After a tough night in which the offense scored just 15 points (2 came via safety), Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger put the Steelers 30-17 loss to the Ravens on himself after he threw for 334 yards and a touchdown but was also intercepted twice, Scott Brown of ESPN.com reports.
“I didn’t play well enough to win, and guys look at me as the leader and the quarterback to make plays and I didn’t do that,” the 11-year veteran said. “I want to apologize to the fans, my teammates, to the organization, to the Rooneys and to the coaches,” Roethlisberger said. “I wish that I could apologize to everybody individually.”
Roethlisberger said the individual numbers he put up while leading the Steelers to the AFC North title mean little to him. Roethlisberger shared the NFL passing title (4,952 yards) with Saints quarterback Drew Brees and also set several Steelers season records. “I don’t really care about what I did,” Roethlisberger said. “I’m proud of the way that this team bounced back from the last two years and got back to the playoffs. I’m proud of the way a lot of the young guys stepped up.”
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jay
January 4, 2015 at 9:11 pm
That’s transparent nobility BB, doesn’t do any good AFTER you’ve sucked! Thanks for letting 3rd and 4th stringers confuse you! What was your wonderlic score again—HA-Ha I hope the organization doesn’t resign you and parts ways until we can find someone who knows how to read a defense! It’d be one thing if it were settles’ vaunted secondary, but you let not seattle, not seattle, but baltimore’s suck ass secondary outsmart you! Hold onto the ball a little longer next year, maybe we can all have a fun little picnic back there while we wait for you to decide what to do with the ball!
DaveB.
January 5, 2015 at 7:13 am
I will be the first to say Ben did not play one of his best games against the Ravens . However , with that being said , to say that Ben cost the Steelers this football game is rediculous . First , his all-pro running back who the entire offense has been ran through this year was on the sidelines in street clothes . Secondly , his offensive line allowed five sacks in the game . Third , the defense , which has been the case most of the year , could not get off the field . Those arent excuses , theyre facts . Lastly , whoever the trainer or Doctor was that made the decision to put Ben back in the game after his head was driven into the ground , should be fired and I do mean fired . It was obvious to anyone that watched the game that Ben was not right when you saw him on the sideline . He was dazed and it showed . The concussion protocol laid down by the league was not followed . Bottom line , he should never have been back on the field . At the end of the day , you can scream to the heavens that Ben and the offense cost the Steelers this game , but the cold hard fact is this teams problems is on the defensive side of the ball . Our offense is young and built to win for years . The defense was so bad this year that we had to bring players out of retirement because of current players not playing up to their potential . When youre doing that , you have major problems and the Steelers did . Fix the defense and the Steelers will start to win again . Its not complicated . Time will tell .
jay
January 5, 2015 at 5:25 pm
Obviously the defense is bad and needs to be fixed. But for many years the defense bailed the offense out and now, like you said, the offense is the unit which is built to win which is what they’re supposed to…Why is it okay for one unit to rescue another for all those years but then when the tables are turned and you have the majority of talent on the other side of the ball, then they’re not allowed to be vilified for not doing what the other unit had done for them all those years? That’s ridiculous! It’s the offense’s job to win games these days just as it was the defense’s job years ago! Big Ben is the reason they lost because he didn’t carry them like he’s supposed to. Penalties also played a major role and also Bell not being there but if Big ben is so elite, and I keep saying this, why did he only single-handedly win only two games this year (Balt and Indy back to back)…you could argue that his poor reading of defenses and overall poor play in otters games (i.e., Balt and Cle on the road, TB at home, Jax on road which they won, Saints and Jets were both his fault–yeah he put up big stats but they were meaningless and at the end of the game in both of those games.). I’m not one of those, “Oh, he drove us all those yards against arizona in the super bowl so he can do no wrong” type of fans. The man is somewhat overrated. He needed to carry the team in the absence of Bell and amidst all the penalties especially because it was against second, third and fourth stringer defensive backs…Hey, he plays that way against the seahawks secondary then I tip my hat to seattle, but even in the face of all that pressure, he needed to do better, much better, against a suck ass secondary I don’t care how well they played. He has never been the type of quarterback whose back foot hits the ground and the ball’s out…that’s why this dude needs elite pass protection because it takes him so long to make up his mind. Haley can employ all the two and three step drops he wants (Which he, for some reason, did not do against the ravens) but until Ben is given more time to throw, his inability to play big in big games is going to continue to hurt this team…If he ever did play well in big games, it was pre 2010 because this guy lately hasn’t done anything when given the chance in the postseason.
DrGeorge
January 5, 2015 at 9:34 am
I agree with my colleagues above, as does Ron Cook of the Post-Gazette, whose article today echoes sentiments expressed here at the start of the season: the Steelers are not a bad team, just a slightly above average team, who started the year with major questions about the defensive line, inexperience at linebacker, and age in its secondary. All of those concerns were in evidence all year and in the playoff game.
But what is discouraging is that so little progress has been made since 2010 in rebuilding the defense. After three years, we should see better play, especially (as Jay observed in an earlier note) when the Ravens and others have found affordable defensive talent to rebuild their teams over that same period. The Steelers continue to have a problem with misallocation of resources — meaning they put too much money into too few players, to the detriment of the team over all.
Talent and what you pay for it are at the core of every professional sports franchise, but finance is not a sexy topic for fans. So try this, instead. List each Steelers player with at least three years experience and then compare what he makes with what he actually contributed this season. It seems to me that there are simply too many players on this roster who aren’t giving the Rooney’s their money’s-worth.
jay
January 5, 2015 at 5:27 pm
well said!