me and he’s giving me that look. To your credit, we score on that drive and everybody’s celebrating.”
“I think I came up to and said, ‘You got balls, bro.’”
Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger makes a pass against the then-Oakland Raiders in 2013. | Credit: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
After looking at the record books, it looks like this instance took place in the 2013 season, as opposed to 2009 or 2011.
Looking back at those earlier seasons with Tomlin learning Roethlisberger, those were some of Roethlisberger’s best statistical seasons. In 2007, he made the Pro Bowl. In 2009, he posted his first 4,000-yard season. In 2011, he made the Pro Bowl for a second time, and in 2013, he posted another 4,000-yard season and threw the fifth-most touchdowns of his career (28). Not to mention, a 1-1 Super Bowl record was also included in that span. Tomlin doesn’t consider himself as a quarterback-whisperer by any stretch, but Roethlisberger showed that when he went rogue, good things happened.
While Pickett posted modest numbers to start his career, we shouldn’t be surprised when he goes off script in 2023 in big time moments. Pickett may study up on Roethlisberger throughout the off-season and enter his sophomore season with a new sense of asking for forgiveness instead of asking for permission.
Do you remember Roethlisberger calling his own plays on offense? What plays do you remember him making? Let us know in the comments below!
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