“We are honored to be the recipient of this grant. Our K-9 training facility will be improved tremendously with the help of this money, thus improving the training not only for our K-9 Unit, but the other units who routinely use our facility for training.” — Sergeant Kalani Souza, Modesto Police Department, CA.

Today, Ben announces the eighth grant award of the 2018 season from the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation at The Giving Back Fund.

The Foundation will be distributing a grant to the Modesto Police Department, east of Oakland Alameda Coliseum where the Steelers will play the Raiders on December 9.

The Modesto Police Department will utilize the grant funds to update their K-9 training facility which is in need of some improvements, including agility equipment, secured housing for the K-9s, and general repair and maintenance.

During the 2018 NFL season, The Ben Roethlisberger Foundation will be distributing grants to K-9 units of police and fire departments in the cities and surrounding communities of each regular season away game for the Steelers. The Foundation will also distribute several grants to the Pittsburgh area. The Ben Roethlisberger Foundation invited police and fire departments across the country to submit proposals detailing their needs.

This marks the 12th season that Ben’s foundation has distributed grants to K-9 units. His mission is to support K-9 units of police and fire departments throughout the United States, with a particular emphasis on support for working dogs in Pittsburgh, PA.

The Ben Roethlisberger Foundation distributed more than $170,000 in grants to K-9 units around the country during the 2017 NFL season, including $82,000 in the Pittsburgh community. The Foundation has distributed in excess of $1.92 million since 2007.


If you’d like more information about the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation you can visit Ben’s Foundation page. For more in-depth information, please contact Jessica Duffaut at www.givingback.org.


Fans:

You can help support future K-9 grants by purchasing candy on Sarris Candies’ website, (www.SarrisCandiesFundraising.com), using a special purchase code (77-7777). Sarris will donate 25 percent of the purchase price to Ben’s foundation.

“There is not an issue! Sometimes people make a big deal out of things that have been said. We always say that doesn’t affect us. I knew that there was no issue in our locker room, AB knew there was no issue in our locker room. We have a great relationship….he is one of my closest friends on the team. Even James Washington – it was nothing more than me challenging him to be ready to go. He had a great week of practice. He and I had a great talk on Saturday morning. There was no hard feelings and I didn’t think there would be…no negativitly came from it.” — Ben addressing question about any issues in the locker room with his comments last week.

Recap provided by 93.7 The Fan:

On his weekly radio show Tuesday, Ben Roethlisberger, fighting a cold, addressed the big 33-30 home loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday Night Football.

The loss gives the Steelers only a half-game lead over the surging Baltimore Ravens.

“We don’t expect to lose at home. We always talk about winning all your home games and then when you go on the road, trying to get half of them. It seems recently we’ve been a lot better on the road for whatever reason, so it’s frustrating. Especially if you let the fans down that come out to see a great show. You want to win it for them and when you don’t, you feel like you let them down and it’s hard.”

Roethlisberger said he gives credit to the Los Angeles Chargers for out playing them in the second half on Sunday. He says the loss to the Bolts was “definately tough” and sort of felt like losing a playoff game.

“It hurts. I think maybe a good accurate description, a playoff loss. The only good thing about it is, we woke up the next day and we’re still alive, it’s not the end of the season…I think it definitely was heartbreaking for all of us in that locker room.”

Asked about the poor officiating, Roethlisberger would only say,

“What are you going to do about it now? You can talk about it all you want, but it’s not like they’re going to go change the outcome of the game. Not really much I can say about it.”

One […]

“I don’t know whether it’s ‘out of our control’, I could have played better and then it is in your control. You just can’t play bad football against a good football team….I just didn’t play well enough.” We’re not going to put [the game] in the refs’ hands, like I said, we just need to play better football. Like I said, we didn’t play well enough on offense. — Ben, answering questions after the game.

