Ben is at the Top of the League in This Category...

[grotonsteel]

Re: Ben is at the Top of the League in This Category...

That has very little to do with offensive philosophy and everything to do with Roethlisberger...

Eh. Arians sent him on a lot of seven step drops with John Scott protecting his blind side. Amazing how efficient Ben has been since Starks has been back and he doesn't have to worry about being curb stomped as his back foot plants on the last step.

[hawaiiansteel]

Re: Ben is at the Top of the League in This Category...

Roethlisberger brings toughness to Steelers

By Ralph N. Paulk, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, November 17, 2011



Ben Roethlisberger seemingly thrives on adversity. The Steelers quarterback has been on the field when others probably would spend game day icing stressed muscles or resting aching joints.

In October, Roethlisberger limped onto Heinz Field with an ailing foot to face fired-up Tennessee a week after getting pummeled in a ragged defeat at Houston. The Steelers humbled the Titans, 38-17, even as Roethlisberger hobbled in and out of the huddle.

On Sunday in Cincinnati, he broke his right thumb midway through the third quarter. The Steelers escaped with a 24-17 victory over the Bengals, who had been atop the AFC North.

Roethlisberger orchestrated an 81-yard scoring drive with his most reliable receiver, Hines Ward, on the bench. He did it even though the offensive line allowed the Bengals to sack him five times for the second time in three games.

"Ben is a tough guy mentally and physically," guard Ramon Foster said. "A lot of quarterbacks show their emotions, but with him you might only see a grimace whether he gets hit or breaks a thumb."

Roethlisberger, who has been sacked an AFC-high 31 times, didn't flinch on the winning drive. He took a couple of heavy blows to his banged-up body but maintained his focus.

"The way I play the game, a lot of those sacks are on me," Roethlisberger said Wednesday. "It's my fault because I hold the ball and try to make plays."

Still, until the offensive line discovered some continuity a month ago, it was peppered with criticism. It couldn't run block. It couldn't pass block.

The offensive front is last in the AFC in efficiency. Only St. Louis' line has given up more sacks (32).

Despite those unimpressive numbers, Roethlisberger is having what Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis called "one of his best seasons ever." Roethlisberger needs only 123 passing yards to reach 3,000. His touchdown-to-interception ratio of 16-9 isn't anything to brag about, but he's completing 63.3 percent of his throws, and the Steelers are 7-3 — a surprising start considering they stumbled out of the gate with a 35-7 loss in Baltimore.

"He's just a great quarterback," guard Doug Legursky said. "He's been able to stay calm no matter what happens. If it's successful for him, it's success for our offense."

"I don't make excuses, and I'm not going to complain about anything," Roethlisberger said. "I went in and grab those guys four or five weeks ago and reminded them that I'll always stand up for them."

Roethlisberger has led by example. He has played hurt and shouldered much of the blame when the Steelers came up short.

"After the first game, everyone counted us out," said Roethlisberger, who threw three interceptions and fumbled twice in that loss to the Ravens. "We just laughed because it was too early. We're not sitting where we want to be, but we're in a good spot. We're slowly working our way to the top."

[url="http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/steelers/s_767774.html#ixzz1dzgWgfuq"]http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsbu ... z1dzgWgfuq[/url]

[skyhawk]

Re: Ben is at the Top of the League in This Category...

Roethlisberger brings toughness to Steelers

By Ralph N. Paulk, PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Thursday, November 17, 2011



Ben Roethlisberger seemingly thrives on adversity. The Steelers quarterback has been on the field when others probably would spend game day icing stressed muscles or resting aching joints.

In October, Roethlisberger limped onto Heinz Field with an ailing foot to face fired-up Tennessee a week after getting pummeled in a ragged defeat at Houston. The Steelers humbled the Titans, 38-17, even as Roethlisberger hobbled in and out of the huddle.

On Sunday in Cincinnati, he broke his right thumb midway through the third quarter. The Steelers escaped with a 24-17 victory over the Bengals, who had been atop the AFC North.

Roethlisberger orchestrated an 81-yard scoring drive with his most reliable receiver, Hines Ward, on the bench. He did it even though the offensive line allowed the Bengals to sack him five times for the second time in three games.

"Ben is a tough guy mentally and physically," guard Ramon Foster said. "A lot of quarterbacks show their emotions, but with him you might only see a grimace whether he gets hit or breaks a thumb."

Roethlisberger, who has been sacked an AFC-high 31 times, didn't flinch on the winning drive. He took a couple of heavy blows to his banged-up body but maintained his focus.

"The way I play the game, a lot of those sacks are on me," Roethlisberger said Wednesday. "It's my fault because I hold the ball and try to make plays."

Still, until the offensive line discovered some continuity a month ago, it was peppered with criticism. It couldn't run block. It couldn't pass block.

The offensive front is last in the AFC in efficiency. Only St. Louis' line has given up more sacks (32).

