Ben: Bruce Arians is like "a grandfather to me"

[hawaiiansteel]

Despite injury, Ben will do what he does best

Longtime veterans approaching finish line

Sunday, January 08, 2012
By Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/images/201201/ben0108_160.jpg

Ben Roethlisberger has struggled for a month because of his ankle injury. But this is the postseason == Roethlisberger's time of year.


Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger says offensive coordinator Bruce Arians is like "a grandfather." Arians prefers "crazy uncle." The two are extremely close. Know that going in.

"He's a first-ballot Hall of Famer in my mind," Arians said of Roethlisberger. "He's won two Super Bowls and been to a third. He's not done with Super Bowls, I believe. Even if he stopped right now, he'd be a first-ballot guy."

The man gets no argument here.

Roethlisberger will play in more Super Bowls, win more Super Bowls and ultimately be remembered as the greatest quarterback in Steelers history.

That leads to today's question:

Is Roethlisberger healthy enough to get the Steelers to the Super Bowl this season?

"I think so," he said late last week. "I know I'm going to take some hits. I know that. But I plan on being like Cool Hand Luke. I'm going to keep getting up ...

"I think I can make it all the way."

Are you willing to bet against Roethlisberger?

I'm not.

I know Roethlisberger will be considerably less than full-go today in Denver when the Steelers play the Broncos in an AFC wild-card playoff game. It's hard to imagine him being full-go at any point during this postseason because of his famously sprained left ankle. Roethlisberger said he's OK with that. Unlike the many second-guessers out there who think they are medical experts -- you know who you are -- he said he has no regrets about how he and the team handled his injury after he first went down in the second quarter against Cleveland on Dec. 8. He came back to play that night in the second half -- basically on one leg -- and led the Steelers to a 14-3 win. He played against San Francisco on Dec. 19 and threw three interceptions in a 20-3 loss. He sat out against St. Louis on Dec. 24 and watched backup Charlie Batch perform well in a 27-0 win. He played against Cleveland a week ago in a 13-9 win and looked relatively mobile before tweaking the ankle in the third quarter.

"I don't even know when it happened," Roethlisberger said. "The doctors basically told me there would be at least two or three times during the game when I'd feel like I re-injured it, but that the pain would only last for a minute or so and then be gone. When it still was hurting two series later, I figured they either were lying to me or I did something else to it. I probably set it back a week."

I can just hear the screams if Roethlisberger plays poorly today and the Steelers somehow lose to a mediocre Denver team with a really awful quarterback, Tim Tebow.

Many people already are yelling that coach Mike Tomlin shouldn't have played Roethlisberger -- not to mention center Maurkice Pouncey, who is out today with his own high-ankle sprain -- against Cleveland last week even though the game could have meant a No. 1 or No. 2 playoff seed.

Many others are yelling that Tomlin blew it by allowing Roethlisberger to play against San Francisco even though the Steelers could have taken control of the AFC North Division with a win.

The second-guessers are dead wrong.

The only mistake Tomlin made was allowing Roethlisberger to play the final nine minutes against the 49ers after the fight was over. That was ridiculous.

"I don't regret anything," Roethlisberger said. "I always want to play.

"The only time I had any doubts was going into the San Francisco game. I battled the [decision] to play or not play, almost to the point of tears. Guys were coming up to me and telling me I had to play. I didn't want to let them down. At the same time, I didn't want to play bad and not give them a chance to win. Battling that feeling was hard for me."

Roethlisberger answered the obvious follow-up questions even before they were asked.

"Would we have been better off with Charlie in there? Maybe. Did I hurt the team? I threw three picks. I guess you have to say that."

The Steelers offense with Roethlisberger has not been functional since his injury in the first Cleveland game. He hasn't thrown a touchdown pass since his 79-yarder to wide receiver Antonio Brown late in that game sealed the win. He led only one touchdown drive in his past two starts.

Here's my problem:

I'm not smart enough to say how much Roethlisberger's ankle contributed to his ineffectiveness. Tomlin said he didn't think it had any impact on his performance. That's silly. But was it 50 percent of Roethlisberger's problems? 75 percent? What part did the "brutal [wind] conditions" -- Roethlisberger's words -- play in Cleveland last week? And isn't it possible Roethlisberger just happened to have two bad games?

"I'm always going to lean that way," he said. "I left a lot of plays out there. I have to be better."

I'm thinking today will be the day.

Roethlisberger is 10-3 in the postseason.

"I can't really explain why," he said. "It's not like I've always had my best games. I guess it's just doing what you have to do to find a way to win."

