Cardinals’ pass rush practicing hard to target Big Ben this weekend


From the Arizona Republic News:

How do you tackle a tree?

That’s what the Cardinals have to figure out on Sunday when they return after a week off and have to face Ben Roethlisberger and the Pittsburgh Steelers.

As difficult as it can be to bring down the 6-foot-5, 241-pound quarterback, it’s not impossible.

“He’s tough to tackle, probably one of the toughest in the game,” Cardinals defensive end Calais Campbell said. “He’s an athlete. He’s like a defensive end playing quarterback. We’ve got to put our bodies on him and hopefully, group-tackle him.”

But Roethlisberger can escape from sacks better than most.

Before the official start of practice each day this week, the Cardinals’ defensive line will practice wrapping up and simulate sacking Roethlisberger by using one of their own as a live practice dummy.

“But you really can’t simulate a guy like Big Ben,” nose tackle Dan Williams said. “He’s such a big, athletic quarterback and the way he can move and make plays is crazy.

“You watch him on film and you see guys hanging on his leg or holding on to his arm and he’s still throwing the ball.”

Yeah, it’s like trying to tackle a tree.


You can read more here.



Also Today:

Just for fun….

Check out the new commercial for Head & Shoulders with Troy, Brett Keisel and Hines Ward.

Check out the even funnier “between takes” moments when Hines teaches his teammates some dance moves.


*Thank you to Trish at BrettKeisel.com and Head & Shoulders for Men!



Quote of the Day:

“Bradford’s tough. He’ll be able to rough it out. Ben Roethlisberger goes out there and plays with a broken ankle, broken ribs, broken neck…” — Rams wide receiver Mark Clayton comparing his injured quarterback, Sam Bradford, to another tough quarterback.

“We had other guys open. I just have to drive the ball. I have to make the necessary adjustments when the wind picks up, stop floating it and try to drive it through the wind. I never make excuses. When it’s blowing, you have to put a lot of spin on the ball. I just wasn’t doing that. It’s something I can easily change.” — Ben, post-game.

From Ray Fittipaldo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this morning:

Ben Roethlisberger threw for 181 yards and completed a 28-yard touchdown pass to Mike Wallace in the first half of Sunday’s game against Jacksonville. His quarterback rating was 113.4 after the second quarter and he appeared to be well on his way to another sterling performance, one week after tossing five touchdown passes in a victory against the Titans.

In the third and fourth quarters, the Jaguars — and the wind — finally disrupted the Steelers’ passing game. Roethlisberger completed just 1 of 5 passes in the third and fourth quarters, and the Steelers had to hold on for a 17-13 victory after being held off the scoreboard in the second half.

“It was gusting pretty good,” Roethlisberger said of the wind. “Dan [Sepulveda] said on the last punt he wanted to take off and run. He didn’t even want to punt it. It was what it was. It was kind of Heinz Field. One series it blows one way, then it swirls on you. Like I said, no excuses. You have to drive the ball through the wind.”


You can read more from Mr. Fittipaldo’s column here.

Ben threw 12-for-23 for 200 yards with one touchdown and the Pittsburgh Steelers held on for a 17-13 win against the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Ahead two touchdowns in the first half, the Steelers leaned on their defense late to capture their fourth victory of the season.

But he wasn’t satisfied with the performance of the offense.


Highlight’s from Ben’s post-game interview:

On his evaluation of the offense –

”We felt like we could have had a very explosive, productive day offensively, running and throwing the ball. It’s frustrating it didn’t finish up that way.”


On their second-half play, specifically –

“We have to come out in the second half and just keep grinding, keep putting points on the board. The sense of urgency needs to stay there.”


On whether he thought they were lacking a sense of urgency –

“It’s hard to tell. We started really strong. Maybe that’s on me. Maybe I need to keep the guys going, kinda keep a fire under them…I felt like I tried to do that but maybe I didn’t do enough.”


On whether the wind gusts hampered his throws –

“I gotta make the necessary adjustments to really focus on driving the ball and spinning it through the wind. It’s something I can easily change.”



Next up:

The Steelers travel to Arizona next week for their first meeting with the Cardinals since Super Bowl XLIII, before a critical two-game homestand against New England (Oct 30th) and Baltimore (Nov 6th).



