“A quarterback and his center”
From Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
There is a relationship between a quarterback and his star receiver. There is a relationship between a quarterback and his top running back. Then, there’s a relationship between a quarterback and his offensive linemen, especially his center.
“I wouldn’t want to play with anyone else,” Ben Roethlisberger was saying of Maurkice Pouncey after Steelers practice Wednesday. “I feel so blessed to have him in my life, not just as a football player, but as a friend.”
“He’s my brother,” Pouncey said of Roethlisberger. “When he walks away from football, I’m walking away, too.”
Roethlisberger said he and Pouncey hit it off from day one after Pouncey joined the Steelers as their No. 1 draft pick in 2010. But he had no explanation for how they became so close.
“Sometimes in life, there are just people who are so special to you,” Roethlisberger said. “Heath Miller. … How about Jerricho Cotchery? He wasn’t here that long, yet we had something special between us. It’s the same way with Maurkice. We’ve never clashed. We’ve never butted heads. Even when we’ve had a disagreement — and they’ve been few and far between — it’s over in an instant.”
What Pouncey, a two-time All-Pro and four-time Pro Bowler, brings to Roethlisberger’s offense on the field is obvious. “Comfort” is the word Roethlisberger used.
“I don’t even think about the snap. As a quarterback, you have to think about so much. His snaps are always right there. They’re never off …
“His work ethic is like very few I’ve ever seen. He’s constantly going hard, to the point he drives young linemen crazy. When they’re doing O-line warm-ups, he’s not warming up. He’s full-go right from the get-go. It drives guys crazy. But they know that’s what makes him special.”
And one more thing…
“His mental football is unparalleled to anyone else,” Roethlisberger said. “It’s unbelievable. Awesome.”
Roethlisberger brought up — unsolicited — a play from the 43-14 win Sunday night against the Kansas City Chiefs.
“How awesome was it watching Pouncey on Le’Veon Bell’s long run? He was 40 yards down the field ahead of Le’Veon, throwing a block. That just shows the selflessness of Maurkice Pouncey. He got up and was more excited and more fired up than Le’Veon was. Going out and playing for his brothers is what […]
Ben wins AFC Player of the Week
From Teresa Varley at Steelers.com today:
Ben Roethlisberger was named the AFC Offensive Player of the Week for his performance in a 43-14 win over the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday night.
Roethlisberger completed 22 of 27 passes for 300 yards and five touchdowns for a quarterback rating of 152.5, just shy of a perfect 158.3 rating. At one point in the first quarter he had three straight completions, all for touchdowns.
Roethlisberger threw four touchdown passes in the first half, the third time he has done that in his career. Two of those touchdowns went to Antonio Brown, who he has now connected with for more touchdowns (42) than any other teammate in his career.
Roethlisberger spread the ball around, with his 22 completions going to nine different receivers.
It was Roethlisberger’s 47th 300-yard game in the regular season and his fifth career regular-season game with at least five touchdown passes, and the 11th time he threw for four or more touchdowns in a single game. He became the sixth quarterback in NFL history to throw at least five touchdown passes in five games, joining Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Dan Marino, George Blanda and Tom Brady.
Roethlisberger is the only quarterback to have thrown at least three touchdown passes in three games this season and the only quarterback to have thrown five touchdown passes in a game this season.
He is tied for the NFL lead with 11 touchdown passes, and those 11 touchdowns through the first four games tie a Steelers’ record for most passing touchdowns in the first four games of any season with Terry Bradshaw, 1980 and Mark Malone, 1985.
Roethlisberger been named AFC Offensive Player of the Week 14 times in his career. His previous wins were as follows: Weeks 2 and 10, 2015; Weeks 8-9, 2014; Week 11, 2013; Weeks 5 and 8, 2011; Week 17, 2010; Week 15, 2009; Week 5, 2008; Weeks 10 and 16, 2007; and Week 6, 2004.
You can read more here.
What makes Ben special? You can read that here.
Also Today – Ben’s “chat” with the media –
From Teresa Varley once again at Steelers.com:
Ben Roethlisberger believes the ‘next man up’ will do his job.
The Steelers headed into the 2016 […]
More Zoe…
is a definitely a good thing!!
Remember this happy young fan from Monday’s post?
ted j @nutsand_boltz
@_BigBen7 thank you for the glove! My name is Zoe and it was the best night ever!