Arians said Roethlisberger has done it enough to merit his Hall of Fame endorsement.

"What do you expect your grandfather to say?" Roethlisberger asked, grinning.

Or your crazy uncle, for that matter?

"Seriously, it means a lot coming from a guy like that," Roethlisberger said. "He's coached some of the best. He coached Peyton Manning. It's awesome to hear even if it is premature."

Roethlisberger agreed with Arians that there are more Super Bowls in his future. It's hard to imagine it happening this season, not necessarily because of his ankle but because these Steelers have not been a good road team. But Roethlisberger believes. This season. Next season. The season after that ...

"We've got something special here," he said. "We've got a lot of great young players. As long as they don't get crazy and change the offense -- that can really set you back -- the sky is the limit for this team."

Translation for Steelers management:

"Please don't even think about bringing in a new offensive coordinator. B.A. is just fine."

Talk about hearing screams.

Roethlisberger is in position today to shut up a lot of the Arians critics and the Tomlin critics, as well.

I'll write it again: I'm not betting against him. Bad ankle? So what?

"I love this time of year," Roethlisberger said. "I love playing in these games."

I don't know about you.

I love watching him.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12008/12 ... z1iqIFLNbv (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12008/1202106-87-0.stm#ixzz1iqIFLNbv)

[SteelCrazy]

Arians is never going to leave and Ben will never meet his full potential because of that very reason.

[Keyplay1]

It seems like I've been reading the PG since it opened up. But rarely do I ever find time to read Cook's stuff. This has to be one of his best.

-----But don't they say Grandpa's tend to be too lenient or overindulgent? The "crazy uncle" bit, I suppose it works.

And no, I can't agree with how the BR ankle was handled. I sided with those who accepted the almost certain 5th seed role and opted to go into these PO's as healthy as possible.

In regards to the question about whether or not the Steelers can get it done with a "limited" BR. Maybe! Why not? But the question really should be "Can the Steelers get it done with a healthy 100% in top form and hot to boot BR? Maybe! Why not?

[rockonsteel]

Ron Cook is a shill and an idiot, who just refuses to admit that he and others, including Tomlin, were wrong in their assertion that it was a good idea to play Ben in SF and in Cleveland. And to boot, he is and has been one of Arians' staunchest defenders. So, to say this artcle is a tad bit slanted, would be a tremendous understatement.

Ben has a high ankle sprain. That is one of the trickiest injuries to deal with in terms of recovery and treatment...see Markice Pouncey or hell, even Kendrell Bell. It requires rest and lots of it. The Steelers coaching staff treated it like he had a bruised chin. That was DEAD WRONG!!! That is not hindsight. That is fact.

"We've got something special here," he said. "We've got a lot of great young players. As long as they don't get crazy and change the offense -- that can really set you back -- the sky is the limit for this team."

Now that bothers me, but it explains why Bruce is still OC. If Ben thinks stuggling to score 2 tds and barely averaging 20 pts. a game, good for 22nd in a 32 team league, if he thinks that constitutes "sky's the limit", then he banged his head even harder than we thought when he had that accident 5 yrs ago.

This offense underachieves way too much. Other teams with elite, franchise QBs and WRs, score easily all the time. They might have a game or two here or there where things go awry, but the Steelers are the complete opposite. The Steelers offense has a couple games a year where they play to their potential. The rest of the games, they make it look Chinese arithmetic written in German text.

Ben is too entrenched in the trees to see the forest. There's obviously a heavy emotional attachment involved there. To me, this is on Tomlin for allowing this train wreck to continue with Arians at the helm. Ben just likes the fact that Arians lets him do whatever the hell he wants. I submit that contrary to what Ben believes, this offense will not be "Sky's the limit", until BA is removed as OC. And to me Tomlin has to have to balls to make that move.

Rockon

[frankthetank1]

Arians is never going to leave and Ben will never meet his full potential because of that very reason.

just curious how do you think arians hurts ben's game? i dont think any OC has the power to limit ben's potential but thats my opinion. i could see maybe if the steelers ran a lot more than they threw the ball but we all thats not the case.

[DukieBoy]

Arians is a benevolent grandpa for Ben.

He needs better offensive linemen.

To me, Arians is like the anti-Sully Sullinger flying the Steeler offense, though admittedly it is limited by its weak offensive line made weaker by injuries. In the Red Zone, the offense crashes too often, and then we have a less-than-dependable placekicker to default to.

Beyond that, I hope we overcome our weaknesses and play up to our best potential, and may #7 successfully fly is to us #7.

