‘He Known as The Entire Present’: Bruce Arians Explains How Ben Roethlisberger Dealt with No-Huddles

Few things are more important in football than the relationship between a quarterback and his play caller. When Ben Roethlisberger was manning the ship in Pittsburgh, it’s no surprise that some of his greatest success came when Bruce Arians was holding the play sheet.

Arians, the Steelers offensive coordinator from 2007-2011, had a noted great relationship with Roethlisberger. That great relationship carried over to the field, with Arians putting heavy responsibility on the young quarterback. In a recent episode of High Volume with Jeff Gorman, Arians talked about Roethlisberger and the trust he had in him, allowing him to call his own plays.

In fact, the two used to wager on who’s plays would score first. Arians expects there may have been some cheating though.

“We would have this little bet, who would score first, him calling plays or me,” explained Arians, according to video via the show’s YouTube page. “I think he sabotaged me so he’d call plays and go down and score.”

While the friendly wager certainly lightens the game, it was a way for Arians to empower Roethlisberger to be comfortable manning a team. That was something that he wanted as a coach, to allow his quarterback to make decisions based on what he saw on the field.

Over time, Roethlisberger became famous for that, particularly in the no-huddle, two-minute offense. There was a tell when Roethlisberger took over calling plays, Arians explained. The lack of run plays.

“We did a ton of checks with me, with Peyton [Manning], with Timmy [Couch], with Kelly [Holcomb] and Ben. When we went no-huddle, he called the whole show,” Arians said of Roethlisberger. “I just showed up and listened because he wouldn’t run the ball.”

Arians certainly wasn’t against that. After winning Super Bowl XLIII, a fan yelled to him to add a fullback. His response: “never.”

He went on in the interview to say how fondly he looks back on his time in Pittsburgh, and rightfully so. He won two Super Bowls as a member of the Steelers, one acting as the wide receivers coach and one as the offensive coordinator. Arians also was on another Steelers Super Bowl team, but lost to the Packers.

After that, he was out as the team’s offensive coordinator with the Steelers citing Roethlisbeger’s high sack rate as the reason. Arians believes it was because he was too loyal to Roethlisberger. But more success obviously followed him with great runs in Indianapolis, Arizona and eventually Tampa Bay, where he won his first Super Bowl as a head coach.