From Teresa Varley, Steelers.com:

The Steelers saw a 23-7 halftime lead disappear, falling to the Los Angeles Chargers, 33-30, on a field goal with no time left on the clock.

The loss has the Steelers at 7-4-1, still holding on to first place in the AFC North, just a half-game ahead of Baltimore, 7-5.

The Chargers had 23 unanswered points in the second half, taking a 30-23 lead.

The Steelers tied it at 30-30 with 4:10 to play when Ben Roethlisberger connected with Jaylen Samuels for a 10-yard touchdown.

But the Chargers wouldn’t go away. Philip Rivers drove them down to the 21-yard line, where kicker Michael Badgley had three opportunities to make a field goal. His 39-yard attempt went wide left, but Joe Haden was offsides. A 34-yard attempt was blocked by Artie Burns, who was flagged for offsides on the play. The third attempt, a 29-yarder, gave the Chargers the win.

“We didn’t get it done today,” said Antonio Brown, who had 10 receptions for 154 yards and a touchdown. “No excuses need to be made.”

Ben Roethlisberger, who completed 29 of 45 passes for 281 yards, two touchdowns, and an interception, said he should have played better and summed it up simply.

“Bad loss,” said Roethlisberger.

Injuries also mounted for the Steelers in the game, including James Conner leaving in the fourth quarter with a lower leg contusion.


You can read Ms. Varley”s full recap here.

You can listen to Ben’s post-game interview here.

From Teresa Varley, Steelers.com:

Brody Kleitsch couldn’t stop smiling. And it was easy to understand why.

Kleitsch, a 12-year old from Fairbank, Iowa, was the guest of Steelers a the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex for practice on Friday through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, getting to see all of his favorite players up close and personal.

Kleitsch, who has osteosarcoma, especially lit up when he saw his favorite player Ben Roethlisberger.

“The Steelers have been my favorite team forever,” said Kleitsch. “Football is my favorite sport. A lot of my friends, aunt and uncles like the Steelers. That is how I started to like them.

“Today when I saw them, it’s super cool.”

He and his family will also attend Sunday night’s game against the Chargers at Heinz Field, an experience he is looking forward to as it’s his first NFL game ever.

“I am really excited,” said Kleitsch. “I can’t wait to see everyone in person.”


You can see more great photos from Brody’s day here.

Well then, here are some recap highlights for you:

On whether they abandoned the running game –

“I don’t think so at all. I think we did what we wanted to do. We knew that they had a pass rush so we wanted to get the ball out quick, and get it going down the field. We did that. We didn’t abandon the run. We did what we wanted to do, and we were successful at doing it. You look at over 500 yards of offense – you can’t sit there and say, ‘Man, I wish we would’ve ran it more!’ We shouldn’t have turned the ball over and we should’ve scored. That’s all. It has nothing to with whether we run it or throw it. It’s strictly turning the ball over.”


On whether, after reviewing that last interception, he wished he would have just “lived to play another down rather than throwing that ball?”

“Obviously, yes. I’m not really sure how you would do that. Do you just fall down? When I didn’t get the snap clean, I didn’t want to hand it off because I was afraid of a missed handoff and a chance to fumble it. Of course you can sit there and laugh at that and say, ‘Well okay, you should’ve done that.’ So I was kind of trying to take to the safer route. Should I have just went to the ground and lost two yards? Thrown it through the uprights? Probably, but those are all things that are happening in split-seconds. And like I said, I thought I was doing the safest thing by throwing it where AB was gonna have to really make a play for it, but looking at it on film, like I said, I wish we would’ve went back to JuJu four straight plays.”


On whether the Broncos plan was to challenge him to “throw it all over the field” –

“Yes, that’s what they did. Their safety was overtop of AB a lot, almost double-teaming him, cover-two his side. They had safeties, the other safety was down in the box. They were daring us to throw the ball to other guys, and we did. Guys made plays. Look at the day JuJu had – Switzer had a great day. We had to do those things. And so we had to do those […]