The Charlie-Ben embrace

[fordfixer]

Charlie keeps Steelers in the hunt

[URL]http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/Charlie-Batch-Pittsburgh-Steelers-veteran-keeps-team-alive-Baltimore-Ravens-120212[/URL]


A.J. Perze


BALTIMORE
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Charlie Batch turns 38 this week, although in the wake of a 23-20 victory over the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday he said he doesn’t expect to do much to mark the occasion.

“It’s on Wednesday, so I’ll be working,” Batch smiled.


Thanks in large part to Batch, who led a 51-yard drive to set up a game-winning Sean Suisham 42-yard field goal as time expired, it won’t just be busy work for the Steelers, either. A week after Batch committed three of Pittsburgh’s eight turnovers in a loss to the Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh exited M&T Bank Stadium with hope (and a 7-5 record).


“A lot of people wrote him off,” Steelers defensive end Brett Keisel said. “Nobody in here did. Charlie has been with this team 11 years and there is a reason for it. They just don’t keep people around just because. He has to prove week in and week out that he should be here. He stepped in before and won. He did it again tonight.”


For much of Sunday, it looked like the Steelers would fall to 0-3 minus starting quarterback Ben Roethsliberger and the Ravens would run their home winning streak to 16 games (including playoffs).


Then came a fumble by Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, forced by Pittsburgh linebacker James Harrison and recovered by defensive end Ziggy Hood at the Baltimore 27. Batch, who had been intercepted by Ravens cornerback Ed Reed in the end zone on the Steelers’ previous possession, needed only four plays to find tight end Heath Miller for a 7-yard TD pass to tie the game, 20-20, midway through the fourth quarter.


“We knew he was going to come in and manage the game,” Miller said. “Obviously, he’s been through it all. He’s seen and done everything. We have the upmost confidence in him.”



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Not that the Steelers won’t be happy to get Roethlisberger back. Roethlisberger could return as soon as next Sunday’s game against San Diego.


Batch, while inconsistent early, outplayed Flacco — a quarterback more than a decade his junior — in the second half and finished with 276 yards through the air. Batch was 25 for 36 one touchdown and one interception.


Flacco, who will get his share of the blame for why the Ravens didn’t clinch a playoff berth when given a chance on Sunday, was 16 for 34 for 188 yards with a one touchdown and an interception.


“It’s not surprising at all. Maybe a little,” Reed joked when asked about Batch’s performance.



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Batch was hardly flawless as he worked behind a reshuffled offensive line. He missed an open Mike Wallace in the end zone late in the first half and had a couple other passes sail on him. Batch also fumbled once, although the Steelers were able to maintain possession.


Granted, Steelers receiver Emmanuel Sanders didn’t do Batch any favors with a third-quarter fumble. Sanders had just caught a pass across the middle and looked primed for a touchdown when he coughed the ball up untouched, a fumble Reed recovered.


“That was a really tough one,” Batch said. “Emmanuel really took it hard. He felt that if he didn’t drop the ball, it’s probably a 70-yard touchdown.”


Credit the Steelers defense — which lost cornerback Ike Taylor to an ankle injury early in the game — for making Batch’s late-game push possible. Sunday marked the return of five-time All-Pro safety Troy Polamalu, who hadn’t played an entire game since the season opener because of a calf injury.


“I feel great,” Polamalu said. “Thank God I made it through today.”



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The Steelers’ playoff hopes did as well. Pittsburgh’s final games come against San Diego, Dallas, Cincinnati and Cleveland with all but one of those games (Dallas) at home.


With any luck, Batch won’t be seen the rest of the season if Roethlisberger gets (and remains) healthy. And since he’s on a one-year deal currently, this could have been the last game of an NFL career that began with the Detroit Lions in 1998.


“I think every game I go out there, I look at it that way,” Batch said.

[fordfixer]

Suisham’s last-second field goal lifts Steelers to big victory over Ravenshttp://triblive.com/mobile/3061087-81/ravens-steelers-yard-batch-field-pass-yards-afc-baltimore-boldin
By Alan Robinson
Sports Reporter


Published: Sunday, December 2, 2012,


BALTIMORE — Ben Roethlisberger was the first to greet Charlie Batch, grabbing him tightly for a 30-second bear hug that summed up everything about this emotional day, this resilient team, this improbable win.


