The cracks in the Pittsburgh Steelers‘ foundation are starting to show, and this time, the criticism is coming from inside the house. For the second time in a month, Ben Roethlisberger has taken to the airwaves to question the team’s direction, but this time, his critique was aimed squarely at a single, game-changing play.

After the Steelers’ 31-28 loss to the Chicago Bears, Ben Roethlisberger insisted he wasn’t blaming the quarterback for the sack-fumble that flipped momentum. Instead, he believed that Darnell Washington was left alone in pass protection.

“I would ask the question is if I’m a back in the back field and I know that one of their best pass rushers over here and a tight end is on him by himself, even if my job looks like I don’t, my guy is not coming or my guys picked up. I’m turning, I’m looking for some help. You might want to get over there and give a little chip, give a little block,” he said while addressing his concern on the latest episode of Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger.

And Big Ben is not wrong to call this out, as Sweat was Chicago’s leading pass rusher entering Week 12 with 5.5 sacks. He’s undoubtedly an athletic freak, and it was a wrong move by tight end Connor Heyward to leave his teammate alone to deal with Sweat, especially when Sweat had already beaten Washington on a sack earlier in the game.

It happened in the third quarter with 13 minutes left, and Sweat just repeated his move around four minutes remaining in the third quarter itself. Roethlisberger extended his criticism to coaching and the scheme. He made clear the issue wasn’t Washington’s effort; rather, it was the decision to leave a run-style tight end isolated on a premier edge rusher.

”What I’m trying to say is there’s a difference between run blocking because we watched Darnell Washington later in the game and just absolutely destroy a guy,” he said, noting Washington’s dominant run work later in the contest but stressing that pass sets require different technique and usually extra protection.

Roethlisberger argued that it is a staff-level judgment call that should have been made in-game. Former Pittsburgh Steelers outside linebacker James Harrison also feels the same. On the Deebo & Joe podcast, he did not hold back on the Steelers’ coaching staff. He called out offensive coordinator Arthur Smith for putting Darnell Washington in a spot he never should’ve been in.

Harrison couldn’t understand why the offensive coordinator kept asking a tight end to block Montez Sweat by himself, especially after Sweat had already beaten Washington earlier for a sack. So when it happened again, this time leading to a fumble, Harrison was frustrated.

“It’s a sack/fumble because somebody decided to leave the tight end one-on-one with the same dude that caused a sack before that he was playing against. Why are we letting, he’s a tight end for a reason. I don’t give a damn if he’s 311 (pounds). 311 don’t mean nothing if he can’t block. Why are we letting the tight end go one on one with the same dude that beat him on a sack the sack before?”

Both Harrison and Roethlisberger have valid points. The Steelers weren’t exactly sharp on Sunday, and it showed. Pittsburgh now sits level with Baltimore after the loss, a reminder that small tactical choices can have unexpected consequences.

However, there is some good news for the team. The Steelers ran for a season-high 186 yards, with Jaylen Warren and Kenneth Gainwell combining for most of the production, and Washington’s jumbo looks repeatedly opening lanes. That helped move the offense despite an uneven passing day from Mason Rudolph.

What’s wrong with Mike Tomlin’s Steelers?

Outside of the single game, the loss amplified recurring questions about game management under Mike Tomlin.

The conservative fourth-down approach and late-game decisions have taken heat, most notably Tomlin’s decision to punt on 4th-and-9 with 2:01 left while trailing, a call he defended by saying, “I did not. I was holding all three. And as you can see, we got the ball back.”

Those lines have only intensified calls for clearer situational aggressiveness. Making matters worse, in-house voices have begun to speak out publicly.

Asked what went wrong, linebacker Patrick Queen pointed to “schematic issues,” saying, “It’s kind of hard for two guys that are underneath defenders to try to guard two routes that’s overhanging off the hashes and stuff.”

When players begin to question game plans openly, it becomes a visible problem for leadership. Roethlisberger’s breakdown of one costly protection lapse and the pileup of conservative coaching choices paints a worrying picture.

Pittsburgh showed it can run effectively and carve out advantages, but also revealed a tendency to hand momentum back to opponents through schematic mismatches and timid late-game calls. If the Steelers want to keep the playoff race in reach, the staff must both protect vulnerable matchups and shake a playbook philosophy that critics still say lives in the past.