“It’s AFC North football this week, and that means physical football.”

From Teresa Varley, Steelers.com:

The Steelers-Bengals rivalry has become a heated rivalry over the last few years, with physical, aggressive play being the norm when the two AFC North teams meet up.

Ben Roethlisberger doesn’t expect anything different this Sunday when they kick off at Paul Brown Stadium.

“Typical one down there. Crazy. Riled up,” said Roethlisberger. “It’s AFC North. It’s us coming to town. Maybe not quite as crazy as it would have been if it was that initial 8:30, but I still expect the fans to come out and it to be a typical Steelers-Bengals game.

“It’s that feel every time you go there. Throw records out the window. That time of year, the time of the game, all of those things. It’s going to be a great atmosphere.”

If recent history is an indication, it will definitely be a physical game. Players like Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown have been injured in past games against the Bengals, adding fuel to the fire. Bengals’ linebacker Vontaze Burfict was suspended for the first three games of this season for repeated violations of the player safety rule, which culminated with a hit to Brown that left him with a concussion in the playoffs last season. The intensity is expected to continue, but Roethlisberger expects the game to be played clean.

“I hope it’s not dirty,” said Roethlisberger. “We expect a physical game. That’s what we want it to be. We expect them to be the same way. We are not going to be a dirty team. We are going to go out and play football and play hard and physical, not retaliate. Just play this game the way it’s supposed to be played. If there are a lot of nasty things going on, I guess we will know why.

“We know what happened. We know about the injuries, we know about some of the dirty type things. We don’t concern ourselves with that. We concern ourselves with trying to win a football game.”

And to do that, the offense will have to deal with a Bengals’ defense that is physical, hard-hitting, and doesn’t have a lot of give, starting with their front seven, which includes Geno Atkins who was named AFC Defensive Player of […]

From Ben’s radio show this morning on 93.7 The Fan:

Ben Roethlisberger is coming off his worst game of the season in a 27-20 win over the Buffalo Bills, a victory that saw Le’Veon Bell carry the team at times.

On “The #1 Cochran Ben Roethlisberger Show”, the Steelers’ quarterback talked about Bell’s performance and why the game plan shifted from spreading the Bills out and throwing the ball to letting Le’Veon carry it 38 times.

“It’s that time of year where whatever it takes to win, and I think he will tell you the same thing,” Ben said. “If he’s got to run into the ground for us to win a Super Bowl, I think he’ll take that, and we all will.”

Bell ran for 236 yards on those 38 carries while adding 4 catches for 62 yards. His 298 total yards single-handedly out gained the entire Bills offense.

Looking at his own performance though, Ben gave a very direct and honest critique of himself as he threw three interceptions and no touchdowns.

“I take full accountability that I need to play better. I know that you and other people are talking a lot about me needing to play better on the road, and I fully agree,” he said.

Regardless of how the Steelers got the victory, it was a monumental one for head coach Mike Tomlin as he recorded his 100th career victory. He joins the exclusive company of George Allen, Vince Lombardi and John Madden as the only four head coaches in league history with ten-plus seasons and zero losing seasons.

Ben talked about Tomlin’s accomplishment and presenting him with the game ball.

“It just seemed like a unique milestone, a milestone that needed to be recognized…so I just wanted to recognize a coach that has won 100 games in this league when it’s not easy to win,” he said.

Ben even joked with Tomlin about whether or not he’s allowed to hand out game balls.

The win marked a special milestone to Ben as well which he told us about.

“We’ll take an ugly win, we’ll take a pretty win, as long as we win. That win meant a lot to me personally because it was win number eight, which means 13 years now and I still haven’t had a losing record, which is something I take […]

jimkelly1212 Very tough day for my Bills. But after the game as always number 7 shows class. Thanks for the game jersey bud. Good luck rest of season and playoffs. Adding to my collection of favs, BIG BEN.

“That’s December style football there…this time of year you have to find any way possible to win a game. It can be ugly, pretty, whatever it is, as long as you win. I thought our defense was awesome today and [Le’Veon Bell] was spectacular.” — Ben.

