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Molon labe
People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf. George Orwell
?We're not going to apologize for winning.?
Mike Tomlin
American metal pimped by asiansteel
Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you 1. Jesus Christ, 2.The American G.I., One died for your soul, the other for your freedom. -
Molon labe
People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf. George Orwell
?We're not going to apologize for winning.?
Mike Tomlin
American metal pimped by asiansteel
Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you 1. Jesus Christ, 2.The American G.I., One died for your soul, the other for your freedom.Comment
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Steeler teams featuring stat-driven, me-first, fantasy-football-darling diva types such as Antonio Brown & Le'Veon Bell won no championships.
Super Bowl winning Steeler teams were built around a dynamic, in-your-face defense plus blue-collar, hard-hitting, no-nonsense football players on offense such as Hines Ward & Jerome Bettis.
We don't want Juju & Conner to replace what we lost in Brown & Bell.
We are counting on Juju & Conner to return us to the glory we once had with Hines & The Bus.Comment
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Challenges for Ben Roethlisberger after signing $99 million deal
Ben Roethlisberger and Todd Haley will try to continue the success they enjoyed last season.
by Jeremy Fowler, ESPN Senior NFL Writer
Coming off a career statistical year and with his best supporting cast in years, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has a great chance to play at the level his new contract suggests he will.
Tuesday’s OTA session marks the first time Roethlisberger takes the field in a competitive team setting since signing a five-year, $99 million deal this offseason that can vault to $108 million.
Joining Roethlisberger on the field is arguably the league’s best running back/receiver tandem in Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown, an offensive line stocked with successful draft picks eyeing a top 10 league rushing performance, and several young players that need developmental help from their 33-year-old quarterback.
The whispers of discord with Todd Haley have dissipated as Roethlisberger enters the fourth season with the former Chiefs head coach. Posting 4,952 yards and a 103.3 passer rating quells any concerns between quarterback and coordinator.
But make no mistake, Roethlisberger must satisfy a few areas to validate the new money.
Improve playoff turnover numbers: Roethlisberger is naturally compared to Joe Flacco because of the AFC North connection, with both posting 10-5 playoff records.
Roethlisberger probably tops Flacco on most pundits’ top 10 lists, but Flacco has a sizable lead over Roethlisberger in one important area: playoff touchdown-to-interception ratio.
Flacco’s 25-to-10 (2.5) performance overwhelms Roethlisberger’s 21-to-19 (1.1) clip. Seven of Roethlisberger’s interceptions have come in his last four playoff games, including two in last season’s loss to the Ravens in the wild-card round. Roethlisberger was without Bell that week.
The onus is on Roethlisberger to protect the ball better no matter who’s in the lineup.
Build on continuity with Haley: Both parties expressed a healthy respect for one another after questions persisted for years. They had a huge season together in 2014. Year 4 in the Haley-Roethlisberger experiment presents the chance for a true partnership that brings the best out of each other.
Tom Brady seems to have this with Josh McDaniels, Drew Brees with Sean Payton and Aaron Rodgers with Mike McCarthy. It’s easy to praise someone when the numbers are piling up. Partnerships don't break if a season starts slow, which is entirely possible for Pittsburgh while Bell misses three games.
If that happens, Steelers fans will see how strong the Roethlisberger-Haley bond is.
Make younger players better: Martavis Bryant, Markus Wheaton and Sammie Coates will be fascinating to watch develop in the next year or two. Bryant is well on his way after coming off an eight-touchdown, 21-yards-per-catch season. Wheaton has flashed potential but could be asked to man the slot position full time. That requires finding a serious rhythm with Roethlisberger. The slot role has never been more crucial in NFL passing games.
Coates has downfield speed and athleticism but is a bit raw and is trying to shed the drops label. Can Roethlisberger help maximize Coates' potential?
There’s also fifth-round tight end Jesse James, who could play meaningful snaps as Heath Miller enters his 11th season.
Roethlisberger is playing behind top-shelf offensive line talent. Two linemen have earned hefty long-term deals (Maurkice Pouncey, Marcus Gilbert) and two more could get one soon (David DeCastro, Kelvin Beachum). If the line finds a run-heavy identity similar to the Cowboys the last few years, that alleviates pressure on Roethlisberger to carry the offense all the time. That helps the turnovers (see: first point).
[URL]http://espn.go.com/blog/pittsburgh-steelers/post/_/id/13899/three-challenges-for-steelers-ben-roethlisberger-after-signing-99-m-deal[/URL]Comment
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Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger ready for more pressure
By Ed Bouchette / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
After the first spring practice on the first day of the rest of his career, Ben Roethlisberger fielded all kinds of questions about pressure: Pressure to improve on the best passing season of any Steelers quarterback, pressure from opposing defenses and, of course, the air pressure in the footballs he throws.
Last to first, how does he like his footballs — pumped up, or, like Tom Brady, with a little air let out?
“People ask me all the time what our PSI is. I have no idea,” Roethlisberger said. “Whatever they put it at, I play with it.”
He added that he does not try to break in the game footballs the way other quarterbacks do, which is legal. “Not me. I never have. I am not even one that messes with the balls before the games to see which ones I like. I just go play.”