[feltdizz]

Unless we planned on putting Ben on IR we will never know what the right decision would be when it came to the 49er game.

As far as BA and the offense, 12-4 is 12-4, I would love to win by 20 every game but that's not how we do things. We have a pretty good history in the playoffs with Ben an our struggling offense.

[rockonsteel]

The second-guessers are dead wrong.


It's not second guessing! Plenty of people were screaming for Ben to sit out he SF game. Plenty of other felt during the game, he should've been pulled in the first half, when it was clear he was not helping the team. And furthermore, he never should've played against Cleveland last week. And that goes double for Markice Pouncey.

The only mistake Tomlin made was allowing Roethlisberger to play the final nine minutes against the 49ers after the fight was over. That was ridiculous.

No, the mistake was playing him in first place. The mistake was compounded by not pulling after the second interception.

"I don't regret anything," Roethlisberger said. "I always want to play.

Some might say that is valiant, while others might call it selfish.

That's why they pay the coaches lots of money, to make the tough decisions. Tomlin is always talking about "the standard is the standard, next man up", yet he let a hobbled, ineffective QB struggle through one of the most important games of the year, when he had a more than capable backup ready to go. Then exascerbated the situation by playing him in Cleveland last week. It's like they're trying to prove how tough he is. WE KNOW!! Rather have him healthy.

"The only time I had any doubts was going into the San Francisco game. I battled the [decision] to play or not play, almost to the point of tears. Guys were coming up to me and telling me I had to play. I didn't want to let them down. At the same time, I didn't want to play bad and not give them a chance to win. Battling that feeling was hard for me."

Yeah, well, you did play bad, really bad. And you didn't give your team a chance to win. In fact, you gave SF a much better chance to win. And Tomlin stood by and watched and did nothing.

Roethlisberger answered the obvious follow-up questions even before they were asked.

"Would we have been better off with Charlie in there? Maybe. Did I hurt the team? I threw three picks. I guess you have to say that."

At least Ben has the balls to admit what a lot of other people won't. He did hurt the team. They would have been better off with Batch in there. Ben should not have even suited up for the last 3 games.

The Steelers offense with Roethlisberger has not been functional since his injury in the first Cleveland game. He hasn't thrown a touchdown pass since his 79-yarder to wide receiver Antonio Brown late in that game sealed the win. He led only one touchdown drive in his past two starts.


That's because he is HURT!! His body won't let him do the things we're used to seeing him do. The things he's used to doing. We've seen Ben play through a ton of injuries in the past. This one is different. This injury has prohibited him from being effective. It's not a coincidence, no matter how much Cook or anybody else tries to paint that picture.

Here's my problem:

I'm not smart enough to say how much Roethlisberger's ankle contributed to his ineffectiveness. Tomlin said he didn't think it had any impact on his performance. That's silly. But was it 50 percent of Roethlisberger's problems? 75 percent? What part did the "brutal [wind] conditions" -- Roethlisberger's words -- play in Cleveland last week? And isn't it possible Roethlisberger just happened to have two bad games?


Not, here's your problem. You refuse to admit that you were and are wrong. Ben's injury was severely mishandled and because of that, Ben is now going to hobble through the playoffs.

We can only hope for the best.


Rockon

[Shoe]

Yeah, the statistics don't really support Ben's argument. And for the record, I'm not the unabashed BA hater that 90% of people on here are. I think he gets ripped way too much personally. However, that doesn't excuse the fact that we often struggle to put points on the board, with what everyone will say is a franchise QB on our roster.

As rockonsteel said, you expect a machine-like efficiency when you have a caliber of QB lkie we do. Brees, Rodgers, Brady*... they move the ball down the field AND SCORE with amazing ease.

[rockonsteel]

Unless we planned on putting Ben on IR we will never know what the right decision would be when it came to the 49er game.

As far as BA and the offense, 12-4 is 12-4, I would love to win by 20 every game but that's not how we do things. We have a pretty good history in the playoffs with Ben an our struggling offense.

Nobody is asking them win by 20 pts. every game. But, with a franchise QBs and a bunch of weapons, is it too much to ask them to score 20 pts. every game? And the fact that average exactly 20 pts a game doesn't answer that because that includes a lot of games well below 20 pts. 8 games the Steelers scored 20 or less pts., and 9 if you count the Colts games where they scored 23 but the d scored their lone td., so the O really only put up 16. Conversely, they only had 3 games over 30 pts. this year. Not exactly what I would call "sky's the limit".

