When you’re 0-4 and showing few signs of fixing what’s going wrong, there’s not much point in dancing around the facts that are right in front of your face.
Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger isn’t doing that. The Steelers are off to their worst start since 1968, “uncharted territory and the water is dangerous” by Roethlisberger’s telling, and the quarterback believes in the old adage that you are what your record says you are.
“Right now, you could say we’re the worst team in the league,” Roethlisberger said, via the Associated Press. “That hurts.”
The Giants, Jaguars and Buccaneers could likely lodge a formal complaint about Roethlisberger labeling his own team as the league’s bottom of the barrel, but there’s not much point in splitting hairs about such things. The Steelers are in a bad, bad way and coach Mike Tomlin responded to Sunday’s loss by saying that he wants to see players working with “belief and effort” to get better because the ones who don’t won’t be in Pittsburgh much longer.
Roethlisberger, who had two turnovers Sunday, said he’s starting by holding himself accountable for his bad play and promised to do the best he can to lead the team to better results in the coming weeks. If they don’t come, Roethlisberger probably won’t be the only one left with the feeling that the Steelers could be the worst team in the league.