Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has taken a lot of heat for his performance in the 27-24 loss Sunday in overtime to the Dallas Cowboys.
Nobody is arguing that the interception he threw on the second play in overtime was a horrible throw and it most certainly cost the Steelers the game. Several, however, are saying that Roethlisberger played a really poor game outside of that final throw and that simply isn\’t the case.
I like to deal in facts unlike others you will read. If you have read the post here for a long period of time you know that I am very objective when it comes to the Steelers.
It was indeed not the best game of Roethlisberger\’s career, but it certainly was not as bad as many want to make it seem. The Steelers quarterback was 24-of-40 passing on the day for 339 yards and a touchdown. In the second half and overtime he was 11-of-15 for 163 yards with a touchdown and of course the fatal interception.
Roethlisberger had 16 incompletions on the day and below is a breakdown of all of them.
The first three incomplete passes, while not perfect, were balls that I feel could have been caught when going through the tape frame by frame. Especially the one that Emmanuel Sanders had and dropped at the Cowboys 42 yard-line after he was hit.
The fourth incompletion was a bit of an ill-advised throw and it was almost picked off after the linebacker that dropped back into coverage deflected it.
The back shoulder throw to Mike Wallace, incompletion No. 6, was a tad high but hauled in just the same. Wallace juggled the ball and failed to get both feet down.
Incompletion No. 8 was a tad low, but a ball that Antonio Brown clearly dropped a yard short of the sticks.
The screen to Wallace and the two throws to Chris Rainey were certainly bad throws, as was the short dump-off to Jonathan Dwyer that landed short and wide.
The out route to Brown is too tough to call until I can see the All-22 view of the play. This ball actually looks catchable and looks like it might have went off his hands.
While I did not include the pictures, Roethlisberger did have to throw the ball away twice. Once was when he was under heavy pressure and outside the tackle box and the other was the busted running play that Dwyer missed his assignment on.
In total I feel that Roethlisberger was victimized by his receivers on at least 5 of the 16 incompletions. Maybe even 6. Two incompletions were balls that were thrown away for obvious reasons. That leaves 7 other throws that I would term bad and of course the interception, which I am sure he would love to have back.
In closing I think that Roethlisberger, if helped more by his receivers, would have been around 75% on the day instead of the 60% rate, which by the way is still not bad, that he ended with. He did lose the game, but just as easily could have won it with a little help.
| QTR | TIME | DWN | DIST | LOS | PLAY | DESCRIPTION |
| 1 | 14:16 | 2 | 4 | PIT 26 | Deep middle intended for Mike Wallace | Little behind Wallace, but likely should have been caught. |
 |
||||||
| QTR | TIME | DWN | DIST | LOS | PLAY | DESCRIPTION |
| 1 | 13:37 | 1 | 10 | PIT 33 | Short right intended for Antonio Brown | Quick slant, good coverage, but could have been caught |
 |
||||||
| QTR | TIME | DWN | DIST | LOS | PLAY | DESCRIPTION |
| 1 | 13:29 | 2 | 10 | PIT 33 | Deep middle intended for Emmanuel Sanders | Sanders drops it after hit |
| QTR | TIME | DWN | DIST | LOS | PLAY | DESCRIPTION |
| 1 | 13:25 | 3 | 10 | PIT 33 | Short right intended for Mike Wallace | Slant to Wallace tipped by dropping linebacker |
 |
||||||
| QTR | TIME | DWN | DIST | LOS | PLAY | DESCRIPTION |
| 1 | 5:10 | 2 | 6 | DAL 44 | Deep right intended for Mike Wallace | Deep ball to Wallace thrown to wrong side. |
| QTR | TIME | DWN | DIST | LOS | PLAY | DESCRIPTION |
| 1 | 5:01 | 3 | 6 | DAL 44 | Short right intended for Mike Wallace | Back shoulder a tad high, but should have gotten feet down |
 |
||||||
| QTR | TIME | DWN | DIST | LOS | PLAY | DESCRIPTION |
| 2 | 10:25 | 1 | 10 | PIT 34 | Ben Roethlisberger pass incomplete | Thrown away |
| QTR | TIME | DWN | DIST | LOS | PLAY | DESCRIPTION |
| 2 | 7:34 | 2 | 6 | DAL 29 | Short left intended for Antonio Brown | Tad low but dropped by Brown |
 |
||||||
| QTR | TIME | DWN | DIST | LOS | PLAY | DESCRIPTION |
| 2 | 6:18 | 2 | 2 | DAL 14 | Short left intended for Antonio Brown | Busted play and thrown away |
| QTR | TIME | DWN | DIST | LOS | PLAY | DESCRIPTION |
| 2 | 6:12 | 3 | 2 | DAL 14 | Short right intended for Mike Wallace | Bad short throw on Wallace screen |
 |
||||||
| QTR | TIME | DWN | DIST | LOS | PLAY | DESCRIPTION |
| 2 | 2:00 | 2 | 4 | PIT 33 | Short left intended for Chris Rainey | Wheel route tightly covered. Basically thrown away |
 |
||||||
| QTR | TIME | DWN | DIST | LOS | PLAY | DESCRIPTION |
| 2 | 0:52 | 1 | 10 | DAL 30 | Short left intended for Chris Rainey | Thrown behind out in the flat |
 |
||||||
| QTR | TIME | DWN | DIST | LOS | PLAY | DESCRIPTION |
| 3 | 11:49 | 3 | 5 | DAL 45 | Short right intended for Jonathan Dwyer | Poor throw at feet. Not primary option |
 |
||||||
| QTR | TIME | DWN | DIST | LOS | PLAY | DESCRIPTION |
| 4 | 15:00 | 1 | 10 | DAL 36 | Ben Roethlisberger pass incomplete | Thrown away heavy pressure |
| QTR | TIME | DWN | DIST | LOS | PLAY | DESCRIPTION |
| 4 | 1:47 | 1 | 10 | PIT 20 | Short left intended for Antonio Brown | Out route and hard to tell if defended or dropped |
 |
||||||
| QTR | TIME | DWN | DIST | LOS | PLAY | DESCRIPTION |
| 5 | 14:29 | 2 | 3 | PIT 27 | Short right intended for Mike Wallace intercepted | Bad throw nothing on it and behind Wallace |
 |
||||||
