Seeing as the Steelers – and Ben Roethlisberger - still have two games left in the season it would seem a bit premature to reflect on Ben’s career. After all, it’s not over yet.
However, seeing as Cincinnati came from 14 points down to beat Kansas City and the Raiders also beat the Colts on the final play and the Chargers’ eliminated the Broncos, tonight’s game against the Browns will be Ben Roethlisberger’s final game at Heinz Field. It may even be his final game as a Steeler.
(Yes, there is still a playoff chance should Indianapolis lose to Jacksonville next Sunday but - as crazy as this season has been - let’s not get carried away.)
With that in mind, it’s incumbent upon people like me – especially those of us who, in one way or another, have covered every NFL game Ben has played – to share our memories of the most prolific quarterback in franchise history. Some have already surfaced so I am a little late to the party. What I have chosen to do is limit these to what I witnessed in person, in stadium as a certain coach might say.
I am also limiting these to positive memories.
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Ben Roethlisberger’s “Welcome to the NFL” was more like “NFL – Welcome to Ben.” His christening came when Tommy Maddox was hurt against the Ravens and he understandably struggled but once he started starting Roethlisberger didn’t lose. He was 4-and-0 going into games against the unbeaten Patriots and Eagles and beat them both, throwing for 2 TDs in each game.
At some point during that streak I did what any self-respecting Pittsburgh dad did at that time. I bought Steelers #7 jerseys for my kids. I think it was after the NE game since I seem to remember overnighting it to our older son Chris who was at Virginia Tech so he’d have in time for the Philly game. (It worked – at least until the playoffs.)
I was in visiting stadiums for the AFC wild card run the next season. Ben directed a 10-point comeback in Cincinnati, unleashed a first quarter onslaught in Indianapolis then put together a clinical performance in the AFC Championship game at Denver. I still can see his 17-yard dart to Hines Ward under the goalpost at Mile High with 7 seconds left in the half for an insurmountable 24-3 lead.
If you’re wondering why I didn’t include the Indianapolis tackle against Nick Harper as one of Ben’s great plays (and in some ways, it is his greatest) it’s only because I did not see it as it happened. Since the Porter/Farrior sack should have clinched the victory I was making my way 6 stories down from the Press Box when all hell broke loose. Cell phones erupted – “He did what?” “Who? Really?” – which dozens of us finally saw once we reached ground level with TV monitors outside the locker rooms.
I’ll remember the 65-yard TD pass to Santonio Holmes in the 2008 AFC Championship and the 53-yard completion to a then-unknown Antonio Brown on a 3rd-and-19 in 2010 but two other regular season plays I saw first-hand will always stand out – for different reasons.
2006 at Cleveland – the Steelers trailed 13-3 in the fourth quarter so the Browns were finally going to beat them. Roethlisberger led 3 touchdown drives in the final 9:33, his third after he broke free from a sack and tossed a 4-yard TD to Willie Parker with 39 seconds left for a 24-20 victory. Didn’t do the Steelers much good in an 8-8 season but it helped lay the groundwork for Ben’s dominance over the team that passed on him in the draft two years earlier.
It also led to a terribly disgruntled Browns fan assaulting the (then) FSN Pittsburgh production van as it was stuck in traffic leaving Cleveland after that game.
2016 vs Dallas at Heinz Field – one of Ben’s most prolific games against a really good team. He finished 37-46 for 408 yards and 3 TDs. In those days we were allowed on the field in the final two minutes so I was on the sidelines when he threw 5 straight completions, his last a15-yarder to Antonio Brown, on a 75-yard drive which put the Steelers in front with 42 seconds left. The way the game had gone I remember thinking too much time so I went toward the opposite end zone. I looked up and there was Ben, along with Al Villaneuva, thinking the same thing. We all watched as Ezekiel Elliott scored on a 33 yard run with 9 seconds left for the Dallas win.
Okay, that result was not a positive but it showed that Roethlisberger can think like the rest of us. I’m sure you also knew that Dallas was going to score again that night. Plus, the Steelers did go on to win their next eight games before losing at New England in the conference championship with a depleted line-up.
There are many other Ben Roethlisberger memories – both good and bad - and I’m sure you have yours. If you are under 30 you don’t remember any other Steelers QB.
It really is going to be weird when he is gone.