The quarterback who was too hurt to play knew exactly what was going through the mind of the quarterback who was being called too old to play.


The Steelers had just beaten the Ravens team they supposedly couldn’t beat — not in this stadium, not under these circumstances, not with this man at the controls, and it meant everything to both of them.


“You go out there and that was a big win,” Batch said. “It was one of those moments, and he and I shared it. I’ll keep it between us what was said, but it was something that was special.”


Special almost didn’t begin to describe the Steelers’ 23-20 win Sunday over the Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium, where it appeared not one of the 71,442 in attendance left before Shaun Suisham decided it with his third field goal, a 42-yarder on the final, stunning-to-the-home-crowd play.


Maybe because it looked to be all over for the Steelers (7-5) when the Ravens (9-3), in position to wrap up the AFC North with a win and a little help, seized a 13-3 lead on Joe Flacco’s 28-yard touchdown pass to Anquan Boldin late in the second quarter.


It was a sizable deficit for a Steelers offense that was averaging a touchdown a game without its franchise quarterback.


“A lot of people were counting us out,” Jonathan Dwyer said. “It was an amazing win.”


The Steelers were without the still-injured Roethlisberger, the one player they can always count on to get them out of these jams. In his place was a man who will turn 38 in three days, the oldest quarterback in Steelers history.


And they were turning the ball over yet again — three more turnovers, giving them an unfathomable 11 in two games — and turning over players on both sides of the ball at an alarming rate, Willie Colon and Ike Taylor among them.


The All-Pro center, Maurkice Pouncey, was at left guard on a makeshift offensive line in which a seventh-round rookie, Kelvin Beachum, was at right tackle and a backup, Doug Legursky, was at center. Top cornerback Taylor was injured and out, too, and Flacco and Boldin spent the first half picking on his replacement, Cortez Allen. About the only addition was Troy Polamalu, who played for the first time since tearing a calf muscle eight weeks ago.


But the team that couldn’t beat the near-comical Browns the week before found a way to beat the Ravens, something no team had done in Baltimore since the Steelers last accomplished it 16 games and two years ago.


The Steelers ended the Ravens’ 12-game AFC North winning streak, four-game overall winning streak and held onto the AFC’s second wild-card spot that might be decided when the Bengals (7-5) — who came back themselves to beat the Chargers 20-13 — visit Heinz Field in three weeks.


“We control our own destiny,” linebacker Larry Foote said. “As long as keep winning, we get a ticket.”


They did it with defense, limiting the Ravens to a dozen yards in a pivotal fourth quarter turned by James Harrison’s strip-sack of Flacco, altered by Batch’s clutch, game-tying 7-yard touchdown pass to Heath Miller with 7:24 remaining and decided by a stirring, game-ending drive that lasted 6 minutes, 14 seconds.


“I challenged the offense: ‘Let’s go out and do it,’ ” Batch said. “We put everything on the line. I wouldn’t say our season was on the line, but we knew we had to come in and get this win because in order to get into that (Super Bowl) tournament we need wins, plain and simple.”


Batch, so dreadful the week before while getting picked off three times by the Browns, went 25 of 36 for 276 yards — his most ever with the Steelers.


“Charlie did an amazing job,” lineman Max Starks said. “It was a phenomenal job.”


It was the first win for the Steelers in the seven career games that Roethlisberger has not started against the Ravens.


More than anything, maybe that explained why a quarterback whose career is not nearly over was so overcome by the play of a quarterback who, depending on Roethlisberger’s health, may have played his last game.


“December football, it’s big,” said Batch, who is very much in the December of his career.


Of course, Decembers are almost always something to remember for the Steelers, who are 9-2 in their last 11 games played in the month.


And the game’s biggest block? It was delivered by none other than Batch, a seal block on Cary Williams that left a running lane wide open for Jonathan Dwyer on his 16-yard touchdown run that tied it at 13 early in the third quarter. Batch set up the score with a 43-yard completion to Miller.


“It shows you what kind of heart he has,” Dwyer said. “I know I wouldn’t have scored without that block.”


The loss likely won’t cost the Ravens the division, yet they begrudgingly ceded the win to the Steelers.


As safety Bernard Pollard was praising Batch, saying, “He’s a professional quarterback. He’s on the roster for a reason.”


Ed Reed, listening nearby, replied with a snarl and an off-color comment.


Typical Steelers vs. Ravens in other words. It was the seventh time in their last eight games the final margin was three points.