From Will Brinson at CBS Sports:

Things are getting down to the nitty gritty in the NFL playoff hunt now, and the AFC wild-card race is about to get wild.

Multiple teams kept their hopes alive with huge wins on Sunday, but no one was bigger than the Steelers, who took down the Bills 27-20 to put themselves into the playoffs, pending the result of the Ravens Monday night game against the Patriots.

Pittsburgh looked just as scary as you would expect them to look knowing their weapons — Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown are deadly and Le’Veon Bell is storming into an offseason that will feature him negotiating a new contract extension. The timing of Bell’s big day, which featured 236 rushing yards and an absurd 298 yards from scrimmage, couldn’t have been better.

The Steelers went on the road in horrible weather and took care of business against a lesser team. It’s what you want to see from a legitimate playoff contender.


You can read more from Mr. Brinson here.



And from Jeremy Fowler at ESPN.com:

How’s this for dominance: The Steelers handed the ball off to Bell nine times on their 10-play, 82-yard touchdown drive to open the second half.

And he kept getting stronger, touching the ball 42 times by late in the fourth quarter, adding 62 receiving yards on four catches.

Since Week 10, Bell has 166 touches for more than 900 yards.

Willie Parker owned the previous record of 223 rushing yards set in 2006 against the Cleveland Browns. Bell became the first player in Steelers history to record multiple games of 200 scrimmage yards and three touchdowns.

After making 26 passing attempts to 13 rushes in the first half despite Bell’s averaging nearly 6 yards per carry, the Steelers rightly turned to the “handoff” section of the playbook. Without a clear-cut second receiver on the outside, that’s the best way for Pittsburgh to win away from Heinz Field, where Roethlisberger is more comfortable airing it […]

From ESPN‘s Jeremy Fowler this week:

The hunting and snowmobiling is great fun, but Ben Roethlisberger doesn’t visit Ellicottville, New York, for an annual offseason “buddies” trip simply for sport.

He goes for the campfires. He goes for Jim Kelly. And he goes for the quarterback stories you can’t get in a scouting report.

“When you’re up and around each other for four or five days, and you’re sitting around a fire, you talk about everything,” Roethlisberger said.

As the Pittsburgh Steelers make their first appearance in Buffalo since 2010, Roethlisberger has been texting with Kelly this week about how to catch up in person before Sunday’s game. They settled on dinner Saturday night.

The relationship stretches far beyond pleasantries — like, 8,000 miles farther. Kelly, the Buffalo Bills great who has valiantly battled oral cancer since 2014, said in a phone interview Thursday between hunting trips that he’s taking Roethlisberger and a few others to New Zealand this offseason for a red-stag archery tournament.

Roethlisberger and Kelly have experience hunting turkeys together. But more importantly for Kelly, hunting is simply an extension of fellowship with Roethlisberger, who met one of his childhood idols at a golf tournament many years ago.

Kelly, 56, is proud to see the growth in Roethlisberger, 34, who once upon a time showed up to an event in Buffalo with security guards. Roethlisberger, who long ago admitted to being humbled by his early career travails, has “no ego, down to earth, cool with everybody,” Kelly said.

“Without a doubt, playing for a franchise like the Steelers, there’s a certain graduation, and when you’re young and going from nothing to a millionaire, that changes you,” Kelly said of Roethlisberger. “But he’s handling himself pretty darned good. He’s far from that. That was a phase.”

The two hit it off instantly, prompting Roethlisberger and several other mutual friends to make the trip to Ellicottville every offseason for the last seven years or so. They slice through the snow outdoors and play pool indoors, with Kelly providing laughter at a no-huddle pace.

Through many conversations, Roethlisberger became touched by Kelly’s story, from his cancer battle to the loss of his 8-year-old son, Hunter, to Krabbe disease in 2005.

An offseason story from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette called ‘Ben’s Quiet Quest’ reported that Roethlisberger gave his third son, Bodie, the […]