The Pittsburgh Steelers have been struggling of late, losing two games in a row to terrible teams. As a result, many are wondering what has gone wrong for the club.

Former Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger sees a potential issue: coaching.

While discussing Pittsburgh’s Week 14 loss to the New England Patriots on his podcast, Roethlisberger cited poor coaching from Mike Tomlin as a reason for the team’s malaise.

“At the end of that game, if we had one more timeout, we have another chance,” Roethlisberger said. “When you lose timeouts because of silly penalties — too many men on the field, not enough men on the field — you can’t afford in the second half of games, to burn silly timeouts and not have them late in the game. To me, that is … that’s bad. It’s bad coaching.”

Tomlin coached Roethlisberger for 15 years between 2007 and 2021, so Roethlisberger is no stranger to Tomlin’s coaching techniques.

That’s why hearing the legendary signal-caller criticize Tomlin is so jarring.

Roethlisberger also added that he felt “maybe the tradition of the Pittsburgh Steelers is done.”

The Steelers have had some locker-room issues recently, as wide George Pickens has been acting out much of the season, and safety Minkah Fitzpatrick called out the team for its horrific effort against the Patriots.

Pittsburgh is 7-6 and still holds a playoff spot in the AFC. However, there are five other teams in the conference who have the same record as the Steelers, so Tomlin’s club is currently clinging to the second Wild Card spot due to tiebreakers.

The Steelers will head on the road to take on the Indianapolis Colts in a pivotal matchup with playoff implications this Saturday. They will also face the Cincinnati Bengals, Seattle Seahawks and Baltimore Ravens to close out the regular season.

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