Holy shit, I’m going to go lie down for awhile.
Also, 469 yards passing and 65 yards rushing. Whatever works, I suppose…
How you do get ‘lucky’ by throwing for 503 yards and 3 touchdowns?
Perhaps by winning the game doing that on a last second touchdown that has to be reviewed to determine if it really was a touchdown; if not, you’ve lost the game? 
Lucky or not I’d rather see a few dozen carries per game so our offense isn’t so one-dimensional.
It was reviewed because it was the final play of the game…it was never in doubt. That doesn’t make HIM lucky, it makes the Steelers lucky that their quarterback can bail them out of what was another pathetic 4th quarter performance by the defense.
When the final drive is continued by an interception that got called back and another interception that was literally inches away. Also, by two unbelievable catches against a sideline that other QBs just don’t get. Mike Wallace with a shoestring, laid out, toe tapping sideline TD with 0 seconds left? Seriously? No other QB gets those kinds of plays from marginal rotation players. Any QB can get 400+ and 3 TDs, that isn’t exactly special.
I’m not saying Big Ben is bad… but come on. The guy gets more breaks than any QB I’ve ever seen. That game is over if any other QB sits in the pocket for 6 seconds a play and chucks it downfield into double coverage. Big Ben gets miracle catches every other week. It’s incredible!
I think it makes Big Ben lucky that yet another game-winning TD is caught on a miracle toe-tapping sideline catch by a marginal receiver. I’ll give Ben all the credit he deserves for having a great statistical game, but this guy gets a lot of praise for plays his receivers are making. Watch the highlights, listen to the radio shows, it’ll be all “Big Ben does it again!!” instead of “Big Ben nearly blew it with a bad pick twice on the final drive!”
On the other hand, it says something when you make do every time you’re given a second chance. I say Big Ben is the luckiest QB ever, it’s also that nobody else makes their luck work for them more. Not sure if that’s a skill or not, but it’s a damn fine thing to be able to do.
When “breaks” and “miracles” happen as often as you say (and they have) I believe it’s time to give the guy his just due.
Hella performance, hella game.
First of all, calling Wallace a marginal receiver means that you haven’t watched this team. He’s an exceptional young talent, and I think will end up being a premier receiver in this league. He’s only a rookie, but he makes plays every week.
Second, Ben gets these catches because he puts the ball EXACTLY where it needs to be. The TD in the end zone in the Super Bowl? Amazing catch, yes…but the throw was absolutely perfect. One inch in any different direction, and it’s either tipped or out of Santonio’s reach.
As to the interception negated? Well, yeah, it’s easy to get a pick when you knock down the intended receiver. It was called back for a reason. Not to mention that the Packers actually got more calls in this game. Don’t forget about the pretty blatant pass interference that WASN’T called a few plays later. That could have been huge.
Flat out, Ben makes plays. Yes, he holds the ball and makes plays out of nothing. It’s his biggest strength. It’s also his biggest weakness, as it results in a LOT of sacks. Sure, he’s got good receivers (good drafting…ALL of the Steelers regular receivers were drafted by the Steelers (Ward, Holmes, Wallace, Miller, two of which were 3rd rounders), but the man has made 13 4th quarter comebacks in his short career, including a Super Bowl winning drive last year. He’s an ultimate clutch QB. He’s certainly not perfect, but I’ll take it.
I know what you mean. If I’m not mistaken you’re an Eagles fan, no? One of the guys I like a lot in this league is Donovan McNabb who, skill-wise, would have to be considered superior to Ben Roethlisberger in almost every category but Rothlisberger has that magic ability to elude, evade, and create magic that separates him from McNabb at least in terms of Super Bowls. Ben played shitty in the 2005 SB but that weird scrambling keeping-the-play-alive-at-all-costs urgency he’s known for was a big part of getting them there. I mean, come on, what other quarterback makes that loping shoestring tackle he made to save Jerome Bettis’ ass on the fumble?
No one.
I love him for all that but throwing twice as much as they run is a recipe for failure even if they do squeak out a win here and there with that style like they did today.
