Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was clearly frustrated by another close defeat that could’ve been easily avoided.
The Steelers were down 29-0 in the first half to the Minnesota Vikings, before the offense woke up and scored a quick 20 straight points. Despite an awful defensive effort, Pittsburgh was back in the game, and even had a chance to tie on the final drive of the contest.
On a critical first down picked up by Claypool on that final drive, the Notre Dame product opted to celebrate with under a minute left on the clock while his teammates ran to the line to try and stop the clop, which was running at the time.
Chase Claypool cost the Steelers AT LEAST 5 seconds posing & pointing
that would have given the Steelers 1 more play… 1 more shot to tie it up
so dumb, so clueless pic.twitter.com/cy7wSkv4XE
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) December 10, 2021
Steelers fans are rightfully furious at Claypool, though none of his teammates have come out with the same vitriol against him publicly. This includes Roethlisberger, who left any discipline up to Tomlin to decide.
Steelers: Ben Roethlisberger takes high road on Chase Claypool
“It’s not really my job,” Roethlisberger said, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN.com. “To me, that goes up to Coach Tomlin. That’s what he needs to do. That’s his job as the head coach. As the quarterback, it’s my job to help manage what we do on the field. Dealing w/ player issues . . . that’s the coach’s job, not mine.”
Roethlisberger likely only has four games left in his NFL career. He’s discussed the possibility of retiring with former teammates, most of which he trusts more than the Steelers current young group, of which he’s supposed to be the leader.
With Pittsburgh’s playoff hopes slim following a loss to the Vikings, it’s tough to blame Roethlisberger for wanting Tomlin — an actual head coach with the ability to discipline Claypool for his stupidity — to take the lead.
Sure, Roethlisberger is supposed to be a leader. Routinely, the Steelers have let him down this year, including Claypool who has the most penalty yards by a wide receiver in the NFL on the season.
I’ll give him a pass on this one.
