Recap courtesy of 93.7 The Fan and CBS Pittsburgh:

On Ryan Shazier –

“Obviously with him being back there in Cincinnati, we’re not getting all the reports right away but I’ve heard some really encouraging things. You know, a lot of things that the Steelers put out in reports and kind of updates I know from Kevin Colbert and some other people so I’m kind of hearing the same things. Just some encouraging things, but not out of the woods. Obviously just continued prayers for him and his family I think are the best thing that he can get right now.

“When you’re out there, you’re worried about him and his health and all those things, but you also understand that you’ve got to continue to play a football game and you have to give your focus to that because if you’re not focused and in-tuned to what’s going on out there, you can get hurt as well.”


On Ju Ju’s hit against Vontaze Burfict –

“Juju’s was obviously in the realm of the game. I don’t think it was a cheap-shot by any means. Cheap-shots are when you hit someone away from a play, you go low on someone that’s not looking. He’s trying to block a guy that’s probably going to make a tackle. I really believe that he was just trying to help a teammate out being a selfless guy.

“I told him afterwards, I said listen, ‘Love the effort, love how you’re trying to help your teammate get open. Standing over a guy, uncalled for.’ And he knew it. I think he knew it right away. I think he regretted it and he genuinely felt bad about that.”


On what, if anything can be done to “fix” the Steelers vs. Bengals rivalry –

“I had that conversation with the Monday Night crew when I had the production meeting. This game sometimes it feels like it’s not just physical, I mean it’s physical obviously, but it feels like it’s more than juts a tough, hard-nosed football game. You know there’s been a lot of penalties, a lot of quote, unquote “dirty play,” things like that. When you discuss rivalries and hard-nosed football, you think about the Ravens and our matchups we’ve had in the past with them. I’ll credit both teams when we play, […]

Prayers and love to Ryan and his family! Praying God’s healing hand on him! Love you 50, Get better soon!

Today, Ben announced the 11th and 12th grant awards of the 2017 season from the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation at The Giving Back Fund.

The Foundation will be distributing grants to the West Chester Police Department in Ohio and the Fort Mitchell Police Department in Kentucky, both just outside of Cincinnati where the Steelers will play the Bengals this evening.

“The Ben Roethlisberger Foundation grant affords the West Chester Police Department the opportunity to build upon its critically important canine unit, taking a step closer to the 3-member full complement of our unit. The community is grateful for the grant and will gladly welcome a new canine to the West Chester Police Department.” — West Chester Police Chief Joel Herzog.

The West Chester Police will use the grant funds to replace a recently retired K-9.

More from Chief Herzog, “Early in my career with the West Chester Police Department, I had the opportunity to partner with a canine and learned firsthand the value these four-legged officers bring to law enforcement efforts. To the public, they serve as great ambassadors opening doors to build relationships with the community; but a canine officer and handler together play an integral role in searches and tracking dangerous suspects with demonstrated success in making our communities safer.”

The Fort Mitchell Police will use the funds to help maintain their K-9 unit.

“The Fort Mitchell Police Department was fortunate enough to start a police K-9 program earlier this year through the generosity of community support. We are very excited that the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation has selected our agency as a recipient of a grant to further assist our program so that K-9 Tony and Specialist Best can continue their great work. As a smaller agency, it can sometimes be difficult to support a K-9 unit. This grant will provide significant help to us to keep our program running strong.” — Fort Mitchell Chief of Police Col. Andrew J. Schierberg.

Steelers 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 the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation.


For more information about the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation or The Giving Back Fund, please contact Jessica Duffaut at www.givingback.org.

From Mike Prisuta, Steelers.com:

The Steelers’ offense has apparently turned a corner and found its stride, seemingly just in time.

Or, perhaps, because it was time.

“There’s always an urgency when you get to this time of year,” quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said. “There’s a chill in the air, it’s brisk out there. And you start getting that feeling that it’s winding down and you need to start playing your best football.”

It was unseasonably mild on the practice fields at the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex this afternoon, the chill Roethlisberger had referenced wasn’t evident. But the conditions were nonetheless appropriate for an offense that has warmed up considerably over the past two games.

After failing to hit the 30-point plateau in their first nine games, the Steelers have struck for 40 on Nov. 16 against Tennessee and 31 last Sunday night against Green Bay.

Their output against the Packers included season-high totals in first downs (28), third-down efficiency (8-for-13, 62 percent) and total net yards (462). The Steelers ran for over 100 yards (121) and threw for over 300 (341) in the same game for the first time this season. And they won the game by completing a four-play, 35-yard, 17-second drive that concluded with a 53-yard field goal on the final play of regulation.

The performance was even more memorable than the night they played the Titans.

“I don’t know if there was one particular thing,” Roethlisberger continued. “Being at home helps, obviously, you can communicate, different things, guys make plays. That’s kind of always what we’ve been saying, is how close we are, and I think that boils down to just making plays. And that’s from the line blocking, me making throws, guys making catches, runner’s running, just kind of putting it all together.

“We’ve been able to score points. We’ve been able to be successful in the red zone, third downs. Part of that could be just playing at home. Maybe we’re just starting to click.”

Roethlisberger and the Steelers will have a much better idea about that after Monday night’s visit to Cincinnati.

“This is a very good defense that’s never given up 30 points (this season) that knows us very well,” he said. “This is a big test for us.”

The Bengals’ season-high total for points allowed was surrendered in a 29-14 loss to the […]

Recap courtesy of 93.7 The Fan & CBS Pittsburgh:

Coming off their second straight game with an offensive outburst, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger joined The Cook and Poni Show for The #1 Cochran Ben Roethlisberger Show to talk about how things started clicking for the team.

To hear Ben say is though, there’s still plenty of room for improvement.

“It felt good. We did some good things. It wasn’t perfect, maybe wasn’t even great at times, but it was good enough most of the time to get it done.”

The offense isn’t without its warts though as we saw dropped passes by Eli Rogers and Jesse James. Ben told us why he has the faith in those guys to go right back to them.

“When Eli dropped the one up the seam, I can remember it specifically, he kind of looked of looked at me, he was down, and I just gave him a look like, ‘Hey, it’s ok. You’ll make that. We’re fine. It’s not the end of the world.’

“Same thing with all those guys. I think they look at me after those plays and one bad thing about dropping it is letting the guys down, but I also feel sometimes they look at me like, ‘Uh-oh, we let Ben down. Is he gonna be upset?’ No, I think they know now it’s not the end of the world. I’ll let coaches get on you, but I’m not gonna get on you and scream at you because I’m coming right back to you as soon as I can.”

One guy you don’t often see drop balls for the Steelers is Antonio Brown, and he had a monster game against the Packers last week catching 10 passes for 169 yards and two touchdowns with two critical receptions on the game winning drive that got the team in field goal range for Chris Boswell.

Ben shared with us how much easier his life is out there because of Brown while also giving credit to Le’Veon Bell for making a huge impact in the passing game when the Packers doubled Brown.

“What a special football player,” Ben said about Brown. “I talked about that after the game a little about is how great he is. He makes plays that it’s so much fun to watch. I honestly thought Le’Veon […]