Wallace has been great. We hear every game about his speed but his hands are every bit as good as Hines Ward’s. He has made some nice catches in traffic too. He’s a keeper.
Two things - Lawrence Timmons dropped an easy pick just a few plays before Rodgers ran the ball in for a touchdown. Does that make Rodgers as lucky as Roethlisberger?
Secondly, the Steelers are just coming off a five game losing streak which likely put them out of the playoffs. In what universe does that suggest that Ben Roethlisberger is the luckiest QB who gets big breaks every other week.
Did anyone else love, as much as I did, the holding committed (but of course not called) against James Harrison that kept Rodgers from being sacked so that he could throw the first touchdown pass? I loved the iso, and the understated comments from Aikman - “He could have been called for holding.” Could have been?
If any of the haters missed it, it was textbook holding Harrison - arm around the neck restraining Harrison from behind as he busts by your weak ass attempt to block.
I fucking hate Joe Buck and, to a lesser extent, Troy Aikman. What the hell was up with the attempt to make Heinz Field look responsible for the missed field goal by Green Bay. Seriously, 20 minutes after the fact they show a close up of a field goal attempt by Green Bay that missed right and then one of Jeff Reed on a made field goal. Buck said that the Green Bay kicker’s foot slipped, and Reed’s didn’t. Thing was, both plant feet looked exactly the same - foot planted, cleats grabbed just fine. I swear I ran that one back and forth five times trying to see what they were claiming to show.
How about Buck on the Green Bay kick that resulted in the touchback. “The ball bounced over the pylon, but they’re calling it a touchback.” No shit sherlock. They’re calling it a touchback because if it goes over the pylon, it’s out of bounds in the end zone. I laughed my ass off when Buck came back after commercial with a little football 101 to educate us on how it’s a touchback if the ball touches (or goes over) the pylon on a kick.
That reminds me of the “leading with the helmet” commentary when Timmons nailed Rodgers. I understand Rodgers’ displeasure, after all he has to look out for himself, but when you make hits, your helmet has to be somewhere. Guys don’t have spring-loaded heads for fuck’s sake. You’re hitting a moving target and sometimes the target moves to where your helmet is. If they want to call leading with the helmet hits they should be looking in the secondary, not at Timmons. It could be argued as borderline as so many plays are but the tut, tut, naughty linebacker attitude of those two commentators gets to me.
That’s not the first time we’ve heard that type of comment and it really is baffling. Both kickers are on the same field, how can they possibly suggest the field is advantageous to one over the other?
On a semi-related note. I am not in favour of sacking Jeff Reed after this reason. Yeah, I know about the run-in with the cop but by all accounts he’s a really nice guy who spends a lot of time signing autographs and talking to fans, and is surprisingly well-respected in the locker room (how many kickers are voted team captains by their teammates?). But the biggest reason for keeping him is that he makes kicking in Heinz field look routine. Meanwhile, every other week we see a kicker from another team come in and make it look like a challenge. I trust the front office to do the right thing but from my layman’s perspective the right thing seems to be to bring him back.
Another guy they can’t get rid of is James Farrior. He’s lost a step to the point where he probably should come out on passing downs but the guy still plays with energy and if there is one thing lacking on this squad it’s the fire of a hungry team. Farrior and Harrison are playing hungry even with Super Bowl rings at home. Ike Taylor is a guy who is not.
How about that bullshit call against Burnett? The returner was clearly still in bounds when Burnett pushed him. I know the Fox guys thought it was clear cut because the Green Bay runner was “headed out of bounds,” but the time you lay off a guy who is headed out of bounds is when he turns upfield for a couple more yards on you.
I completely agree. In any other year, kicking off to the 10 or 15 would not be a problem, because with our usual defense, it doesn’t matter if you kick off to the 40. With our horrific special teams and suprisingly bad defense though, it makes a difference. Nevertheless, Reed is money when it comes to kicking at Heinz Field, and when you need three points to win the game on the last play, you’re not going to give a shit if the guy never kicked a touchback in his life. Just don’t try a 53 yard attempt, not with Reed and not with our present defense.
