Ben's 98 yard masterpiece

With 15 days to go until his team plays a meaningful game, Ben Roethlisberger already was in regular-season mode.

The Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback sunk a knife into the Buffalo Bills on Saturday night with a two-minute drill for the (preseason) ages.


Starting on Pittsburgh's 2-yard line with just 1:46 remaining in the first half, Big Ben marched the Steelers on an 11-play, 98-yard drive in 1:33, capped by a 6-yard touchdown strike to Antonio Brown. Roethlisberger was 7-for-8 passing for 92 yards on a frantic run in which Bills coach Chan Gailey seemed to age seven years.

Roethlisberger's touchdown toss gave Pittsburgh a seven-point lead at halftime, and they eventually won 38-7.

"Well, I called the plays, and I can see what's going on defense," Roethlisberger told NFL.com and NFL Network's Kimberly Jones at halftime. "Guys made great plays. We had a running back make a catch on the sideline like a receiver. We utilized the middle of the field, guys got out of bounds and it saved us time. We only had one timeout, and we didn't have to use it until we got all the way down. So I think it was a pretty successful drive for us."

We've been beaten to near-death with cautionary words about offensive coordinator Todd Haley's run-heavy attack. When it mattered Saturday night, the Steelers' offense became Big Ben's playground. And that's really when this team shines.

Changing of the guard in the AFC North? Stand down.




http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap100...content_stream

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"I called the plays".

I'm hoping to make a full-length video of the drive for our study.

I was watching with my GF and friends right before Ben's FANTASTIC before-half touchdown drive. I noticed Ben was very pissed off when there was a substitution penalty that thwarted the Steelers even farther from Bills territory. I turned to my girlfriend and said "..that's the LAST man you want to piss off.."

What happened next was the reason why I take Roethlisberger over 31 fools starting for their squads in the NFL. Ben was brilliant. Pin-point, collected, solid and calm as he flawlessly preyed on Buffalo's defense yard by yard. What was equally impressive was our ability to go 99 yards, with a little over 1:00 on the clock with only 1 timeout, which means our skill guys had to have the knack for the sidelines. Sanders, Dwyer and Heath worked this to perfection, saving time and more importantly, our timeout. Brown ran a very tight "foote-route" and Ben capitalized his greatness with a bullet for 6.

That drive right there salvaged my night and pretty much the entire preseason. DeCastro's knee has left me feeling ILL and ANGRY but as Tomlin says, "such is life in the NFL." Ramon Foster is the next guy in line and I'm COMFORTABLE with him. A bright spot on a horrid o-line in 2011. We MUST trust in him and the overall health and togetherness for Starks, Colon, Pouncey, Foster & Gilbert from this point forward.

StainlessStill wrote:

I was watching with my GF and friends right before Ben's FANTASTIC before-half touchdown drive. I noticed Ben was very pissed off when there was a substitution penalty that thwarted the Steelers even farther from Bills territory. I turned to my girlfriend and said "..that's the LAST man you want to piss off.."

What happened next was the reason why I take Roethlisberger over 31 fools starting for their squads in the NFL. Ben was brilliant. Pin-point, collected, solid and calm as he flawlessly preyed on Buffalo's defense yard by yard. What was equally impressive was our ability to go 99 yards, with a little over 1:00 on the clock with only 1 timeout, which means our skill guys had to have the knack for the sidelines. Sanders, Dwyer and Heath worked this to perfection, saving time and more importantly, our timeout. Brown ran a very tight "foote-route" and Ben capitalized his greatness with a bullet for 6.

That drive right there salvaged my night and pretty much the entire preseason. DeCastro's knee has left me feeling ILL and ANGRY but as Tomlin says, "such is life in the NFL." Ramon Foster is the next guy in line and I'm COMFORTABLE with him. A bright spot on a horrid o-line in 2011. We MUST trust in him and the overall health and togetherness for Starks, Colon, Pouncey, Foster & Gilbert from this point forward.

Excellent post!

I couldn't agree with it any more. Absolutely perfect drive, and I LOVE what i'm seeing out of this two-minute offense. Hopefully, as a starting squad, we'll get warmed up and ready before the end of the first half in the future games, but i'm happy with what I saw.

I'm not as high on the drive as everyone else. If it was in the regular season, I'd be thrilled. But it was a preseason game where the Bills were already playing a vanilla defense and then went more prevent. Rather than being excited about our offense because of one drive against a defense trying to keep everything in front of it, I'm more concerned about what I saw with everything leading up to that drive. The O-line still can't pass protect. And it's not going to get any better without DeCastro.

Wallace108 wrote:

I'm not as high on the drive as everyone else. If it was in the regular season, I'd be thrilled. But it was a preseason game where the Bills were already playing a vanilla defense and then went more prevent. Rather than being excited about our offense because of one drive against a defense trying to keep everything in front of it, I'm more concerned about what I saw with everything leading up to that drive.

