PITTSBURGH – Ben Roethlisberger elaborated on the critical third-down play late in last Sunday's game that resulted in a 2-yard loss and forced a punt with the Pittsburgh Steelers nursing a 24-20 lead.

Technically, it was a run-pass option, Roethlisberger said, but the veteran quarterback said the only way he was going to throw the ball was if the Tampa Bay Buccaneers didn’t cover one of two receivers.

Heath Miller was one of those receivers, but the Buccaneers covered the veteran tight end.

“The line was run-blocking all the way, so it’s not like you can drop back and throw a pass,” Roethlisberger said. “If you want to call that a run-pass option, I guess it is. But it’s pretty much a run, and we have to believe that we can get that when it’s called.”

Running back Le'Veon Bell was thrown for a loss with the Steelers needing 5 yards to get the first down that would have closed out the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Tampa Bay drove 46 yards for the winning touchdown, scoring with seven seconds left to stun the Steelers.

Roethlisberger said on his weekly radio show earlier this week that the Steelers need to get tougher. He reiterated that on Wednesday but also said the 2-2 Steelers also have to take a bigger picture look at where they are a quarter into the season.

“Well, you’re definitely a little disappointed in our record,” Roethlisberger said, “but you look at the silver lining in that, ‘Hey, last year we were 0-4.’ So we’re doing better than we were last year, but we’re still going to be disappointed where we are. We’re starting over now.”