Well, thanks to NFL Films, we now have her immediate reaction (and the moment when she posed for the photo that her father tweeted to us!). Enjoy:
This young fan's reaction will totally make your day.@insidetheNFL @steelers @_BigBen7 pic.twitter.com/p9R7eFVFtD
— NFL Films (@NFLFilms) October 4, 2016
This young fan’s reaction will totally make your day. — NFL Films via Twitter.
And a few more photos from Zoe to share (she was very excited when Ben waved back to her!):
Go Big Ben! Go Steelers!!
The Ben Roethlisberger Show
Recap courtesy of 93.7 The Fan and CBS Pittsburgh:
Coming off one of the most dominant wins in his career, Ben Roethlisberger joined “The Cook and Poni Show” for “The #1 Cochran Ben Roethlisberger Show” to talk about the team’s bounce-back performance.
One of the reasons for the huge performance by the offense had to do with Le’Veon Bell’s return from suspension. Ben talked about how they didn’t hold anything back in his first game.
“That kind of spoke volumes for his preparation and what we asked him to do all week,” Ben said. “It’s not like, ‘Hey, welcome back, line up behind me every single play, let’s play football,’ you know? We motioned him out, we motioned him across, we lined him up at wide receiver, we lined him up two backs in the backfield, we asked him to run, to block, to catch, to do everything and I thought he did just what we expected him to do, to be one of the best all-around backs in the game, and he showed that.”
The Steelers’ offense certainly showed their high-powered nature. Part of that was due to being aggressive early by going deep on the first play of the game.
Roethlisberger said that was scripted days earlier.
“I think it was maybe Thursday or something I said…’L-Bell (Le’Veon Bell) is coming back, everybody in the world thinks we’re going to give him the ball…lets bring an extra tight end in, maybe an extra lineman, two tight ends, and just fake the play action to Le’Veon,’ because we saw on film they were giving us a man coverage look, and just take a shot the first play of the game.”
Part of that aggressive nature was going for a two-point conversion after that touchdown.
“We basically had a play called where it was an empty package and we basically called signals where I signal every single guy what to do and Markus (Wheaton) was about the third read and he got to the second window and was over the ball and threw him the ball and he made a play,” Roethlisberger said.
Making the offense’s performance all the more impressive is the fact that they were able to dominate despite another injury, this time to right tackle Marcus Gilbert.
Roethlisberger discussed those injuries and what a great […]
Gorman: Roethlisberger reigns in the rain
“When he steps on the field, it’s about winning. He’s got one job to do. He’s the quarterback, and it’s his job to lead us to the promised land. He don’t blink. There’s going to be rain, there’s going to be snow sometimes. We don’t ever talk about that. We talk about how when we were kids, we used to like playing in the rain. We used to want those moments. He makes it fun for everybody.” — Steelers TE Xavier Grimble.
From Kevin Gorman, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:
The way Ben Roethlisberger ran out of the tunnel Sunday night at Heinz Field gave Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey a feeling that something special was about to happen.
“He was so excited, pumping up the crowd and throwing his hands in the air,” Pouncey said. “Normally, he just runs out.”
The constant downpour, a quarterback’s worst nightmare, did nothing to diminish Roethlisberger’s revelry.
Roethlisberger didn’t just rain on the Kansas City Chiefs. He made it pour, completing 22 of 27 passes for 300 yards with five touchdowns and no interceptions in the Steelers’ 43-14 victory.
Perhaps it explains why Steelers offensive coordinator Todd Haley said this about Roethlisberger following the home opener against Cincinnati, which was played in similar sloppy weather:
“When you get in conditions like that, I believe Ben’s the best ‘mudder’ in the league,” Haley said. “Sometimes, I root for bad weather.”
When told he’s considered a tough mudder, Roethlisberger simply smiles and shrugs.
“I’ve been called that for a long time,” Roethlisberger said. “I guess it’s growing up in Northwest Ohio. Just because I’m used to it doesn’t mean I like it.”
No, seriously.
Roethlisberger said he hates playing in the rain.
“You think about when you want to be a great offense, you want perfect weather conditions, whether that’s a dome or no rain and no wind, things like that,” he said. “Two home games so far, and we’ve had more rain than I can remember for a long time.”
There’s one thing Roethlisberger hates more than the rain, and that’s losing.
The 34-3 defeat at Philadelphia last week — when he was outplayed by Eagles rookie Carson Wentz — left the Steelers with a sour taste. That might explain why they have won 11 consecutive games after a loss with No. 7 under center.
But that was last week, which is […]