Hater.

All I know is: It was a 98-yard drive, and a LOT of sideline catches we're made to move the chains. A lot of difficult plays, and a Ben called them all himself. It's hard for me to believe that the Bills' starting defense WASN'T trying hard to prevent Ben from engineering an Eleven play, 98-yard scoring drive with just over a minute remaining. The starters play hard all of the first half, and the only thing that's hidden is the contents of a playbook.

Ben Roethlisberger and company did a GREAT job to finish the half, and the Bills defense is NO joke.

Wallace108 wrote:

I'm not as high on the drive as everyone else. If it was in the regular season, I'd be thrilled. But it was a preseason game where the Bills were already playing a vanilla defense and then went more prevent. Rather than being excited about our offense because of one drive against a defense trying to keep everything in front of it, I'm more concerned about what I saw with everything leading up to that drive. The O-line still can't pass protect. And it's not going to get any better without DeCastro.

Pre-season or Regular Season, doesn't matter almost every team plays vanilla in the last two minutes.

stlrtruck wrote:

Wallace108 wrote:

I'm not as high on the drive as everyone else. If it was in the regular season, I'd be thrilled. But it was a preseason game where the Bills were already playing a vanilla defense and then went more prevent. Rather than being excited about our offense because of one drive against a defense trying to keep everything in front of it, I'm more concerned about what I saw with everything leading up to that drive. The O-line still can't pass protect. And it's not going to get any better without DeCastro.

Pre-season or Regular Season, doesn't matter almost every team plays vanilla in the last two minutes.

That defense was definitely didn't want us to go 98 yards on them and score with under two-minutes left.

It's hard for me to believe that they weren't working their asses off to prevent something like that from happening. Preseason or not, a 98-yard scoring drive in a two-minute span isn't something a defense wants to think about heading into the locker room.

Wallace108 wrote:

I'm not as high on the drive as everyone else. If it was in the regular season, I'd be thrilled. But it was a preseason game where the Bills were already playing a vanilla defense and then went more prevent. Rather than being excited about our offense because of one drive against a defense trying to keep everything in front of it, I'm more concerned about what I saw with everything leading up to that drive. The O-line still can't pass protect. And it's not going to get any better without DeCastro.

I disagree to an extent. The "pre-season" excuse has been used for awhile and in some case's, I agree. But while taking it with a grain of salt, I don't focus on how Buffalo decided to defend us on that drive. That's their problem and Chain Gailey himself said post-game how they were shell shocked after what Ben did to them.

Still, you must focus on execution of the offense in that moment. Not only did our QB take it into his own hands, but our offense understood what needed to be done when it came to technicality. In most case's, we beat ourselves. In that instance, we didn't and that's how POTENT we can look if we can just focus within our own confides of this offense.

As for Buffalo, I don't care if it's pre-season or not, letting a team go 99 yards on your starting unit in little over a minute with only one timeout on your homefield is pretty embarrassing no matter how you slice and dice it. Ben simply OWNED them.

StainlessStill wrote:

I disagree to an extent. The "pre-season" excuse has been used for awhile and in some case's, I agree. But while taking it with a grain of salt, I don't focus on how Buffalo decided to defend us on that drive. That's their problem and Chain Gailey himself said post-game how they were shell shocked after what Ben did to them.

Still, you must focus on execution of the offense in that moment. Not only did our QB take it into his own hands, but our offense understood what needed to be done when it came to technicality. In most case's, we beat ourselves. In that instance, we didn't and that's how POTENT we can look if we can just focus within our own confides of this offense.

As for Buffalo, I don't care if it's pre-season or not, letting a team go 99 yards on your starting unit in little over a minute with only one timeout on your homefield is pretty embarrassing no matter how you slice and dice it. Ben simply OWNED them.

Yeah, I'll agree with that. Up to that drive, Ben hadn't been sharp all preseason. He definitely looked sharp on that drive. I know you don't wanna risk injury, but I would have liked to have seen him on one drive in the third quarter to see if the offense really did find its groove.

EDIT: Then again, the Bills pulled starters, so I guess we still wouldn't know. Oh well, I have confidence in Haley, Ben, and the rest of the offense. They'll be ready.

maybe they could start out the games by pissing Big Ben off if this is the results, because up until this point I was less than enthused about the offenses performance. and is that a little nip at Haley? Ben saying he called his own plays? I was under the assumption all plays are called at the line in the two minute offense...

Wallace108 wrote:

I'm not as high on the drive as everyone else. If it was in the regular season, I'd be thrilled. But it was a preseason game where the Bills were already playing a vanilla defense and then went more prevent. Rather than being excited about our offense because of one drive against a defense trying to keep everything in front of it, I'm more concerned about what I saw with everything leading up to that drive. The O-line still can't pass protect. And it's not going to get any better without DeCastro.

you're just hating cuz we didn't need Wallace at all