From Teresa Varley at Steelers.com:

Not only was Ben Roethlisberger back on the field on Monday night, leading the Steelers to a 26-16 win over the New York Giants, but after playing his first game in a year, his elbow that required surgery was about the only thing that didn’t hurt him the day after the game.

Roethlisberger said he was sore from simply playing football again, but the arm felt good.

“I was saying today I feel like I was in a car accident. Yesterday I felt like I was in a train wreck. So hopefully tomorrow it will just feel like I fell off a bike,” said Roethlisberger of the progression of how his body feels. “I am definitely sore.

“The good news is my arm is the only thing that doesn’t hurt, so that is good.”

Roethlisberger doesn’t plan on practicing on Wednesday, something that has been the norm for him just to let his arm recover. He also will continue to protect the arm like he did on Monday night when he wore a sleeve on it while on the sidelines to keep it warm.

“My arm feels great,” said Roethlisberger. “We’ll keep the same routine as far as Wednesday rest day and then we will get back into it. Hence the sleeve I wore on the sideline and the sleeve I wore during the game. That’s going to be the biggest thing, make sure it stays warm. For the most part we are going to do everything we can to keep it healthy and warm.”

Roethlisberger had a strong first outing, completing 21-of-32 passes (65.6 percent) for 229 yards, with three touchdowns, no interceptions, and a rating of 117.8. But he is his own worst critic.

“I looked at the way I played, decision making. There was rust early,” said Roethlisberger. “It’s not like I played perfect. I looked at sometimes maybe I got out of the pocket a little too quick or didn’t have the same feel in the pocket early on that I am used to having. I think that just comes with not getting hit, even in practice. Yeah, you have a pocket, you step up, but defenders aren’t hitting you in practice so you lose some of that feel of where you can slide to, where you […]

“I’m so excited, just thankful. I told the guys in the locker room before the game that the reason I came back was because of them. I don’t need to accomplish anything personally anymore. It’s about being with the Defense that I think is as good as any I’ve ever played with; Skill guys that are young and fun to play with; and of course my Line, who I love to death and they love me. They’re the reason I came back to play.” — Ben, immediately after the game.

From FOX Sports, post-game:

Roethlisberger led the Steelers to a 26-16 win over the New York Giants, spoiling coach Joe Judge’s debut. He was 21-for-32 with three touchdown passes in the game.

When asked how he felt taking the first snap of his returned, Roethlisberger replied, “Awesome.”

“I’m blessed. I can’t thank enough people. I don’t have enough time. Obviously starting with my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. My wife, my family, my friends, the doctors, my teammates. It just feels so good to be out there with them. And I’m just so thankful and blessed with this opportunity,” he said after the game.

The Steelers were down 10-3 when he threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to JuJu Smith-Schuster. He then found James Washington for a 16-yard touchdown with 7 seconds left in the first half.

He would put the icing on the cake for the Steelers in the fourth quarter when he found Smith-Schuster again for the 8-yard score.

Benny Snell led all runners with 113 yards on 19 carries after James Conner left the game with an injury.

You can read more here.

You can watch video of Ben’s post-game interview here.


Ben is the Steelers Digest ‘Player of the Week’:

For most of his Steelers career, he has been the difference, and during a 2019 regular season in which he missed all but six quarters because of an elbow injury it became clear exactly how much of a difference Ben Roethlisberger is.

In the days leading up to the game, Roethlisberger admitted he expected to feel jitters in advance of Monday night’s game against the Giants, and since it had been 364 days since he took a competitive snap in a real NFL game it also […]

From Brooke Pryor at ESPN.com:

They called it a Van Wert 7.

In the post-corner route named for a northwest Ohio school that executed it to perfection, the receiver ran 12 yards, took an outside step to a post and took four steps. As soon as the safety turned his hips, he planted and came back out toward the pylon.



It was a staple in Findlay (Ohio) High School’s offense in 1998, the route that Ryan Hite and Ben Roethlisberger used Friday nights to pick apart defenses filled with undersized cornerbacks.

But Roethlisberger wasn’t the one throwing the ball.

He was on the receiving end of Hite’s passes — 57 of them that year to be exact.

Before he set records as a quarterback his senior year, before he became the Pittsburgh Steelers’ top draft pick out of Miami (Ohio), and before he won two Super Bowl rings as one of the NFL’s best signal callers, Roethlisberger spent his junior year of high school playing wide receiver.

It gave Roethlisberger a deeper understanding of the game he took with him the rest of his career — something he found again last season as he stood on the sideline following a season-ending elbow injury in Week 2.

“[Findlay] coach [Cliff Hite] was always like, ‘It benefited you as a senior playing quarterback from playing wide receiver your junior year,'” Roethlisberger said. “I never understood it at the time, but I think it does to a certain extent because you can see the other side of it.

“I was able to kind of see the bigger picture of being a quarterback just from being on the sideline last year.”

As Roethlisberger makes his long-awaited return Monday night against the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium (7:15 p.m. ET, ESPN), he steps back on the field with a repaired elbow and a refreshed body.

Perhaps just as important, he returns with a new perspective, much like he got more than 20 years ago at Findlay.


You can read the rest here.