I didn’t care for the way Ben Roethlisberger threw his wide receivers under the bus after the AFC Championship game. If he didn’t throw them, he at least pushed them towards it.
“There were missed opportunities whether we didn’t execute well enough, whether plays weren’t made by me or other guys,” Roethlisberger said. “At times it felt like maybe it was too big for some of the young guys.”
Specifically, Cobi Hamilton dropped a touchdown and stepped out of bounds before catching what would have been another score. Sammie Coates failed to hang onto a long ball that might have gone for a score.
“It’s a little frustrating,” Roethlisberger said. “We talk about how sometimes it’s just one play here, one play there. Tonight we didn’t make those plays. Was [the moment] too big? I don’t know. We need to make every single play in a game like this, in a moment like this.”
I pulled these quotes out of story at the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.
What Roethlisberger said isn’t awful, but there’s a certain disconnect with the reality that he’s part of the problem. He’s a good quarterback – one of the top 10 in the league, and maybe in the top 5 – but he’s not nearly as good as Tom Brady. Brady compared to Roethlisberger is like Roethlisberger compared to Andy Dalton.
Roethlisberger is 1-7 in his last eight games against Tom Brady, with 16 TDs and 9 interceptions. The Steelers have had the better defense in all but one of those games. That is, Pittsburgh allowed fewer points in the regular season in all of those games up until this most recent game. In 2013, the Patriots allowed 4 fewer points but were 20 points behind the Steelers if you set aside the 55-31 head-to-head game.
Brady is 7-1 in his last eight against Roethlisberger, with 22 touchdowns versus only 1 interception. And while the Steelers didn’t have Martavis Bryant and LeVeon Bell on Sunday, Brady has had to play many games over the years without notable players (particularly Rob Gronkowski). Truth is, he’s just the better of these two quarterbacks, and it’s not particularly close.
| ROETHLISBERGER VS. BRADY | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Site | Result | Cmp% | Yds | TD | Int |
| 2004 | Pitt. | W 34-20 | 75% | 196 | 2 | 0 |
| 2004 | *Pitt. | L 27-41 | 58% | 226 | 2 | 3 |
| 2005 | Pitt. | L 20-23 | 43% | 216 | 2 | 0 |
| 2007 | N.E. | L 13-34 | 59% | 187 | 1 | 0 |
| 2010 | Pitt. | L 26-39 | 61% | 387 | 3 | 1 |
| 2011 | Pitt. | W 25-17 | 72% | 365 | 2 | 1 |
| 2013 | N.E. | L 31-55 | 58% | 400 | 4 | 2 |
| 2015 | N.E. | L 21-28 | 68% | 351 | 1 | 1 |
| 2016 | *N.E. | L 17-36 | 66% | 314 | 1 | 1 |
| BRADY VS. ROETHLISBERGER | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Year | Site | Result | Cmp% | Yds | TD | Int |
| 2004 | Pitt. | L 20-34 | 58% | 271 | 2 | 2 |
| 2004 | *Pitt. | W 41-27 | 67% | 207 | 2 | 0 |
| 2005 | Pitt. | W 23-20 | 76% | 372 | 0 | 1 |
| 2007 | N.E. | W 34-13 | 70% | 399 | 4 | 0 |
| 2010 | Pitt. | W 39-26 | 70% | 350 | 3 | 0 |
| 2011 | Pitt. | L 17-25 | 69% | 198 | 2 | 0 |
| 2013 | N.E. | W 55-31 | 70% | 432 | 4 | 0 |
| 2015 | N.E. | W 28-21 | 78% | 288 | 4 | 0 |
| 2016 | *N.E. | W 36-17 | 76% | 384 | 3 | 0 |
—Ian Allan