Manning Vs Ben

[steelblood]

Ben is not as much a student of the game as Peyton. He also does not read defenses nearly as quickly. Peyton Manning is one of the all-time greatest QBs to ever play the game. If you can pressure him, you can rattle him. But, he gets rid of the ball so quickly that it is very difficult to do.

Ben is simply a different kind of QB. He is a great QB, but he likely will never posses Peyton's acumen. I'm ok with that.

[stopplayn]

A lot of Ben's weaknesses are hidden due to the fact that he plays for the Steelers. Is Ben Roethlisberger this successful on the Browns? Please keep in mind that the Steelers went 13-3 with Kordell. Is that due to the greatness of Kordell? Heck no.

[BURGH86STEEL]

Ben doesn't have a better o-line under Haley. Maybe once DeCastro comes back but not until then. Ben didn't lose the game for us either in my opinion. Our defense lost this game for us. The parts I hate about this loss are these.

1. Nothing ever good becomes of a season when you lose the opener.

2. Lebeau/Tomlin have addressed nothing on the defense during the off season.

3. This loss will be played over the years in every Peyton Manning high light segment, sports clip or what have you.

4. A day or two before the game Foote and someone else from the Steelers were on the radio talking crap on the Bronco's saying they were the better team last year but just didn't win.
I've got news for those guys the Broncos are the better team when they face the Steelers.

5. Our defense looked lost, slow and far from being a threat. No one is affraid of our defense or offense.

Ben contributed to the loss. He left points out on the field and threw the game sealing pick 6.

1) Fans take season openers way to seriously. It's one game and isn't an indicator of how well a team will perform for the rest of the season.
2) This organization was never a big player in free agency. Plus, the organization didn't have much money to spend on free agents. Not sure why you fault Lebeau and Tomlin for the organization's philosophy?????? If they address the Oline in the draft people complain. If they address the defense in the draft people complain. How can any organization address every need and "win" with the fans?
3) Who cares?
4) Talk is cheap.
5) I wonder if people felt that the defense looked lost and slow in the first half? The defense did what they needed to do in crunch time but the offense didn't deliver in crunch time.

[RuthlessBurgher]

You guys really need to learn to read. I NEVER said Flacco was better than Ben. I said the opposite.

Okay...so you didn't say he was better...you said that Flacco is making bigger strides than Ben. That means that I should expect to see great improvement by Flacco in his overall game recently if he's making bigger strides, right?

Last season Flacco threw the ball 53 more times than in 2010 (489 passing attempts in 2010 vs. 542 in 2011), but had only 6 more completions (306 completions in 2010 vs. 312 in 2011) and actually ended up with 12 fewer yards (3622 passing yards in 2010 vs. 3610 in 2011). His completion percentage dropped 5 whole points (62.6% in 2010 vs. 57.6% in 2011), he had 0.7 less yards per attempt (7.4 YPA in 2010 vs. 6.7 in 2011), 5 fewer touchdowns (25 TD in 2010 vs. 20 in 2011), 2 more interceptions (10 INT in 2010 vs. 12 in 2011), and his passer rating plunged by more than a dozen points (93.6 rating in 2010 vs. 80.9 in 2011). To me, it looks like Flacco's game regressed across the board from 2010 to 2011.

What are you basing these bigger strides on? One game at home this year against the Bengals?

[stopplayn]

Im basing those strides on the last 3 times we have played them. Post those stats. And he should have beat us when Housyamamma dropped that pass thrown by Flacco

[D Rock]

Okay...so you didn't say he was better...you said that Flacco is making bigger strides than Ben. That means that I should expect to see great improvement by Flacco in his overall game recently if he's making bigger strides, right?

Last season Flacco threw the ball 53 more times than in 2010 (489 passing attempts in 2010 vs. 542 in 2011), but had only 6 more completions (306 completions in 2010 vs. 312 in 2011) and actually ended up with 12 fewer yards (3622 passing yards in 2010 vs. 3610 in 2011). His completion percentage dropped 5 whole points (62.6% in 2010 vs. 57.6% in 2011), he had 0.7 less yards per attempt (7.4 YPA in 2010 vs. 6.7 in 2011), 5 fewer touchdowns (25 TD in 2010 vs. 20 in 2011), 2 more interceptions (10 INT in 2010 vs. 12 in 2011), and his passer rating plunged by more than a dozen points (93.6 rating in 2010 vs. 80.9 in 2011). To me, it looks like Flacco's game regressed across the board from 2010 to 2011.

What are you basing these bigger strides on? One game at home this year against the Bengals?

Flacco did look very good last night. That said, he also looked very good some games last year and still had the overall performance drop you mentioned. There were some terrible games mixed in with those good games, and unless he becomes more consistent Flacco will never be an elite QB.

[Slapstick]

The Broncos offense and defense did just enough the to win. The Steelers did not. It's really that simple...

[stopplayn]

Ben also got a fumble recovery and a good return by Brown to put him in Bronco territory both times. 1 Fg to show for it. Yes, he was awesome on third down. I too heard Peyton tell him that in the miced session. The fact is that the sack problem still exists despite the line changes. Despite the firing of Arians. He had them with Wiz, Arians and so far with Haley. Stop the excuses, its obvious. Ben has got to learn to consistently take what the defense gives him. Frickin Flacco has more win than Ben since 08. Flacco IS NOT BETTER THAN BEN! Nor does he have a better team. But I will say that he is smarter than Ben (Based on decision making and ability to process the information quicker)

This is the post you responded to. Not sure why you went to the other one. Flacco isnt sacked as much either.

[skyhawk]

Tell that to the dominant Rod Woodson, Carnell Lake, Greg Lloyd, Levon Kirkland, Kevin Greene, Joel Steed defenses and all of their rings with Neil O'Donnell and Kordell Stewart at QB.

BINGO!! Big time!

[Sugar]

Uh-oh, the great Peyton Manning beat a Steeler D that was sans James Harrison and Ryan Clark. The Steeler O was doing well enough despite having half the starting OL on the table. Sacks will happen in those circumstances. Do they still need TD's instead of FG's? Yeah, but I'm not really very worried yet.

Look at stats all you want. For the most part, Ben looked sweet if you watched the game. He did what he needed to do. Often, he can make things happen. Sometimes that bites him in the booty and that happened at the end of the game. He was still good enough for Steelers Digest to name him "Player of the Game."