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JARRETT BELL
Pittsburgh Steelers

Bell: Steelers, Ben Roethlisberger ready to hurry up and run

Jarrett Bell
USA TODAY Sports
Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger has enjoyed running a no-huddle attack.

LATROBE, Pa. — Without prodding, Ben Roethlisberger dropped the word "leadership" into the first 30 seconds of a recent chat at the Pittsburgh Steelers training camp.

I got his drift.

Given the buzz stirred in July when former Steelers receiver Emmanuel Sanders essentially dissed Big Ben while praising Peyton Manning, it felt like Roethlisberger wanted to hurry up and cover that ground.

"It is what it is," Roethlisberger, 32, told USA TODAY Sports as the prodding commenced. "He's out there, complimenting his guy throwing him the ball. He's going to say all the nice, right things.

"But you know what? I'm sure if you talk to Jerricho Cotchery, who left (signed with Carolina Panthers), he's probably going to tell you I'm a great leader. Talk to my guys who are here. They'll tell you what's really going on."

No matter. Maybe his style isn't Manningesque, but there is no mistaking Roethlisberger's leadership quality when he gets going on the Steelers offense. He wants to hurry up, for sure, with this.

For years he's lobbied to open up the scheme. Now, given the success down the stretch last season with heavy no-huddle packages, he is the undeniable face and voice of expanded possibilities.

"I think it can almost be our base offense," Roethlisberger said. "Even if we're huddling and calling plays, we're calling a lot of no-huddle plays in the huddle, if that makes sense. In the no-huddle, we pretty much have our whole playbook available.

"When we're hitting and we're going, it's a great weapon because we can keep people off balance."

Up-tempo offenses are trending in the NFL. Yet for the Steelers, 8-8 last season, this comes at a time when they have invested heavily to re-establish their smash-mouth identity. Pittsburgh drafted running back Le'Veon Bell in the second round in 2013, then earlier this year lured Hall of Famer Mike Munchak to re-tool the O-line and running game, which now includes another hammer of a runner in free agent addition LeGarrette Blount. They've spent high draft picks in recent years to upgrade the blocking.

The emphasis on power football is an organizational philosophy. Regardless of what flavor-of-the-month scheme is tearing up the league, the Steelers are about tough, gritty, physical football.

But now there's one essential reason to flow with Roethlisberger and wrap the identity of the offense in the no-huddle: Results.

After Pittsburgh floundered to a 2-6 start last season, O-coordinator Todd Haley built his gameplan around the up-tempo scheme for a Week 10 game against the Buffalo Bills.

In the ensuing weeks, he put more and more no-huddle into the gameplans.

"A lot of times in previous years, the no-huddle was used as a change of place, a change of tempo," said Roethlisberger, a two-time winner in three Super Bowl appearances. "You can't quite get things going, so, 'Let's go no-huddle.' That's kind of how our season was last year. We just couldn't get anything going. So it was, 'Let's try something different.' "

The Steelers used the no-huddle on nearly 25% of their snaps last season. "And a lot more than that, later in the season," Haley figures.

In previous years, that rate was about 5%. That's how dramatic the shift was.

It worked.

Points were up. Sacks went down. Confidence soared. Pittsburgh won six of its last eight games and would have been in the playoffs if Kansas City Chiefs kicker Ryan Succop had converted a game-winning field goal against the San Diego Chargers in Week 17.

Why not keep rolling with the no-huddle?

"It depends on how this group develops," coach Mike Tomlin told USA TODAY Sports.

In acknowledging last year's success, he added: "But I'm not going into it with preconceived notions that that's going to be the same this year. Obviously our quarterback likes it. He excels in it. So that's a leg up for it in that regard."

The Steelers spent extensive time, probably more than ever since Tomlin became coach in 2007, working on the no-huddle during training camp practices. The challenge is to mesh old-school power football principles with the new-school no-huddle, which is why Roethlisberger's point about the volume and type of plays that can be called without a huddle is crucial.

"In the no-huddle, you're not just a passing offense," Haley told USA TODAY Sports. "Our running game needs to be significantly better. You can't drop back and just throw it 50 times in this league and expect to win. At least not win the way we want to win."

Haley built the Steelers' no-huddle package from the ground up, adding to it in each of his three years on the job. While benefits include keeping tired defenses guessing and limiting their substitutions, for the Steelers this might also go far in connecting Roethlisberger and Haley — whose working relationship has not always been rosy.

"Most importantly, the no-huddle gives you a chance to get into the right play," Haley said. "That falls on the quarterback. So it's great that Ben's really into it."

Tomlin — who is 1-1 in Super Bowls but has had back-to-back non-playoff campaigns — sees versatility as the ticket. There are times in a game and weather conditions during a season, he says, when they will need a powerful, bread-and-butter rushing attack.

He might take that inside a no-huddle package. Just don't tell Tomlin that his O-line needs the no-huddle to be effective. Like last year. He scoffs at that notion.

"You can tell that story if you want to, but I think the effective running of Le'Veon Bell helped it as well," Tomlin said. "A lot of that kind of came together with the healthy and the consistent running of Le'Veon. You can pick it apart and write whatever you want, but it's all inter-related."

As long as they can hurry up and get back to the playoffs.

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Follow NFL columnist Jarrett Bell on Twitter @JarrettBell

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