{"id":31944,"date":"2017-10-10T16:00:33","date_gmt":"2017-10-10T20:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonnfl.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=31944"},"modified":"2017-10-10T21:19:58","modified_gmt":"2017-10-11T01:19:58","slug":"ben-roethlisberger-five-interception-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2017\/10\/10\/ben-roethlisberger-five-interception-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Rationalizing Ben Roethlisberger’s Five Interception Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben Roethlisberger<\/strong><\/a> is being ripped down and torn apart this week after a career-high five interception game. The Pittsburgh Steelers<\/a> gun slinger hinted at retirement before the off-season, and all of that talk immediately got brought back up after such a poor performance that featured two game-changing interceptions. However, in looking back at the performance and examining the play of Roethlisberger, a lot of this has to be credited to the defense. Add in a couple of bad breaks, and the performance is not as disheartening as some will tell you.<\/p>\n

Rationalizing Ben Roethlisberger’s Five Interception Game<\/strong><\/h1>\n

First Interception<\/h2>\n

Roethlisberger is targeting his tight end, Vance McDonald<\/a><\/strong>. There are two ways to think about this pass. One is that McDonald has not caught a pass all season, and Jalen Ramsey<\/a><\/strong>, a top-five cornerback in the NFL is in the vicinity. It sounds like more bad can happen than good. The other way to look at it is that McDonald is open. The pressure was coming up the middle and Roethlisberger saw McDonald had a step to the inside and he made the quick decision to give the open man a shot.<\/p>\n

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You can see that Roethlisberger is leading his target, his target still has a step, and is going to have space to work in if the ball gets to him.<\/p>\n