Not surprisingly, the Steelers hugged each other, danced in the end zone and celebrated in unison at the end, and that attracted the Ravens’ attention, especially given that Pittsburgh has almost no chance to win the division.


“When you looked at their faces when they ran off the field, man, this wasn’t the Super Bowl,” said Reed, who had a fumble recovery and an interception.


No, but it wasn’t the Blooper Bowl of the week before, either. And just when they seemed to be going away, the Steelers showed their biggest rival and the rest of the NFL they might be around a little longer.


Maybe for some January football

[RuthlessBurgher]

“When you looked at their faces when they ran off the field, man, this wasn’t the Super Bowl,” said Reed, who had a fumble recovery and an interception.

Says a man whose team did this to its coach following a regular season win in Pittsburgh:



Of course, Ed Reed knows all about the Super Bowl from that Baltimore championship following the 2000 season, right? Wait...Reed wasn't drafted until 2002? Oh well, my mistake...I guess the only Super Bowls he knows are the regular season kind.

[fordfixer]

Charlie Batch tears up after showing Steeler grit in comeback victory against rival Ravens
Sun, Dec 2, 2012 10:42 PM EST
[url]http://sports.yahoo.com/news/nfl--charlie-batch-tears-up-after-showing-steeler-grit-in-comeback-victory-against-rival-ravens-034252889.html[/url]


BALTIMORE – His has been the uncertain life for so long that after 15 years Charlie Batch simply accepts it. Week after week he practices with the Pittsburgh Steelers, preparing to play quarterback, even though he knows the chance is likely to never come and he will spend the game wearing a cap, carrying a clipboard and celebrating somebody else's touchdowns.
Then he walks back to the locker room, sees the coach – a happy man with a congratulatory hand extended – and he never knows quite what to say.
Great job? For what? Wearing a cap and carrying a clipboard?


So on Sunday night, Charlie Batch wept. He turned away from the last-second field goal that gave the Steelers a 23-20 victory over the Baltimore Ravens, fell into the arms of injured Ben Roethlisberger and sobbed. He cried for the win. He cried for the chance. And he cried because he knows it will go away. But mostly he cried because he didn't want last week to be the final memory the NFL had of Charlie Batch.
You see, last week, he got to start a game. It was his first since the end of last season and it came in Cleveland, a place where the Steelers are expected to dominate. It was a game they needed to win. Instead they had eight turnovers. And even though those miscues weren't all his fault, they felt like they were.
"I was the one in charge of our eight turnovers, I took them personally," he said Sunday night as he stood in an empty Steelers locker room at M&T Bank Stadium.
Batch wasn't sure he would get another chance. Roethlisberger has injuries to his ribs and shoulder, and missed the Steelers' previous two games before Sunday. But Big Ben wanted to play in Baltimore, given the way Pittsburgh's season had fallen apart and the playoffs growing more unlikely. All week Roethlisberger worked to throw, pushing and pushing to play. Finally on Friday, Steelers coach Mike Tomlin told Batch that Roethlisberger wouldn't play.


Batch would have his last opportunity for redemption.
Sunday's victory was not a beautiful thing. Steelers-Ravens games never are. There were fights. There were cheap hits. Players shouted at each other. Tomlin seemed to stalk away from Baltimore coach John Harbaugh after the end-of-game handshake. And Batch was equally as imperfect. He was intercepted once. Another time he threw a pass over the head of a wide-open Mike Wallace in the end zone. He missed several other chances to push the Steelers downfield. Through much of the first half it looked as if the Ravens might blow out the Steelers.
Only they never did. And that says everything about the Steelers, Tomlin and Batch.
There is a resilience to Pittsburgh that is unique. In a league where wins often come because of sheer willpower, the Steelers manufacture victories when they seem most unlikely. Old stars have gone. Current ones like Roethlisberger and Troy Polamalu are worn down by years of the fight. On Sunday, the Steelers not only didn't have Roethlisberger, they maneuvered wide receivers around and juggled running backs hoping to find some dream formula. Somehow they found one.


"We persevered," Tomlin kept saying after the game.
Later, when asked about his defense that forced two turnovers, he said: "I appreciate the fact they didn't let go of the rope."
But Charlie Batch won this game for Pittsburgh. He won it the way Roethlisberger has won so many in the past: moving methodically, creating splendor from chaos. There was 6:14 left in the game when the Steelers got the ball on their own 15-yard line in a game tied, 20-20. They never gave it back.
"You put your heart and soul into it," he later said. "You try to leave everything out on the field."




