“Hearing from Ben Roethlisberger”
Highlights from Ben’s Friday media interviews –
From Steelers.com this evening:
Training camp is almost over. What do you think of the offense and the improvements so far?
Just every day, you try to make improvements, from doing better jobs to not dropping passes and blocking schemes.
You see mistakes on day one and day two, and as long as you don’t see the same mistake twice that is improvement.
You have a young offensive line. Is that a challenge for you?
I don’t think that they are that young, truthfully. Maurkice Pouncey has been in the league for a while, Ramon Foster has been in the league for a while and Marcus Gilbert has been here for a couple years now. David DeCastro and Mike Adams are obviously the two younger guys but they are both second-year guys, and I’m excited for that group. They are really gelling and meshing together, and I can’t wait to see how it goes with them.
You told us in the spring that you changed some things with your workouts and offseason things. How do you feel?
My arm feels a lot stronger. I can get the ball down the field better to the receivers and Coach Tomlin had said the same thing. To me, that is what I thought was most important. My arm got strong and stayed strong.
The last game, the average of your passes that went past the line of scrimmage was five yards. You threw a 20-yarder to Antonio Brown. Is that a preview of things to come?
That was intentional. We really wanted to do that against a 4-3 type defense. We wanted to work on our screen games and our short, underneath-type passes. The one to Antonio was more of a conversion route, he wasn’t supposed to go that deep, and it was a conversion-type of thing. It was more game plan than anything.
I still think that they will be weapons for us by throwing the short ball. But like I said, that particular game was more about game planning.
When talking to other quarterbacks or even other doctors and your experience when talking about your arm and its strength, what do you think the leading strength is supposed to be in a […]
Tune in or set your DVR…
Monday, August 19th to KDKA-Channel 2!
That’s when Ben’s sit-down interview with KDKA Sports Director Bob Pompeani will air!
What will it take for the Steelers to win the division this season?
Has his relationship with Todd Haley changed this year?
How has Ben’s workout regiment changed from years past?
Ben answers all in this one-on-one interview from Latrobe.
Then there are a few questions closer to home to be answered – like will he allow Benjamin Jr. to play football? And what is his “best diaper changing moment” (at least, so far!)?
If you are out of KDKA’s market area, don’t worry, we’ll post the link to the interview here!
*Thank you to Mr. Pompeani for the “sneak peak”, and to Mr. Lauten at the Steelers for the photo!
And before the game on Monday night…
Don’t miss Ben’s interview with WTAE-TV Channel 4‘s Sally Wiggin!
Her tweet from this evening:
@SallyWiggin4
Loved talking to @_BigBen7 today for @WTAE #Black&Gold Primetime Monday night at 7 live from FedEx Field!
The Black & Gold Primetime crew will be live from FedEx Field outside of Washington DC for this special right before the Pittsburgh Steelers take on the Washington Redskins.
Stay on Channel 4 to watch the game at 8:00 PM. If you are not in their viewing area, tune in to ESPN. Their Monday Night Countdown show begins at 7:00 PM.
Thank you to Ms. Wiggin for the photo!
Fans capture the action at training camp
We have five pages…yes, FIVE, in the photo gallery from fans who have shared the photos they have taken at training camp so far this summer!
There were so many awesome shots, it was difficult to select just three for the home page, but here they are:
Big Ben is greeted by the Montour Little Spartans football team as he heads out to the field for practice!
Photo: Mark Alberti
– Mark is a 22-year old Steelers fan from New Castle, PA who hopes to one day turn his passion for photography into a full-time job! You can check out his website here!
Ben walks out onto the practice field with his friend, Noah Galloway. Noah was invited to Steelers training camp by Ben to speak to the team and to just enjoy the weekend as their special guest.
Photo: BHR Photography
– The lady behind the lens at BHR is Biggie Riley. Biggie is an “Army wife” from Mannheim, Germany living at Ft. Stewart in Georgia with her Seattle Seahawks fan husband. This good sport suffered through an entire day with his wife at camp, but claimed he was there to scout for his fantasy football team as well!
Coach Tomlin, Ben, and Offensive Coordinator Todd Haley share a laugh on a hot day in Latrobe.
Photo: Sarah Swenson
– Sarah is a long-time reader of BigBen7.com, back to the days when it was an unofficial site called “BigBenNews.com”. She traveled all the way from Willmar, Minnesota to attend training camp for her beloved Steelers!
You can see ’em all right here!
Thank you to Mark, Biggie, Sarah, Bob Tschappat, Jr., Billie Jo Yakubik, Lexi Fanty, Roni Kiesel, and Lisa Sposato Konstanzer for sharing your photos with us!
It’s Warrior Wednesday!