You can see video of the game highlights here.

You can see a few game photos here.


*Thank you to Mr. Wexell, at SteelCityInsider.net for the post-game quotes.



Stat of the Day:

Ben’s 200 passing yards today allowed him to become just the second quarterback in Steelers history to reach 24,000 yards (he entered the game needing just 122 passing yards). Terry Bradshaw is the first.

“I think teams think we might as well try, if that kid can do it, why not give it a shot. The tough part is, if a quarterback has success early, people are quick to say how good you can be. It happened with me, too.” — Ben, talking about his early success.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette‘s Gerry Dulac this morning, from his column “Roethlisberger may be responsible for rookie QB trend”:

Rookie quarterbacks are being thrown to the NFL wolves these days, rarely getting more than a year to be an understudy and learn the game from the sidelines, the old-school way.

There is only one person to blame:

Ben Roethlisberger.

In 2004, after being selected with the 11th overall pick by the Steelers, Roethlisberger was forced into the starting lineup in Week 3 after an injury to Tommy Maddox in Baltimore. All he did was become the first quarterback in NFL history to go 13-0 in the regular season and lead the Steelers to the AFC championship game.

One year later, he won his first Super Bowl.

Since then, teams have not been afraid to try a rookie at quarterback, never knowing when one might perform like Roethlisberger.


You can read more from Mr. Dulac’s column here.

…released its list of Best Sports Cities earlier this week and it has generated quite a buzz on national sports talk radio.

The list, which ranks cities from 1 to 271, was created by looking at “the 12 months from summer 2010 to summer 2011” and was “based on point values assigned to various categories, including but not limited to, won-lost records, postseason appearances, applicable power ratings, number of teams and attendance.”

Dallas-Fort Worth got the nod at No. 1 this year.

Pittsburgh, named the No. 1 city in 2009 (magazine cover at left), ranked at No. 6 for 2011.

As for the AFC North rival cities? Cincinnati was No. 21, Baltimore was listed at No. 29, and Cleveland was farther down at No. 45.


The Top 10 in 2011 (which contains a few head-scratchers):

1. Dallas-Ft. Worth
2. Boston
3. Philadelphia
4. Chicago
5. New York
6. Pittsburgh
7. Atlanta
8. Los Angeles
9. Miami
10. Tampa + St. Petersburg


You can see the entire list here.

Do you agree or disagree? And who would make your Top 10?

You can join the discussion on Facebook.

In case you missed Ben’s 7:45am phone-in interview this morning with Mike Golic and Trey Wingo, who was sitting in for Mike Greenberg, here are just a few highlights from the almost 7-minute chat:

On the status of his sprained foot –

Ben: “It’s doing better – no setbacks from the game, so we’re slowly getting better and I’d like to give our trainers and doctors some airtime and credit because they’ve been working hard at getting me better.”


On the atmosphere at Heinz Field –

Ben: “As an NFL team, you want to say that there shouldn’t be any difference between playing on the road or playing at home. Well, when you’re playing at home there’s definitely a good feeling when you’re there, and you can use the snap count…there’s just a comfort level about being at home, and I think that helped us.”


On people “writing off” the team after their first loss –

Ben: “Everyone knows that has played in this league long enough that it’s about when you get hot, and you want to get hot late in the year. You want to be playing your best football late in the year as you’re getting ready to enter the playoffs. So I think in one way, that helps us because we know that, okay, we lost that first game in Baltimore and everyone – around the league and the fans – are like, “Oh my goodness, the season’s over!”…we just kind of chuckled at it because we knew it was early in the year. We’re 3-2 right now and we know it’s still about when you get hot and if we can just put together some solid football and get wins and get to the point where it’s late in the year and we’re playing good football that’s what it’s all about.”


With Mike Golic laughing, Trey Wingo asks Ben if throwing five touchdowns is how he wants to win games, how the Steelers want to win games…or does he want to win by getting back to the efficiency of their running game –

Ben: “Heck no! I want to throw five touchdowns every week! (laughs). No…we’ll take wins any way we can get them…we just want to win football games. That’s what […]