Yes, he wept when kicker Shaun Suisham's field goal rose into the foggy night and dropped through the goalposts. What else could he do?
Last Monday he sat for hours at the Steelers' practice facility watching the tape of the eight-turnover game and a sick feeling grew in his stomach. All those days practicing for games he would never play and this is what he did with the one Pittsburgh desperately needed? How that memory of Cleveland burned inside.
"You want to prove that last week was a fluke," he said.
Next week he probably won't play. By the weekend, Roethlisberger's ribs and shoulders will be healed and Batch will practice but not play. He's started only nine games since the Lions released him in 2001. In 2002, 2004 and 2008 he didn't get in one game, not even for one pass. No statistical line exists for him in those seasons. It's like he was never there.
The Steelers knew. Players have come to trust him as a leader, as a reason to fight. He's been their union representative, a player-coach, someone who has been around long enough to have an answer for every situation that could possibly arise.


And also, it seems, a way to win the game they absolutely needed.
So Sunday night, with the victory complete and the playoffs a reality again in this 7-5 season, Batch was one of the last Steelers to walk into the tunnel beneath the stadium. There outside the locker room stood Tomlin with a smile on his face and his hand outstretched just as he had all those wins when Batch never played.
"Good to see you got a trick or two left in you!" Tomlin shouted.
And for once Charlie Batch could smile back and say: "Yes."

[lloydroid]

No charge!!!!

Thanks dude. That is awesome.

[Djfan]

Thanks dude. That is awesome.

You're welcome, Sir. No sandwich for you, either.

[kindlecatsb'ng]

Thanks, Dijan, for the pic and Lloyd for bringing this up. This was a visceral win.

Kindle

[papillon]

If you had to listen to the fans, writers and anyone else telling you for a week that you sucked, you should be cut, you're too old, your arm is a noodle, etc and you just went out and passed for 276 yards, 1 TD and beat the Ravens in their house you'd be emotional as well. That hug was Charlie giving everyone the finger for the past week of crap he had to listen to for no real reason.

Good for Charlie and for the record I thought the Steelers could win today, but I didn't think they'd score 23 points, good for Charlie, he's a Steeler and darn proud Steeler.

Pappy

[SteelCrazy]

If you had to listen to the fans, writers and anyone else telling you for a week that you sucked, you should be cut, you're too old, your arm is a noodle, etc and you just went out and passed for 276 yards, 1 TD and beat the Ravens in their house you'd be emotional as well. That hug was Charlie giving everyone the finger for the past week of crap he had to listen to for no real reason.

Good for Charlie and for the record I thought the Steelers could win today, but I didn't think they'd score 23 points, good for Charlie, he's a Steeler and darn proud Steeler.

Pappy

Well said Pappy. Unfortunately, I was one of the fans that had zero faith in Charlie, but fortunately he paid us no mind.

[lloydroid]

If you had to listen to the fans, writers and anyone else telling you for a week that you sucked, you should be cut, you're too old, your arm is a noodle, etc and you just went out and passed for 276 yards, 1 TD and beat the Ravens in their house you'd be emotional as well. That hug was Charlie giving everyone the finger for the past week of crap he had to listen to for no real reason.

Good for Charlie and for the record I thought the Steelers could win today, but I didn't think they'd score 23 points, good for Charlie, he's a Steeler and darn proud Steeler.

Pappy

To be honest, I was one of the people saying Pgh was stupid to still have him on the team. And to be fair, his play last week was really, really bad, like when he couldn't even throw the ball downfield; I, like most Steeler fans, was like, "Why is he on the team if he can't even throw the ball?" I don't think his embrace was giving the finger to everyone; I think it was more of PURE EMOTION of never quitting, not doubting himself and then pure joy/relief from finally making it to this mountain top after being ripped on all week. I don't think he was giving us the finger; I bet he realized he deserved questioning and this proved that he DID have something to offer in the tank, at least for this one, big time game. The whole thing was amazing.

I said to one of my most ardent Steeler buddies within minutes of the start of the game, "These guys look hungry to me. They are focused and giving 100% today." And that proved to be very true. Just when you want to count this team out, it comes back. Truly amazing.