Let me be clear, this is not the first time Ben Roethlisberger has played through injury. Heck, as a native Pittsburgher, most excuses after any big loss start with “well, Big Ben was injured”. This is different. The season, the circumstance, the feel is all is leading up to one Sunday that may just be another “well, Big Ben was injured.” But it has the chance be the most legendary performance of his career.
For Ben Roethlisberger, Sunday is a Chance to be Legendary
To start, it is this season that makes the light so lime. On four separate occasions this season Roethlisberger has been carted off the field, typically with the expectation that his season was over. It started with a disgusting MCL injury that surely ended the Steelers year. A four-week layoff led to a high ankle injury two weeks later. The Steelers won that game, but the injury caused him to miss the start of his next game at home against the Browns. That’s right, the start. Roethlisberger served as the emergency quarterback, mainly because the Steelers didn’t feel the need to start an injured star player at home to the Browns. Of course, even the bench (or Landry Jones) cannot keep Roethlisberger off the field. A 22-33 performance with three touchdowns and one interception was the best performance for any quarterback coming off the bench.
There’s more.
The very next week, Roethlisberger leaves the game in the fourth quarter with a concussion. The Steelers ended up losing and essentially feeling as though his third trip on the cart to the locker room was the one that would end his team’s season. He not only bounced back from that, he took the team on a 3-0 run featuring three 30 point performances while beating two playoff teams, the division rival Bengals, and the best defense in the league in the Broncos. What Roethlisberger is doing hasn’t led SportsCenter and it hasn’t gotten him any national attention, but quietly he moves into the playoffs.
Of course, Roethlisberger got injured in the playoffs. He seemingly wouldn’t have it any other way. The Steelers were 3-1 in games Roethlisberger left to this point. This time his injury started with a 15-0 lead, and led to him coming back on the field, in the pouring rain, down 16-15 in a two minute drill with the game on the line. Roethlisberger has seen this before. He started a Super Bowl game winning drive from his own ten with 1st and 20 and finished with a touchdown to seal his second ring.
This time however, you can clearly see how hurt Roethlisberger was. His first pass downfield led to a signal to offensive coordinator Todd Haley to not call that play again. Ben dinked, Ben dunked, Ben pulled off the illogical. None of this seemed new to Ben.
This week however, seems different. Roethlisberger not only gets to face that number one defense that he cut apart. He gets to face them without Le’veon Bell, DeAngelo Williams, Antonio Brown,and the team’s most valuable linemen to enter the season, Kelvin Beachum and Maurkice Pouncey. The Broncos also just so happen to remember their trip into Roethlisberger’s house and hope to end his season in their house on Sunday.
It could be the biggest test of Roethlisberger’s career. There is absolutely no chance he is close to 100%. For Roethlisberger, he has spent years being told why he wasn’t as great as the greatest of all time. The Steelers defense was so good when he was drafted, the run game is the key, he has went from receivers like future hall of famer Hines Ward to potential hall of famer Antonio Brown. Heck, Mike Tomlin even has a winning record without his star quarterback (albeit 10-9). On Sunday, the defense is average at best, the third and fourth stringers of Pittsburgh won’t test the run defense of Denver, and the Broncos top secondary has the relief of not worrying about the best wide receiver in the league.
Somehow, though, it is still tough to write Roethlisberger and his boys off. Every legendary player has a legendary story. For Roethlisberger, Sunday could be the start of one of the greatest stories of resilience we have seen in recent sports, and if the Steelers win, this will be one of the first games that support his case for being a first ballot Hall of Famer.
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