He did that better than ever in 2014, when he tied for the NFL lead with 4,952 passing yards, a Steelers record. His 103.3 passer rating ranked third. His ratio of touchdowns (32, tying his team record) to interceptions (9) of 78.04 percent was the best of his career. His completion rate of 67.1 percent set a team record of which there were many more last season.
How’s that Todd Haley/Roethlisberger relationship now?
But can they do even more in 2015?
“I hope so,” Roethlisberger said. “There are still a lot of areas we can improve in. We want to improve on third downs, improve in the red zone and we want to score more points. Obviously, guys had some amazing individual seasons last year and we had a really good season on offense in general, but there are always areas we can improve in and get better.”
Yes, the red zone, which is where Mike Tomlin opened practice Tuesday.
“Coach Tomlin told me we were going to do it, so I was a little prepared for it,” Roethlisberger said. “But it was surprising in the sense that we hadn’t put red zone in and the defense hadn’t put red zone in yet, but that’s going to be a big part of the game now. Teams are consciously going for two points, or at least debating it.”
For a team that ranked second in the NFL with 411.1 yards per game last season, just 0.3 behind New Orleans, it did not score often enough. The Steelers ranked seventh in the NFL with 436 points, and those did not come with consistency, reasons it lost to the lowly New York Jets (20-13) and Cleveland Browns (31-10).
Much of that inefficiency can be laid at the other teams’ doorsteps — inside the 20-yard line. That highly-productive offense performed as if it had Stickum on its cleats once it cracked the opponent’s red zone. The Steelers ranked 19th in the league, scoring touchdowns at a rate of just 51.72 percent once in the red zone.
Roethlisberger blamed that lack of finishing touch on many things: “From me calling better plays, to us executing better, to understanding everything happens faster. Receivers have to know the ball is coming out faster. I have to get the ball out faster. It’s just a general understanding that everything down there is magnified, and it happens faster.”
As part of their continuing education, Roethlisberger invited a group of receivers to the University of Georgia while the Steelers had rookie minicamp. Antonio Brown, Markus Wheaton, Martavis Bryant and Darrius Heyward-Bey joined him, as did halfback Le’Veon Bell.
“It was good,” Roethlisberger said of their workouts in Athens, Ga. “I think we got a good start [Tuesday]. That was kind of the point, to get down there and get a jump on hand signals, understanding them, getting a jump on all that stuff.”
The quarterback renowned for defeating pressure applied on him by blitzing defenses was the best quarterback in the NFL last season when defenses brought no pressure on him. It has to drive defensive coordinators crazy. Blitz him, and he’s great at beating it. Don’t blitz, and he’s the best at beating you.
According to statistics kept by Pro Football Focus, Roethlisberger was blitzed 22.7 percent of the time in 2014, the third fewest of any quarterback. When not getting blitzed, he ranked at the top of all NFL quarterbacks for passing success, according to PFF.
He also was sacked the fewest times (33) of his career when he started more than 13 games in a season. It is a big reason the Steelers changed coordinators in 2012, to get those sack numbers down.
“I haven’t changed my game at all,’’ Roethlisberger insisted. “I think when you call plays that are shorter-routed plays — Bruce Arians was known to go down the field and take shots. So you are going to have to hold onto the ball. We call a lot of plays that get the ball out quick to receivers.
“Todd Haley’s offense is a lot about catching the ball, running and putting up yards after the catch. So I think that’s what it is more than me changing or anyone changing.”
[URL]http://www.post-gazette.com/sports/s...s/201505270080[/URL]Comment
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Mark Kaboly @MarkKaboly_Trib -
I came to realization today that the Steelers are 5-11 team without Roethlisberger and 11-5 with him. Not sure if any team has larger gap
[URL]https://twitter.com/MarkKaboly_Trib[/URL]Comment
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I bet that the Colts and Broncos would have a similar decline if they lost their franchise QB...probably the Packers as well.Actually, my post was NOT about you...but, if the shoe fits, feel free to lace that &!+€# up and wear it.Comment
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Steeler teams featuring stat-driven, me-first, fantasy-football-darling diva types such as Antonio Brown & Le'Veon Bell won no championships.
Super Bowl winning Steeler teams were built around a dynamic, in-your-face defense plus blue-collar, hard-hitting, no-nonsense football players on offense such as Hines Ward & Jerome Bettis.
We don't want Juju & Conner to replace what we lost in Brown & Bell.
We are counting on Juju & Conner to return us to the glory we once had with Hines & The Bus.Comment
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Comment
-
Steeler teams featuring stat-driven, me-first, fantasy-football-darling diva types such as Antonio Brown & Le'Veon Bell won no championships.
Super Bowl winning Steeler teams were built around a dynamic, in-your-face defense plus blue-collar, hard-hitting, no-nonsense football players on offense such as Hines Ward & Jerome Bettis.
We don't want Juju & Conner to replace what we lost in Brown & Bell.
We are counting on Juju & Conner to return us to the glory we once had with Hines & The Bus.Comment
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