Roethlisberger
 

over the last 2 games, we've been inundated with the talk that Big Ben faltered a bit because of inexperience - the rookie factor. Or, if you're Phil Simms, he struggled because "he's tired".

am I the only one who thinks it might be something else...like the weather? He just hasn't seemed comfortable at all in the cold, and I've only heard the briefest hints of that. He made some bad decisions, but he seemed to have far more bad passes - which tells me it's more physical then mental.

CBS showed that graphic that had him fading down the stretch (backing up Phil "Clueless" Simms). But that would also coincide with the dip in the thermostat. Even though he's from Ohio, maybe the kid just can't play in the cold. yet.

Or maybe he finally hit his "rookie wall"

i think its a combination of the two, combined with playing better teams.

All I know is he laid a big old egg in the playoffs.......

I tend to believe the "tired" part. He's played in a number of games week after week in the NFL. It's a far cry from his college schedule in the MAC.

There's more down time built in for a college schedule and the level of competition isn't as high.

I think his thumb is still messed up a little, too. Just watching the number of "floaters" he threw in the last two games compared to the regular season, you have to think it was still not letting him get as strong of a grip on the ball. I'm sure the weather did not help, either.

It's the Campbells Curse.


At least he didn't suffer a career threatening injury.

He may have had a bad playoff run, but as a rookie he was very, very impressive. Hopefully it wasn't a fluke season because he's fun to watch.

big ben will be back. unfortunately, so will the pats.

Agreed. I really think the thumb hurt him these last few weeks. In any case, I hope he has a good year next season.

At least their offensive and defensive coordinators will be gone.

I can't see how the weather is an issue at all. We practically lived and played next door previous.

I think it was just being a rookie & nervous combined with a potential thumb problem.

Put me in the "thumb" camp. Also, last week it didn't look like the whole throwing while wearing a glove was very beneficial, but then again, he ditched it this week, to not much success.

wouldn't logic dictate then, that the glove had no effect, and that it's Ben?

If you look at his interception rate during the season, it was just okay, even mediocre. 11 interceptions looks great, but when you look at how many passes he threw, the number is distinctly average at best. Collins, Plummer and Testaverde led the league in interceptions with 20 but they all had around 500 pass attempts, while Roethlisberger had around 300. You get my point anyway.

I'm not saying he's a bad QB, but the potential for mistakes was there, it just got covered up by the fact that the Steelers run so often. In the playoffs, facing good defenses in the Jets and Pats, I think it was asking too much.

A) He deifinitely has a thumb injury, they ice-watered it during the game twice. The glove was an attempt last week to help the thumb, but he wasn't comfortable with it, and this week left it off.

B) He is a rookie, and playoffs games make even veterans play tight at times

C) He played better calibur teams in the last two weeks. During the season the game planning isn't nearly as hard core as it is for a playoff game. Combine that with article B above and it's gonna bring his numbers down.

Combine all three items and throw in sub-freezing temps and I'm not at all surprised that his passes were floating. I'm just worried that he IS going to be that good, he's in the bengals division...damnit I wanted Carson to have no competition for best QB in the North!! :)

He's finally been exposed as a fraud!

The other problem is, for a majority of the first half, he was only throwing in obvious situations (3rd and 13). With constant running on 1st and 2nd down, if you're not picking up the 1st there, it's a lot easier for the D to play the pass. Granted, in the 2nd half, they used more play action and Ben looked better. Most of his problems yesterday looked to be of the mental sort (reading D and gauging how good the defenders were individually). He'll be back and he still has the regular season winning streak on the roll, give him another year or two and he probably only throws 1 pick in a game like yesterday's, and that would have made it a really tight ball game.