Despite those unimpressive numbers, Roethlisberger is having what Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis called "one of his best seasons ever." Roethlisberger needs only 123 passing yards to reach 3,000. His touchdown-to-interception ratio of 16-9 isn't anything to brag about, but he's completing 63.3 percent of his throws, and the Steelers are 7-3 — a surprising start considering they stumbled out of the gate with a 35-7 loss in Baltimore.

"He's just a great quarterback," guard Doug Legursky said. "He's been able to stay calm no matter what happens. If it's successful for him, it's success for our offense."

"I don't make excuses, and I'm not going to complain about anything," Roethlisberger said. "I went in and grab those guys four or five weeks ago and reminded them that I'll always stand up for them."

Roethlisberger has led by example. He has played hurt and shouldered much of the blame when the Steelers came up short.

"After the first game, everyone counted us out," said Roethlisberger, who threw three interceptions and fumbled twice in that loss to the Ravens. "We just laughed because it was too early. We're not sitting where we want to be, but we're in a good spot. We're slowly working our way to the top."

[url="http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/sports/steelers/s_767774.html#ixzz1dzgWgfuq"]http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsbu ... z1dzgWgfuq[/url]

Ben is a winner.

[fezziwig]

Re: Ben is at the Top of the League in This Category...

Ben does play better hurt. If Brady had to endure the punishment, injuries Ben has dealt with over the years you could bet he would need to sit the games out.

[hawaiiansteel]

Re: Ben is at the Top of the League in This Category...

Ed: Ben Threw Today for First Time in Week

MONDAY, 21 NOVEMBER 2011 WRITTEN BY ED BOUCHETTE


Ben Roethlisberger threw the football today for the first time since his right thumb was broken against Cincinnati Nov. 13 but did not get under center to take snaps from Maurkice Pouncey and did not hand the ball off. He practiced as he said last week he would, with a splint on his broken right thumb and a glove over it.

Here's an interview with the quarterback after practice today:

BEN

On cutler's broken thumb vs. yours

Ben: I don't know exactly to what extent his injury was; to avoid surgery and keep playing is lucky.

Did you wear glove today?

?Ben: I had the splint on with the glove.

Do you throw differently?

Ben: It's definitely different. It hurts first off to just grip the ball. I's something you have to get used to. Coach told me not to go today but I was like I want to get some reps, I want to throw some. I didn't take any under-center snaps. I wanted to take a few reps and at least get a feel for it and get used to it.

on pain

Ben: I doubt it goes away this week but it won't be the first time I played througha little bit of pain.

on last week:

Ben: I got treatment every day on it but other than that, that was about it.

On not numbing it:

Ben: yeah, right, correct. It wouldn't be very smart to numb your hand. It's just dealing with the pain. Adrenalin is one of the best pain medicines there is.

On Cutler hurt making a tackle and your famous tackle in Indy:

Ben: I'm a tackling machine. It's natural. There's no way I could sit there and say, 'I have to make this tackle, oh, wait, Jay got hurt, how do I do this?' No, it's just go after himand get him down. Hopefully, you don't have to make a tackle, that's the first problem.

Will this affect your accuracy?

Ben: I hope not, I'm not the best anyway. It's so early to really tell too much. We're just going to take it day by day and I promise you I'll be out there.

On taking snap from Pouncey:

Ben: I don't want him to have to change who he is. So he'll just do what he does and I'll make the adjustments.

Will you do that half-shotgun formation?

Ben: The Pistol-type thing? Yep. We did a little bit of that today too. We did it in Baltimore when my foot was hurt. At all costs we try to avoid that because it's tougher on the back to see around me. We're trying to avoid that but if that's how we have to get through some practices and plays then we'll do that.

On handoffs, can they be a problem?

Ben: It can. We didn't do any of that today either. It's one of those ones if I do feel [it's a problem] I'll just hand off with my left hand all the time.

Even a dive off your left?

Ben: Yup. Or we won't call that play.

On Tyler Palko, with KC, you know much about him?

Ben: Just from his time here. Great competitor. A guy that really puts the work in and is a good playerwho wants to be good, wants to be the best. The time he was out here he was always competing and I'd say that's one of his best qualities.

Ben: On Antonio Brown becoming a third-down target:

A lot of that goes back to Mike. A lot of that is people are rolling over Mike and we put Antonio on a spot on the backside where he's running the backside position and he's singled up alot, and when you get single coverage and you have a guy as talented as he is, with body control, with his hands, he has speed to run deep -- so it's not likehe'sjust a slow guy who can't threaten people deep. He just has a lot of tools and he puts in the extra work. If you watch us during practice, he's constantly by my side. I don't want to say this in a negative way but he's like a gnat, he's just always right there. And it's good because he's coming asking, 'OK, Ben on this play how do you want me to do this? Do youwant me to do this?' And I think that's awesome because I know where he's going to be, he knows where I want him to be. And that's one of the biggest reasons I think we've been so successful on third down in that backside is because of the extra communication that he puts in and we put in together.

Just knowing each other now. It helps, even today when I wasn't doing much, he came to me and wanted to talk about one particular route -- 'If a guy is behind me here what do you want me to do here?' Those little things are huge, that he wants to be great.

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