Big Ben doesn’t like playing the Ravens, likes his nose the way it is
Ben Roethlisberger is the quarterback of the most physical team in the league. The Pittsburgh Steelers defence is a quarterback’s worst nightmare but they aren’t the only physical team in the league. The Baltimore Ravens are similarly aggressive and they
are Roethlisberger’s next opponents. The quarterback is not looking forward to that match up.
“As a competitor, yes, you love it, but heck no, I hate playing the Ravens,” Roethlisberger has been reported as saying. “They're so good. Defence, every single person and every scheme, everything they do, it just challenges you. As a competitor, you like
that challenge and you like the competitiveness, but man, they're good.”
They are good and extremely aggressive. No one knows that better than Roethlisberger himself. Earlier this season the Ravens’ defence broke Roethlisberger’s nose. Big Ben isn’t holding a grudge though. He said that he knows that the blow to his nose was
accidental and there was no malice on the part of Haloti Ngata. On the day Roethlisberger broke his nose he thought Kelly Gregg was actually responsible for it. “I blamed him for it during the game. I'll have to apologize when I see him on the field. I was
giving him a hard time.”
Even if Roethlisberger can make it through the game in one piece, he knows the Ravens are going to be rough with him. He is going to have to take a few hits and they are going to hurt. Not that Roethlisberger can’t fight through pain. The day his nose was
broken, the quarterback stuffed it up with cotton up to stop the bleeding and prepared himself for the next series. He played all the way to the end of the game and led the Steelers to victory over the Ravens.
Roethlisberger said that every time the two teams face each other, the winner can feel good about themselves. “I know that because I know some of the guys over there and I know what this rivalry means. So like I said, it's always a big-time game.” The teams
have played two games against each other this season. The Ravens won the first game and the Steelers won the second. Now the stakes are as high as can be for the division rivals in their third game of the season. One of these teams would go on to fight for
the AFC championship and the other would be knocked out.
When the season began the Steelers quarterback was facing a four game suspension and backup Charlie Batch tried to fill his shoes. Roethlisberger had to sit out the game that the Ravens won. Big Ben has an 8-2 record against Baltimore and he has been victorious
the last 6 times he faced the team.
“We're going to get after him like we always do. It's going to be really important,” Ravens coach John Harbaugh said about the quarterback. “That's the key to stopping him: You've got to get him down. You can't let him extend plays.”
Roethlisberger loves making those big plays. 44.1 percent of his passes are for more than 10 yards (almost 10% more than Brady) and still he has been intercepted only 5 times in the regular season. The last time he was intercepted was against Baltimore in
week 13. On that day the Steelers were not able to intercept Baltimore’s quarterback Joe Flacco but they did sack him 4 times. One of those sacks came courtesy of Troy Polamalu. The safety forced a fumble out of Flacco’s hand and the Steelers recovered the
ball.
The Ravens quarterback has fumbled the ball 9 times and lost possession on 4 of those occasions. Roethlisberger has a total of 7 fumbles and only two of those became turnovers. Big Ben also has only half as many interceptions as Flacco.
When the Ravens come to Pittsburgh this weekend, linebacker Terrell Suggs is going to have his sights set on Big Ben. He sacked Roethlisberger twice in their last game. “He and I usually battle it out, and these are always good games,” Roethlisberger said.
He added that Suggs was tenacious and never gave up. “He's a tough guy, and I like playing against him. We talk a little bit to each other out there, I won't call it trash talking, but we talk to each other. So it's a lot of fun.”
I can be fun, just as long as everyone can come out without getting an involuntary nose job.
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