Rockon

[feltdizz]

Yeah, the statistics don't really support Ben's argument. And for the record, I'm not the unabashed BA hater that 90% of people on here are. I think he gets ripped way too much personally. However, that doesn't excuse the fact that we often struggle to put points on the board, with what everyone will say is a franchise QB on our roster.

As rockonsteel said, you expect a machine-like efficiency when you have a caliber of QB lkie we do. Brees, Rodgers, Brady*... they move the ball down the field AND SCORE with amazing ease.

Ben is a different QB...just because Ben is a franchise QB with SB rings doesnt mean he automatically should put up points and stats like Brady and Brees. This QB's have to put up a ton of points because their D's can't keep teams under 17 points.

Ben is clutch but he's never been a stat monster.

[feltdizz]

Unless we planned on putting Ben on IR we will never know what the right decision would be when it came to the 49er game.

As far as BA and the offense, 12-4 is 12-4, I would love to win by 20 every game but that's not how we do things. We have a pretty good history in the playoffs with Ben an our struggling offense.

Nobody is asking them win by 20 pts. every game. But, with a franchise QBs and a bunch of weapons, is it too much to ask them to score 20 pts. every game? And the fact that average exactly 20 pts a game doesn't answer that because that includes a lot of games well below 20 pts. 8 games the Steelers scored 20 or less pts., and 9 if you count the Colts games where they scored 23 but the d scored their lone td., so the O really only put up 16. Conversely, they only had 3 games over 30 pts. this year. Not exactly what I would call "sky's the limit".

Rockon

As long as we score more points then the other team I'm happy. We've done that 12 times this year.

How many times in the playoffs have we struggled to put up 20+ points with Ben and BA?

[Iron Shiek]

Yeah, the statistics don't really support Ben's argument. And for the record, I'm not the unabashed BA hater that 90% of people on here are. I think he gets ripped way too much personally. However, that doesn't excuse the fact that we often struggle to put points on the board, with what everyone will say is a franchise QB on our roster.

As rockonsteel said, you expect a machine-like efficiency when you have a caliber of QB lkie we do. Brees, Rodgers, Brady*... they move the ball down the field AND SCORE with amazing ease.

Ben is a different QB...just because Ben is a franchise QB with SB rings doesnt mean he automatically should put up points and stats like Brady and Brees. This QB's have to put up a ton of points because their D's can't keep teams under 17 points.

Ben is clutch but he's never been a stat monster.

I'm with felt here...I know we have weapons to be explosive and don't always live up to that, but can't argue with the results. Wins....

[rockonsteel]

Unless we planned on putting Ben on IR we will never know what the right decision would be when it came to the 49er game.

Oh, we know. Some people will just never admit it.

Charlie Batch could've scored 3 pts. AND I'm willing to go out on a limb and say he may have even scored a few more.

Ben was injured. Ben's injury prohibited him from just about any movement. This contributed to Ben playing very badly, in spite of a 300 yds stat line. Ben had 4 turnovers. SF benefitted from Ben's turnovers. These factors combined all lead to a 20-3 loss for the Steelers. Those are all facts. Not one disputable.

We may not be able to speculate on how Batch would've played, but the evidence bears out that playing Ben was a mistake, from the result of the game, to the fact that Ben hasn't really gotten any better since then, because they never really let him rest to heal properly. He might still not be 100%, but he's be a hell of a lot closer than he is now.

Rockon


Rockon

[Steelers>NFL]

:HeadBanger :Binky :Blah :wft :roll:

Ben and BA equals all of the above...

[sd steel]

Every knows that Ben is just a "game manager" anyways.:)

[NJ-STEELER]

maybe i took it the wrong way, but i read that to say young guys at WR, mendy hitting his prime etc tec..".the sky is the limit" referring to the potential of the offense

[rockonsteel]

maybe i took it the wrong way, but i read that to say young guys at WR, mendy hitting his prime etc tec..".the sky is the limit" referring to the potential of the offense

I think most would agree(those not in denial anyway), that this offense has not reached it's potential. In fact, far from it. The sky is not the limit as long as BA is OC. This is some BS!! :HeadBanger

Rockon

[pittpete]

Lets see what type of gameplan BA comes out with on Sunday.
Lets watch the first 2 series...

[RuthlessBurgher]

How many times in the playoffs have we struggled to put up 20+ points with Ben and BA?

I'll take "NEVER" for $1000, Alex.

http://thumbnails.hulu.com/5/743/13627_512x288_manicured__h4vcy3-utEek432EpwoGHw.jpg

[hawaiiansteel]

I wish "Grandpa" would stop calling those WR bubble screens that the other team knows is coming...