Those who follow the website’s Twitter and Facebook pages know this is a regular feature for us. But we decided to make it a special feature today on the site itself.
Sgt. Steven Palencik and members of his unit just sent this photo and wanted to wish Ben and the 2013 Steelers their best season ever! He said they are “bleeding black & gold” while serving our great country in Kuwait! GO STEELERS!
Sgt. Palencik is in the front row, far right, holding the Terrible Towel. That’s Major Delbrugge, far left, front row, holding the Steelers banner. CW3 Poindexter, is on the back row, middle, holding up the Terrible Towel, and SGM Miracle is on the back row, left, holding the Terrible Towel.
Gentleman, thank you for serving our country! Stay safe and God bless!
You can see all of our warriors in Ben’s “Salute to our Military” album here.
Deadline for grant requests is August 15th!
Police and Fire Departments still have time to submit theirs for the 2013-14 NFL season to The Ben Roethlisberger Foundation!
This marks the seventh grant cycle for the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation. The majority of the grants distributed will help K-9 units to purchase dogs and dog safety vests, but other types of needs are also considered.
The Foundation will be distributing grants in the cities and surrounding communities of each regular season away game for the Steelers during the 2013-14 season.
The Ben Roethlisberger Foundation invites police and fire departments in these eight cities to submit proposals detailing their needs. Also, for each Steelers’ playoff game, a grant will be awarded to a city anywhere in the United States that would not otherwise be eligible to apply. In addition, the Foundation will continue to make grants to several police and fire department K-9 units in the Pittsburgh area following Super Bowl XLVIII.
As part of the NFL International Series, the Pittsburgh Steelers are set to meet the Minnesota Vikings on the turf of Wembley Stadium in London on September 29, 2013. The Ben Roethlisberger Foundation will mark the inaugural occasion of the Steelers playing a regular-season game overseas with its first international grant to support law enforcement in the London area.
The Foundation distributed more than $135,000 in grants to K-9 units around the country during the 2012 NFL season and has distributed in excess of $950,000 since 2007.
Eligible departments must apply to The Giving Back Fund by August 15, 2013.
Late or incomplete applications will not be considered.
You can view the full grant requirements, eligibility and evaluation process, please visit http://www.givingback.org/documents/RFP_2013_BRF_app.pdf.
Photo: That’s Shadow, he was purchased with a grant from The Ben Roethlisberger Foundation. Shadow joined the Findlay Ohio Police Department last year as its drug-detecting canine. Shadow and his handler, Officer Chad McMonigal, inspect vehicles for illegal drugs, and meet citizens in an effort to prevent crime.
You can also see the guidelines on Ben’s Foundation page here.
Hey fans! Looking for a fun and active way to support the Ben Roethlisberger Foundation?
You can – by participating in the one running event that will allow you to experience the best of a Pittsburgh in less than […]
Pre-Season Game – Giants vs Steelers
Big Ben completed 4 of 8 passes for 36 yards in this one, leading the Steelers to a field goal on his second possession.
Final Score: Giants 18, Steelers 13
“I thought the line did a good job opening the holes and the zone blocking that everyone has stressed. We wanted to establish an identity early of running the ball, and I think we did a good job.” — Ben, post-game.
News, Notes & Quotes from the first one:
“Steelers take good with bad in preseason loss to Giants”
The Steelers didn’t like all there was to see of their 18-13 preseason loss to the New York Giants at Heinz Field on Saturday night…
“There were some positives and some negatives,” coach Mike Tomlin said.
The good: Stephens-Howling, expected to be a situational back, ran seven times for 40 yards and led a 13-play drive late in the first quarter that ended with a Shaun Suisham 34-yard field goal. The starters wound up playing 18 plays, or one-third more than the 12 that Tomlin projected.
“He has great vision, and he got outside and made some plays,” center Maurkice Pouncey said of Stephens-Howling, a former Pitt player from Johnstown.
Even as the 5-foot-7 Stephens-Howling bounced those runs outside, the Steelers used their new zone-blocking system only twice during the starters’ nine running plays.
“We wanted to establish an identity early of running the ball, and I think I did a good job with that,” Ben Roethlisberger said.
You can read more from Mr. Robinson here.
From Coach Tomlin’s post-game press conference:
What was your take on QB Ben Roethlisberger? It seems like it was a little bit rough, not necessarily on his part, but the delay of game, the sack – what was your take on it?
Coach T: He didn’t take a delay of game. He used a timeout. I didn’t have any problem with Ben’s performance. He did a nice job communicating and executing the offense. Some things happened from a communication standpoint that kind of happen quite often this time of year. We’ll move past it. No worries there.
You can watch video of his interview here.
You can see a few photos from the game here.