Roethlisberger Shines In Relief Of Steelers’ Starter Jones
Ben Roethlisberger wasn’t supposed to play today. As he put it, his foot was ‘black and blue’ earlier in the week and the plan was for the Pittsburgh Steelers to give him more time with a bye week on deck. It didn’t quite work out that way. Roethlisberger was pressed into service when starting quarterback Landry Jones was injured and turn in a virtuoso performance.
Jones limped off the field with an injured ankle midway through the first quarter and that left the Steelers with no options. Roethlisberger entered the game and took over. ‘Big Ben’ finished with 379 yards of passing in the Steelers’ 30-9 victory over the Cleveland Browns. That gave him the NFL record for most passing yards in relief, besting Wade Wilson’s 374 yards from 1990. Even more impressive–Roethlisberger did this with virtually no practice this week. Since the plan was to give him another week of rehab Jones took the majority of reps this week.
Roethlisberger even surprised himself with his record breaking effort: “I kinda surprised myself. My foot was basically black and blue [early in the week]. I didn’t expect to have to go in that early. You basically treat it like a normal game.” With the only other option at quarterback being tight end Tyler Murphy there was really no other option and head coach Mike Tomlin tried to make it as easy as possible for Roethlisberger: “We operated out of the no-huddle a little bit, brought the game to him. It was less game-plan specific and more football 1-on-1.”
Roethlisberger’s effort earned the rest of his teammates on the other side of the ball. Defensive end Cameron Heyward gave ‘Big Ben’ respect after the game: “When we needed him, he stepped up. I wouldn’t have had any other quarterback out there.”
The Steelers have dealt with all sorts of personnel issues at quarterback so far this season. When you have no better option than to start washed up Michael Vick you know things are bad. They’ve seemingly made it through the worst of things, however, and have a good chance of making the postseason as a wildcard.