When the Pittsburgh Steelers left the locker room after the break on Sunday, they increased their attack to 11 and put on a show. The Steelers were losing by 21-7 at the start of the second half and looked lost. But then quarterback Ben Roethlisberger took over, throwing for 244 yards and three touchdowns in half to beat the Indianapolis Colts.
But before you start to wonder if this was the case with Roethlisberger just drawing pieces on the floor, it wasn’t. At least according to tight end Eric Ebron. He spoke to the media on Monday and when the attack went off it was not a matter of improvisation and the Steelers had practiced all those moves.
So, what was the change? It looked like Roethlisberger took control of the offensive moves, regardless of what offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner sent. In the first half, the Steelers played the same mundane and predictable attack that plagued this group for weeks.
In the second half, Roethlisberger threw away Fichtner’s plan and did it alone. That’s why the offense took off. Going forward, if the Steelers want to continue winning, Roethlisberger must be allowed to call the shots from the start of the game and give him full autonomy from the offensive game plan.