On this day, the old guy came through for his team
Ben Roethlisberger was the better quarterback at Heinz Field Sunday night. The stats said so. The scoreboard said so. Your eyes said so.
But there still was the pending vote that awaited Roethlisberger when he got home later in the evening. It was the only vote that really mattered.
“I’ve got to see if my son still thinks I’m his favorite quarterback or if he likes [the other] guy better,” Roethlisberger said with perhaps his biggest smile of the season. Lamar Jackson.
“He’s special,” Roethlisberger said.
Maybe that’s why the Steelers’ 20-19 win against the Baltimore Ravens meant so much to Roethlisberger, because he knew he somehow had found a way, at 39 and nearing the finish line, to outplay Jackson, the NFL MVP just two seasons ago.
Maybe it was because the muchneeded win came against the Steelers’ fiercest rival, a team that came into the game with the best record in the AFC.
Maybe it was because it came a week after the Steelers left a “stench” — Mike Tomlin’s word — in Cincinnati’s Paul Brown Stadium in a 41-10 loss to the Bengals, prompting harsh criticism directed at everyone in the organization, especially the quarterback. Did you hear ESPN analyst and former Steelers safety Ryan Clark say Roethlisberger was hurting the team and had to be benched?
Or maybe it was because of the report that surfaced late last week from ESPN’s Adam Schefter that Roethlisberger had told select teammates and front-office types that he will retire after the season. Maybe it was all of that.
All I know is this was the happiest I’ve seen Roethlisberger all season, more so even than after the unlikely 15-10 win in Cleveland on Halloween.
“You should always savor moments like this,” a reflective Roethlisberger said. “God has blessed me in an amazing way that I can throw a football like not many people in the world can and guys can run and catch and do things that not many people can. We should always count our blessings that we
are able to do this. You never know when it’s going to be taken from you, as we have unfortunately seen.”
Ryan Shazier.
“You should always savor this moment,” Roethlisberger said again for emphasis.
Roethlisberger has been around long enough — 18 NFL seasons — to know that criticism comes with his position. He routinely shrugs it off, just as he did when asked about Schefter’s report. It should be noted Roethlisberger didn’t deny it. And, it’s true, he is expected to call it a Hall-of-Fame career after the season.
“My focus is on [next opponent] Minnesota and what we have to do to get ready,” Roethlisberger said. “I’ll address any of that stuff after the season. I’ve always been a onegame-at-a-time, a one-season-at-time person. I’ve been doing it a long time. I’m going to stay that way.”
Tomlin said he thought it was “funny” that Schefter’s report became a story.
“There is nothing [for me] to manage,” he said. “Ben doesn’t allow it to become an issue. Ben has been pretty solid in terms of his expressions that he is singularly focused on what he is dealing with now. He will deal with those other things on the other side of this journey. I’m with him on it. It is not a distraction.”
It certainly wasn’t on Sunday. Roethlisberger led the Steelers on three fourth-quarter scoring drives to get the win, the team’s first since it snuck by the Chicago Bears nearly a month earlier. A 40 -yard catch-and-run by Chase Claypool set up a 29-yard touchdown pass to Diontae Johnson. A 25-yard pass to Johnson set up a Chris Boswell field goal. A 5-yard touchdown pass to Johnson on thirdand-goal with 1:48 left and a subsequent 2-point pass to Pat Freiermuth gave the Steelers just enough points to push their record to 6-5-1 and keep them in the playoff chase with the game at Minnesota Thursday night.
Roethlisberger threw for 236 yards and the two touchdowns to Johnson with no interceptions. His passer rating was 111.8, his secondbest of the season. It would have been even better if Johnson hadn’t dropped what should have been a perfect 35-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter and Ray-Ray McCloud hadn’t dropped what should have been a 32-yard gain in the third.
And Jackson?
He threw for 253 yards, was intercepted on the Ravens’ first drive by Minkah Fitzpatrick and finished with a mediocre passer rating of 80.1. He did throw a 6-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Sammy Watkins with :12 left to pull the Ravens within a point, but his 2-point attempt to tight end Mark Andrews to win the game went just a bit astray because of pressure from T.J. Watt. Jackson was sacked seven times with Watt getting credit for 3½ and Chris Wormley for 2½.
Clearly, Roethlisberger was the better quarterback.
I’m guessing Ben Jr., 9, made it official when his old man got home.