Dunlap: Time For Martavis To Shine Brighter
Generally, Steelers veteran quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is the guy who never points a finger.
A bad play? He'll say it was on him.
An obvious gaffe by a teammate? Ben will find some way to absorb the blame?
A coaching error that all of Steeler Nation could see as clear as day? Big Ben will take the punches and pin it all on himself.
That's generally speaking, almost 100 percent of the time.
That's why it seemed a bit odd --- or at least an escape from his normal mode of operating --- when the Steelers quarterback answered a question on his weekly radio show on 93.7 The Fan and, well, kind of went right after young receiver Martavis Bryant.
Here's the thing: Ben Roethlisberger wasn't at all wrong in what he said.
Ben was dead on. His words were as true as his aim.
It was, however, a bit of an escape for the man who has his default seemingly always set in the put-everything-on-me position.
Roethlisberger was asked about the Steelers' prospects of driving down the field around the two-minute warning in what ended up being that abysmal 20-17 loss in Baltimore last week.
On a third-and-15 from their own 37, Roethlisberger threw deep and left to a sliding, reaching Bryant who couldn't pull the ball in.
For some, it was debatable if Bryant should have pulled in the pass.
For me, there was none --- Bryant shoulda had it.
Most importantly, for Ben, there was zero debate.
"We expect Martavis to make that play; I'm not telling you guys or the fans anything that we haven't told him," Roethlisberger said. "If he wants to be great, he's got to make that play. He knows that. He felt horrible about it because he knows he could have made that play."
Hmmm.
Pretty interesting stuff from a guy --- in Roethlisberger --- who didn't necessarily have his best day himself. But let's not get away from what the main story is here: Ben is right about this as it pertains to Bryant.
Bryant needed to be better on that play.
Bryant needed to be better in the Baltimore game --- where he caught just one ball for six yards.
And, in a lot of ways, Bryant needed to be better all season; a season that started with a suspension but was still supposed to be a huge forward step to announce how much he's arrived as a legitimate No. 2 receiver behind Antonio Brown.
Not only hasn't that happened --- in my opinion at least --- but it feels as if as the season has gone on, there's been a huge uptick in the amount of trust and chemistry that Roethlisberger has developed with Markus Wheaton and Bryant, while possessing that incredible God-given skill, has continued to show obvious warts.
While Bryant (49) is second to team MVP Brown (123) in receptions this season, Wheaton isn't far behind with 41. But a deeper look into the numbers yields that Wheaton is averaging more than a full yard more per catch and caught eight fewer passes despite being targeted by Steelers quarterbacks 15 fewer times. In short, it kind of feels like Wheaton does more with less than Bryant --- or at least maximizes his abilities more.
According to SportingCharts.com (which tracks such things) Bryant is 12th in the NFL in dropped passes with seven.
No other Steelers player has more than two.
This statistic counts the number of times an intended receiver touches the ball but fails to catch it. If the ball is thrown but the receiver never gets his hands on it, it is not recorded as a drop.
Hopefully, in Bryant, we are just seeing a young receiver continuing to come into his own; one thrown into a big-time role and learning on the job each Sunday.
There's a pretty good chance Bryant will be counted on to make a consequential play or two on Sunday in this enormous game against the Cleveland Browns. For his sake --- and the sake of the playoff hopes of this franchise --- hopefully it doesn't work out the same way it did the last time Roethlisberger threw a ball at him in an immense situation.
Colin Dunlap is a featured columnist at CBSPittsburgh.com. He can also be heard weekdays from 5:40 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Sports Radio 93-7 "The Fan." You can e-mail him at colin.dunlap@cbsradio.com. Check out his bio here.