Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and offensive coordinator Matt Canada are in agreement three weeks into the season, except when it comes to assessing responsibility for the result against the Raiders.
"That loss, I'll take that," Roethlisberger announced following Sunday's 26-17 setback. "I wasn't good enough today."
Canada did the same prior to practice today.
"I think I need to be better," he insisted. "We lost the game. The plan was what it was. We thought we had matchups. We thought we had things right.
"I told the offense, 'We didn't win, I've gotta, we've gotta do better.' We gotta win, that's all that matters is winning."
Roethlisberger had gone as far as to apologize to the fans for play in the 2021 home opener he repeatedly maintained "wasn't good enough
"The best way to figure out an identity is for the quarterback to play better, so that's what I need to do," he said. "I'll work on me getting myself ready to go and making better reads, better throws and trying to put us in a situation to win a football game.
"I'll take it, I gotta be better. It starts with the quarterback, I have to be better."
Canada appreciated the sentiment behind if not the accuracy of what Roethlisberger was trying to express.
"Ben said that, and that was great, but we've gotta put our players in position to make plays," Canada said. "We thought we did that, but we didn't win so we didn't do that."
Canada is in his first season as the Steelers' offensive coordinator after joining the staff as the quarterbacks coach in 2020.
Roethlisberger is in his 18th season as the Steelers' quarterback.
The two are in lockstep when it comes to expectations and how to best go about realizing those.
"We both really, really hate to lose, I know that," Canada said. "We're similar in that regard. I mean, Ben's a Hall-of-Fame quarterback. I wouldn't want to even kinda compare myself to him. But I think he and I are on the same page with how much we want to win and the way we work to win and the disappointment and the frustration when we don't do it.
"We've obviously done both now, we're 1-1. Ben's the one that's playing so we're trying to put him in position to make plays and do what he can do well. And I'm trying to do my job, which is put everybody in that position to help him.
"I didn't do that last week 'cause we didn't win, and that's always going to be the way it is."
Roethlisberger said he enjoys working with Canada during the quarterback's weekly media session on Wednesday.
"He works really hard," Roethlisberger said. "He's very passionate. He has a fire for this game and wanting to win.
"When you add those things up it makes for a good coach and someone you want to play for."
The Steelers will want to complete more deep balls when they play the Bengals on Sunday.
They threw more of those against the Raiders than they had against the Bills but didn't connect with the necessary regularity.
"We need to hit more of those," Roethlisberger said. "(Wide receiver) Chase (Claypool) and I missed too many of those deep ones."
Added Canada: "I think we had guys open downfield. We just have to do a better job connecting. I have to find a better way of setting them up to get them more open. We had matchups that didn't work, so therefore they weren't as open as they needed to be or it would have worked. So, again, that falls on me.
"I don't think our wideouts aren't working hard or doing anything wrong or Ben's doing anything wrong. I gotta do a better job."
