Jaylen Warren ran for 143 yards against the Cleveland Browns but scored just once. Ben Roethlisberger thinks that number should have been higher, and he blames how Mike McCarthy used him. The former quarterback explained where the Steelers’ offense went wrong.

“Ben Roethlisberger believes Jaylen Warren should get more touchdowns when the Steelers are in the red zone: “His touchdowns could be higher in the sense that, when they get down there. You’re telling me when we get to the five-yard line, we can’t give him the ball two or three times? He could have even more touchdowns,” Steelers Depot posted on X.

Jaylen Warren is having one of the most efficient starts a running back has had in years, which makes his touchdown total (2) look strange.

Through eight games, Warren is averaging 6.9 yards per touch. Kyle Borgognoni of the Fantasy Footballers pointed out that no running back has posted a higher mark over the first eight games of a season in the last decade.

Former Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson is already talking about Warren as a possible 2026 Offensive Player of the Year.

Even so, Warren has scored only two touchdowns, and Ben Roethlisberger has noticed. The running back’s limited time on the field is the major reason behind it.

For instance, during the Week 6 game, the Steelers escaped with a win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but their offensive struggles through the first three quarters raised questions about Mike McCarthy’s game plan. While much of the criticism focused on Aaron Rodgers, Jaylen Warren’s limited involvement was another concern.

The running back had been one of Pittsburgh’s most productive offensive players in recent weeks, yet the Steelers initially split his workload with Rico Dowdle. Only late in the game did McCarthy lean more heavily on Warren, who helped spark the offense. The late shift raised questions about why Pittsburgh had not given him a bigger role earlier.

And this isn’t the first time Roethlisberger has questioned Mike McCarthy’s decisions. He put into words what a lot of Steelers fans were already thinking.

“Why are we not feeding Jaylen Warren four times down there?” Roethlisberger said on the Footbahlin with Ben Roethlisberger podcast last month.

His argument went beyond simply scoring more. Every quarterback likes throwing touchdown passes, he said, but late in games the situation has to come first.

“The way that you force them to use the timeouts, I think that’s as big of a deal as anything in my opinion,” Roethlisberger explained. “You can say what you want. Run it, run it, run it and then throw it on like whatever, but make them use their timeouts. I think that’s a bigger deal because again, if it still ends up with three, neat, but now they’re spent, man. They don’t even, you just took away hope.”

The bigger picture backs up some of that frustration. The Steelers are converting around 37.9 percent of their third downs, which ranks 20th in the league according to Team Rankings.

Draft and beat analyst Christopher Carter dug into the problem last month on his Locked on Steelers podcast.

“They are converting 3rd-and-2 to 3rd-and-6 less than one out of every four times and less than they are converting third down in every other category,” Carter noted. “That is a major problem and very indicative of this offense’s problems to start the season.”

None of this points to a shortage of talent. Guest analyst Alan Saunders made the case that capable players and an experienced play caller should make this a fixable issue.

The real gap, as the analysts see it, is between how the plays are designed and how they get carried out.

The post “His Touchdowns Could Be Higher”: Ben Roethlisberger Criticizes Mike McCarthy's Usage of Steelers Star Against Browns appeared first on EssentiallySports. Add EssentiallySports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.