“I thought the Heinz Field crowd was spectacular last week. As loud as I have heard it in a long time there. So, thank you.” — Ben’s message to the fans that were in attendance last Sunday.



From Teresa Varley, Steelers.com:

102517Ben Roethlisberger has a Twitter account, but he always makes it clear that he doesn’t run the account (hmmm, wonder who does?). He steers clear of social media, completely and totally.

But he couldn’t help but hear what went on after Sunday’s win over the Bengals, when Martavis Bryant made negative comments on social media regarding his role in the offense, later deleting it, and then posting something positive.

Roethlisberger said the comments surprised him, because that isn’t the Bryant he sees on the field.

“You never hear him complain,” said Roethlisberger, who said he hadn’t talked to Bryant about the comments as of Wednesday morning. “I don’t hear him on the field crying, complaining, throwing his hands up, or not running hard. You see him blocking after other guys catch the ball or during runs. I catch him on the sideline and talk to him about the pictures, like I do with a lot of guys. He is very engaging. That is why all of this was kind of a shock to me.”

Bryant had one reception against the Bengals, a three-yard catch, and was thrown to twice. For the season he has 18 receptions for 234 yards and one touchdown.

“We need to get lots of footballs to him, to everybody,” said Roethlisberger. “We all need to score points because that helps us win game. We have had opportunities. We had a couple of deep balls that were just missed. Whether it’s me overthrowing him. Whether it’s the Chicago game where he slows down a little bit. Whether it’s this last game where he doesn’t see the ball come out of my hands. The plays are there to be had, we just have to make them.

“Maybe it’s on me. I need to maybe give him a better ball to make a play. I will put it on myself first. I am not going to blame him. A couple of those deep balls, if I let him run under them more maybe he will get them.”

His contributions, though, have been visible in other manners, including blocking for the run and passing games.

“Martavis is out there busting his butt,” said Roethlisberger. “On Le’Veon’s (Bell) long play he is downfield blocking. He is blocking for AB (Antonio Brown) in the Kanas City game. You hear the frustrations when he goes home and gets on social media. Here in the locker room we don’t see any of that.

“That is why I don’t do social media. Not too many good things have come from it from what I’ve seen. I like to show pictures of my family and things like that, but you can get caught up in a game with somebody that sits behind a phone or a computer, they call them ‘trolls’. There’s a lot of things you can get caught up in if you are not careful. I think the best thing is to stay away from it.”


You can read more from Ben and watch the video of his Q&A here.