Ben Roethlisberger, after ripping Antonio Brown, throws career-worst 5 INTs

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was on quite a high horse this week, calling out receiver Antonio Brown for creating distractions.

What nobody added to the conversation was that Roethlisberger hasn’t really been doing his job that well this season. And he really cratered on Sunday in a loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Roethlisberger threw a career-worst five interceptions, two of which were returned for touchdowns, in a 30-9 loss to the Jaguars. Maybe his retirement drama this offseason was actually a bigger distraction for the Steelers than Brown overturning a Gatorade bucket.

The Steelers were awful on offense Sunday, and Roethlisberger deserves a lot of that blame. Many of his interceptions were just poor decisions. The second one, picked off by Barry Church and brought back for a score, was a wild throw into tight coverage. The fifth one, which came with the Steelers trailing by just 14 points, was a throw into heavy coverage in the end zone.

Roethlisberger, with perhaps the best set of skill-position players in the NFL around him, had six touchdowns in four games. He had thrown for 263, 243, 235 and 216 yards over the last four weeks. That’s fine if you have the Buffalo Bills’ receivers, but not when you have Brown, Martavis Bryant and Le’Veon Bell around you. The Steelers didn’t even score on Sunday. At home.

It was so bad that Roethlisberger said after the game, “Maybe I don’t have it anymore.”

The Steelers are 3-2, which isn’t bad, but a lot of people figured they had championship potential. They have not looked like a Super Bowl contender yet this season, mostly because the offense has been lackluster. That starts with Roethlisberger, who was average but not terrible before Sunday, and was terrible on Sunday.

Quarterbacks have bad games. It happens, even to a guy like Roethlisberger. But if you’re going to call out one of your teammates during the week, you better show up on Sunday. Maybe Roethlisberger distracted himself by ripping a teammate.

Brown, for those counting at home, did his job with 157 yards on Sunday.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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