When the Pittsburgh Steelers came out of the locker room after halftime on Sunday, they turned up their offense to 11 and put on a show. The Steelers were down 21-7 to start the second half and looked lost. But then quarterback Ben Roethlisberger took over, throwing for 244 yards and three touchdowns in the half to beat the Indianapolis Colts.
But before you start wondering if this was a case of Roethlisberger just drawing plays up in the dirt, it wasn’t. At least according to tight end Eric Ebron. He spoke to the media on Monday and when the offense took off it wasn’t a case of improvisation and the Steelers had practiced all those plays.
So, what was the change? It felt like Roethlisberger just took control of calling the offensive plays regardless of what offensive coordinator Randy Fichtner sent in. In the first half the Steelers played the same mundane, predictable offense that has plagued this group for weeks.
In the second half, Roethlisberger chucked out Fichtner’s plan and did it himself. That’s why the offense took off. Going forward, if the Steelers want to keep winning, Roethlisberger should be allowed to call the plays from the beginning of the game and give him full autonomy of the offensive gameplan.