This, I’m not sure I agree with. I’m not saying I’m in favor of getting rid of him by any stretch, and he’s probably one of the few guys who can still reliably tackle, but he’s not been as much of a factor as he typically is. I’m just not sure if it’s more a matter of scheme and of trying to make up for other deficits on the defense than it’s a matter of individual ability when it comes to Farrior.
Yeah, I care less and less about the touchbacks and shit. His job is to kick and he does it well. I wonder how Sepulveda would look on kickoffs. I’m sure they have a good reason for not doing it but he seems like he would have the strength.
Maybe, you gotta figure he’s doing something different that others just haven’t figured out. I’m still not sold, though. There are very few players in the history of the game who can keep a play alive like Ben can, he’s just a truck and is darn near impossible to tackle in the pocket. He gets the benefit of an inordinate amount of circus catches though.
Okay, but let’s, uh, not get carried away here. He sure didn’t make plays like that over the last five weeks when he had a total of seven catches. I’m sure he’s a promising young player, but he’s Mike Wallace. I’ll be happy to have you quote this when he goes to a Pro Bowl, but… he’s Mike Wallace. Rookies don’t make catches like that.
Yeah it ended up being a heck of a pass, too. But, remember, that ball gets thrown up seconds before Ben has any possible idea of where the defenders will be (or how they will time their jumps, etc.) so I find it to be a shade of homerism to assume Big Ben did that exactly that way on purpose. I think he could stand still, with no rush, and not hit that same spot with his next four passes. Give the man credit for making an incredible pass exactly when he needed to (and it was a perfect pass), but again, let’s not get carried away here.
I’d like to see a replay of it if at all possible, but I remember that pick happening five yards in front of where the WR ended up getting knocked down, and getting knocked down didn’t have anything to do with the pick happening. I’m very willing to admit I’m not remembering it right, but I’d like to see it again.
Yeah, I’m an Eagles fan. And I’ll start by saying that McNabb doesn’t get half the credit he’s deserved over his career. He’s every bit as good as Roethlisberger at evading tackles and staying alive under pressure (I think better, but that’s me), but the difference is he’s throwing to guys like Freddy Fucking Mitchell and not Hines Ward. I wouldn’t argue against Roethlisberger being a lot more accurate than McNabb, but McNabb hasn’t gotten catches like the Holmes catch or this Wallace catch in crucial moments in his entire career. That;s a big part of my point. Again, I’m not saying Ben is bad. But he’s getting vastly overrated because of incredible plays his teammates are making for him. Sorta the nature of being a QB actually, you get all the credit and all the blame.
If Rodgers had gone on to actually win the game, that would have been a really lucky break. If Rodgers had built a career and a reputation on getting big breaks like that again and again, then yeah, he’d be just as lucky as Roethlisberger. He didn’t, and hasn’t, so the answer is an obvious no.
Well, that’s a fair point. He doesn’t get bailed out by his teammates every week, I mean, the Steelers lost leads in the 4th in a lot of those games, right? (Where was the ultimate clutch QB then?) But this is still the QB with the lowest passer rating of any winning QB in Super Bowl history, so he’s benefitted from a ton of luck in his career,
I really think your assessment is way off. Roethlisberger should be criticized for holding the ball too long, but his accuracy and playmaking really isn’t questionable.
HIs 2005 SB rating was poor, but his 2005 postseason QB rating was 101.7, so he did what he needed to be the only 6th seed to get to and win the Superbowl, even if his performance in the big game was a let-down.
His 2008 SB rating was 98.2, so I think he’s proven that he can perform in the big game, including a last minute game winning touchdown drive beyond parallel.
I just got add that I was one of the 57K fans at the game last night and… WOW! I usually make it to one preseason and one regular season game a year over the last 4-5 years. I’ve never experienced a game in person like that game. The communal emotional roller coaster of the 4th quarter and the last drive was unlike anything I’ve experienced before in person. The explosion of (dare I say) joy when Wallace caught that ball was… I just cannot find the appropriate adjectives to describe it. Fan-farkin-tastic!
Sure were a lot of Packer’s fans in the stadium though…
MeanJoe