Watching Ben Roethlisberger run Pittsburgh's no-huddle offense, it's fair to question why the Steelers would do anything else.
The veteran quarterback is one of the NFL's best at calling his own plays, something he did frequently under the team's former offensive coordinator, Bruce Arians -- and less frequently under the current one, Todd Haley.
We saw it again in Sunday's 37-27 win over the Detroit Lions, as Big Ben drove the Steelers for a pair of early, rapid-fire touchdowns that leaned on his ability to dial up quick plays without a committee attached to every decision.
The Steelers eventually shed the no-huddle for a slower, more methodical string of drives later in the game, leaving us to ask: Why go away from what works?
Coach Mike Tomlin on Tuesday argued that the no-huddle can't be turned to as a full-time attack.
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"You've got to be very cautious about employing it, how much you employ it, how you change your verbal communication," Tomlin said, per the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "There are a lot of things that are capable of limiting your ability to run the no-huddle, beside your willingness."
Said Tomlin: "We're not there unscripted, leaving (Roethlisberger) up to his devices, even though he's fully capable -- that wouldn't be fair to him. ... It's not like it's a different set of plays."
But the no-huddle does give Pittsburgh's attack a different -- more urgent -- feel, and Big Ben simply looks more at home operating this way. Roethlisberger's a throwback to the quarterbacks of old who always preferred to call all their own plays.
That desire has often been at odds with Haley's philosophy, but with Pittsburgh's season on the brink, the time is now to unleash Big Ben.
We recapped every Week 11 game on the latest "Around The League Podcast."
