Barring the unforeseen, Monday night's game against the Cleveland Browns will be Ben Roethlisberger's final home game as the Pittsburgh Steelers' quarterback. For the first time, Roethlisberger's family attended an away game during last Sunday's loss to the Chiefs. Roethlisberger has reportedly asked several of his former teammates to be at Monday's game against the Browns.
Publicly, Roethlisberger has deflected questions about his future while remaining focused on the task at hand, which is helping Pittsburgh (7-7-1) figure out a way to get into the playoffs for a second straight year. Like Roethlisberger, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin is focused on the present while politely declining to wax poetically about Roethlisberger's career, at least for the time being.
"I've experienced 15 years of Hall of Fame-caliber play as it pertains to Ben," Tomlin said during Tuesday's press conference. "My focus and his focus this week is this game and preparing for this game and performing well in this game. I'm sure there will be an appropriate time in the future where I will get an opportunity the sing his praises, and I will gladly do so. It just doesn't feel like the appropriate time as we zero in this opportunity that is 'Monday Night Football' this week."
As far as the present is concerned, Tomlin acknowledged that the Steelers offense has not been good enough at the start of games. The Steelers offense has gone five consecutive games without a first-half touchdown, a stretch of futility that a Pittsburgh offense has not experienced since 1940.
"We could score in the first half," Tomlin said with a laugh when asked how his offense can end its first-half scoring drought. "That's what our intentions are. That's our intensions every week, but we've come up short. I'm not going to run away from that. It is what it is. I'm not going to try to explain it away. We could sit in settings like this and talk about it all day. You could walk away feeling good about my answer and write a story, but that doesn't solve the problem. Actions does."
To help resolve the issue, Tomlin was asked if he has considered giving the reigns of the offense to Roethlisberger at the start of games.
"Ben is always a component of planning, particularly as it pertains to starts," Tomlin said. "He's a guy that's been on the job 18 years at the quarterback position. It would be foolish not to include him in the process."
One of the issues for Pittsburgh's offense has been a lack of involvement from the receivers. Diontae Johnson and rookie tight end Pat Freiermuth have flourished this season, while receivers Chase Claypool and James Washington have been underutilized as far as production is concerned. Claypool has caught just one touchdown pass this season after scoring 11 touchdowns during his rookie season. Washington has just 24 receptions this season despite an increased presence in the offense following JuJu Smith-Schuster's season-ending injury back in Week 5.
"I really think largely they've done a nice job of winning one-on-one battles and making splash plays," Tomlin said of his receiving corps. "When we've had our struggles running the football, people have been able to play Cover 2 and roll corners up and do things to minimize their impact of the game."
Tomlin was highly complimentary of the defense his offense will try to score against Monday night. He specifically mentioned Myles Garrett, Denzel Ward and rookie linebacker Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah (who did not play in Pittsburgh's Week 8 win in Cleveland) as players on Cleveland's defense who are capable of changing the complexion of a game.
"They're a fundamentalist group," Tomlin said of the Browns defense. "I've got so much respect for Joe Woods, their coordinator, in how they go about business. They specialize in minimizing big plays in both the run and the pass. They try to capitalize on turnovers. They've got some ball-aware guys."
With his young offensive line preparing to face one of the NFL's toughest defensive fronts, Tomlin said it's more about linemen getting better than it is about the opposing players that they are facing on a week-to-week basis. Tomlin said that he's excited to see the impact that Chris Morgan has on the offensive line with Morgan moving from assistant to offensive line coach following Adrian Klemm's departure for Oregon.
Pittsburgh's offensive line had one of its finer days of the season in Cleveland back in Week 8. The unit allowed the Steelers offense to gain 370 yards that included 115 rushing yards on 32 carries. Its success on the ground helped open things up for Roethlisberger, who hit Freiermuth for the game-winning touchdown pass on fourth-and-goal with 11 minutes remaining.
Tomlin is surely hoping to have a similar result Monday night in a game that is meaningful for several different reasons.
"Ben has really done a nice job of setting the pace regarding that throughout the season," Tomlin said of his quarterback's approach to this season. "He's been singularly focused on the next challenge and where we are in terms of the here and now, so it's been easy to follow his lead in that regard, and I'm sure we all will do the same as we press forward to 'Monday Night Football.'"