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What's up with Roethlisberger?
MONDAY, 17 OCTOBER 2011 WRITTEN BY BOB SMIZIK
With their defeat of Jacksonville, the Steelers are 4-2 and winners of four of their past five. That’s good.
Here’s what is not so good about that record. The four wins are against teams that are a combined 7-16. Two of those wins were by narrow margins over teams that are a combined 1-11.
The 2005 season, when the Steelers were 7-5 but on their way to winning the Super Bowl, should have taught us never to judge a team too early in the year. But, of course, we do and the judgment of the Steelers for 2011 is not heartening.
The Jacksonville game only added to the doubt. It might be some time, perhaps never, before we discover what exactly happened to the Steelers' offense in the second half and, more precisely, what happened to Ben Roethlisberger.
How does an offense, playing against what is, at best, an average defense, accumulate 315 yards in the first half and only 55 in the second? And how does a quarterback who passed for 181 in the first half, throw for 19 in the second?
Which leads to the question upon which this season rests: What’s up with Roethlisberger?
Oh, he’s good. He can still make something out of less than nothing as well or better than any quarterback in the league. But although he has one of the league’s most dangerous and prolific deep threats in his receiving corps, his numbers are not what might be expected.
With all but two of the Week 6 games completed, Roethlisberger’s rankings among league quarterbacks were ordinary. In passer rating, he was 12th; yards per game, 11th; percentage of completion, 14th; touchdowns, tied for 7th; interceptions, tied for sixth.
None of those numbers has the ring of elite that often, and deservedly, is attached to Roethlisberger.
Passer rating is often ridiculed because, as its name implies, it takes into account only what a quarterback does with his arm. To counter that, ESPN came out with a new statistic this year called QBR, which includes passing, rushing, sacks, fumbles and penalties. Roethlisberger does less well in this rating.
Through the first five weeks of the season, excluding all of yesterday’s games, his rating was 56.2, which put him in 13th place. Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady were 1-2 with ratings of 84.8 and 84.2. Among the quarterbacks listed ahead of Roethlisberger were Drew Brees, Philip Rivers, Michael Vick Matt Schaub, Matt Hasselbeck, Ryan Fitzpatrick Tony Romo and Matthew Stafford.
This is not to suggest for a second that all of those quarterbacks are better than Roethlisberger. They are not. But this information does point put that Roethlisberger has been less than special this year.
His two worst games were in the team’s losses. He probably couldn’t have made a difference in the Baltimore game, but he could have in the seven-point loss to Houston.
The Steelers play at Arizona (1-4) Sunday, then come to the meat-grinder part of what is an easy schedule -- consecutive games against New England and Baltimore.
It’s time for Roethlisberger to step up his game.
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MONDAY, 17 OCTOBER 2011 WRITTEN BY BOB SMIZIK
With their defeat of Jacksonville, the Steelers are 4-2 and winners of four of their past five. That’s good.
Here’s what is not so good about that record. The four wins are against teams that are a combined 7-16. Two of those wins were by narrow margins over teams that are a combined 1-11.
The 2005 season, when the Steelers were 7-5 but on their way to winning the Super Bowl, should have taught us never to judge a team too early in the year. But, of course, we do and the judgment of the Steelers for 2011 is not heartening.
The Jacksonville game only added to the doubt. It might be some time, perhaps never, before we discover what exactly happened to the Steelers' offense in the second half and, more precisely, what happened to Ben Roethlisberger.
How does an offense, playing against what is, at best, an average defense, accumulate 315 yards in the first half and only 55 in the second? And how does a quarterback who passed for 181 in the first half, throw for 19 in the second?
Which leads to the question upon which this season rests: What’s up with Roethlisberger?
Oh, he’s good. He can still make something out of less than nothing as well or better than any quarterback in the league. But although he has one of the league’s most dangerous and prolific deep threats in his receiving corps, his numbers are not what might be expected.
With all but two of the Week 6 games completed, Roethlisberger’s rankings among league quarterbacks were ordinary. In passer rating, he was 12th; yards per game, 11th; percentage of completion, 14th; touchdowns, tied for 7th; interceptions, tied for sixth.
None of those numbers has the ring of elite that often, and deservedly, is attached to Roethlisberger.
Passer rating is often ridiculed because, as its name implies, it takes into account only what a quarterback does with his arm. To counter that, ESPN came out with a new statistic this year called QBR, which includes passing, rushing, sacks, fumbles and penalties. Roethlisberger does less well in this rating.
Through the first five weeks of the season, excluding all of yesterday’s games, his rating was 56.2, which put him in 13th place. Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady were 1-2 with ratings of 84.8 and 84.2. Among the quarterbacks listed ahead of Roethlisberger were Drew Brees, Philip Rivers, Michael Vick Matt Schaub, Matt Hasselbeck, Ryan Fitzpatrick Tony Romo and Matthew Stafford.
This is not to suggest for a second that all of those quarterbacks are better than Roethlisberger. They are not. But this information does point put that Roethlisberger has been less than special this year.
His two worst games were in the team’s losses. He probably couldn’t have made a difference in the Baltimore game, but he could have in the seven-point loss to Houston.
The Steelers play at Arizona (1-4) Sunday, then come to the meat-grinder part of what is an easy schedule -- consecutive games against New England and Baltimore.
It’s time for Roethlisberger to step up his game.
[url="http://communityvoices.sites.post-gazette.com/index.php/sports"]http://communityvoices.sites.post-gazet ... php/sports[/url]
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