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Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger One Of The Best When Backed Up In His Own End

We already know how great Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is, but I wanted to look at some of his split stats as it relates to where he ranks against the other quarterbacks in the league over the course of the last five years when backed up deep in his own end of the field.

Of the quarterbacks who have attempted 150 or more passes from inside their own 20 yard-line over the last five years, Roethlisberger leads the league with a 73% completion ratio with 37.2% of those attempts resulting in either a first down or a touchdown. His 9.7 yards per attempt number on those attempts rank him second behind only Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers.

Those numbers are nothing to sneeze about, but what about on third downs inside his own 20, as that certainly is a key down as it relates to possible good field position for the opponent? As you can see in the second table below, Roethlisberger\’s completion percentage does dip down to 63.1%, which ranks him fifth overall on the list, but his 43.1% conversion rate, which is much more important, ranks him tops in the league against other quarterbacks with the qualified amount of attempts.

So let\’s back up Roethlisberger now to inside his own 10 yard-line and see how he does in the shadow of his own goal post. The third table below shows that the Steelers quarterback over the last five years has an eye popping 76.6% completion ratio on all attempts when backed up that deep and an even more amazing 11.6 yards per attempt number. Even more amazing perhaps is the fact that he has only been sacked once during that span when backed up that deep.

The only real area where Roethlisberger is just average among the other quarterbacks listed stats wise is on third down inside his own 10 yard-line, as he only has a 50% completion ratio and a 33.3% conversion ratio on 12 pass attempts over the course of the last five years. It should be noted, however, that five of those 12 attempts took place when the team needed 11 or more yards for a first down, so that stat line is certainly forgivable considering that Roethlisberger usually aims for the sticks.

All the tables below are sortable by clicking on the column headers, and a few things will jump out at you when you do that as it relates to a few of the other quarterbacks on these lists. For example, New York Jets quarterback Mark Sanchez has only converted one third down on 14 pass attempts when backed up inside his own 10 yard-line. Another example includes the fact that San Diego Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers only has a 49.3% completion ratio on third downs inside his own 20 yard-line over the course of the last five years. That\’s even worse than Sanchez. Also, look at the numbers for Alex Smith. Do the Kansas City Chiefs really think that they can win with him?

When the so-called experts rank the quarterbacks, they never take key stats like these into consideration. The ability of a quarterback to get his team out of their own deep end of the field is an important element of the game. We all know how crucial field position is in a game, and Roethlisberger has shown over the course of the last five years that he is one of the best at getting the ball moved out of that dangerous area of the field.

2008-2012 Quarterback Passing Stats Inside Own 20 Yard-line All Downs

Player Cmp Att Cmp% Yds TD Int Sk Y/A FD FD%
Ben Roethlisberger 157 215 73.0% 2071 3 5 16 9.6 80 37.2%
Peyton Manning 157 216 72.7% 2008 0 6 3 9.3 89 41.2%
Carson Palmer 142 206 68.9% 1755 0 4 12 8.5 70 34.0%
Aaron Rodgers 173 253 68.4% 2697 4 4 16 10.7 95 37.5%
Matt Schaub 175 257 68.1% 2415 0 1 9 9.4 99 38.5%
Matt Hasselbeck 126 189 66.7% 1392 1 3 14 7.4 59 31.2%
Tony Romo 159 239 66.5% 1827 1 5 10 7.6 76 31.8%
Joe Flacco 145 221 65.6% 1809 0 7 16 8.2 73 33.0%
Tom Brady 142 217 65.4% 1882 3 2 6 8.7 74 34.1%
Kyle Orton 104 160 65.0% 1331 1 1 10 8.3 54 33.8%
Alex Smith 102 157 65.0% 1066 0 2 17 6.8 40 25.5%
Drew Brees 197 305 64.6% 2292 1 13 10 7.5 87 28.5%
Jay Cutler 157 244 64.3% 2296 2 8 23 9.4 80 32.8%
Eli Manning 171 267 64.0% 2286 3 13 16 8.6 83 31.1%
Josh Freeman 122 193 63.2% 1738 0 6 8 9.0 59 30.6%
Sam Bradford 103 163 63.2% 926 0 4 6 5.7 41 25.2%
Philip Rivers 134 216 62.0% 1782 1 6 15 8.3 76 35.2%
Donovan McNabb 128 207 61.8% 1690 1 6 12 8.2 57 27.5%
Matt Ryan 115 187 61.5% 1476 1 4 11 7.9 58 31.0%
Matthew Stafford 116 196 59.2% 1313 0 3 17 6.7 57 29.1%
Matt Cassel 108 184 58.7% 1165 0 9 10 6.3 46 25.0%
Ryan Fitzpatrick 122 213 57.3% 1402 1 7 7 6.6 48 22.5%
Mark Sanchez 94 168 56.0% 1157 0 6 10 6.9 46 27.4%

2008-2012 Quarterback Passing Stats Inside Own 20 Yard-line Third Downs

Player Cmp Att Cmp% Yds TD Int Sk Y/A FD FD%
Aaron Rodgers 40 59 67.8% 709 1 0 6 12.0 25 42.4%
Josh Freeman 40 60 66.7% 567 0 1 3 9.5 20 33.3%
Matt Schaub 32 48 66.7% 355 0 0 2 7.4 15 31.3%
Peyton Manning 29 45 64.4% 438 0 2 0 9.7 18 40.0%
Ben Roethlisberger 41 65 63.1% 529 0 3 8 8.1 28 43.1%
Kyle Orton 24 39 61.5% 275 0 0 2 7.1 14 35.9%
Eli Manning 46 76 60.5% 635 1 4 4 8.4 25 32.9%
Drew Brees 47 79 59.5% 709 0 4 3 9.0 28 35.4%
Joe Flacco 41 69 59.4% 634 0 4 7 9.2 21 30.4%
Matt Hasselbeck 30 51 58.8% 240 0 1 6 4.7 16 31.4%
Jay Cutler 32 55 58.2% 466 0 2 7 8.5 17 30.9%
Carson Palmer 36 62 58.1% 443 0 0 6 7.1 19 30.6%
Matt Cassel 31 55 56.4% 379 0 3 2 6.9 15 27.3%
Sam Bradford 28 50 56.0% 270 0 1 3 5.4 13 26.0%
Matt Ryan 37 67 55.2% 557 1 2 5 8.3 23 34.3%
Tom Brady 26 48 54.2% 364 0 0 4 7.6 18 37.5%
Tony Romo 32 59 54.2% 391 0 1 3 6.6 17 28.8%
Matthew Stafford 34 63 54.0% 435 0 2 3 6.9 22 34.9%
Alex Smith 27 50 54.0% 348 0 1 4 7.0 12 24.0%
Donovan McNabb 28 54 51.9% 462 1 4 7 8.6 14 25.9%
Mark Sanchez 27 54 50.0% 325 0 1 1 6.0 14 25.9%
Philip Rivers 34 69 49.3% 590 1 3 7 8.6 24 34.8%
Ryan Fitzpatrick 28 63 44.4% 339 0 4 3 5.4 17 27.0%

2008-2012 Quarterback Passing Stats Inside Own 10 Yard-line All Downs

Player Cmp Att Cmp% Yds TD Int Sk Y/A FD FD%
Ben Roethlisberger 36 47 76.6% 545 1 1 1 11.6 16 34.0%
Peyton Manning 26 36 72.2% 305 0 1 1 8.5 15 41.7%
Matt Schaub 43 60 71.7% 511 0 1 1 8.5 21 35.0%
Carson Palmer 31 45 68.9% 357 0 1 2 7.9 14 31.1%
Aaron Rodgers 37 54 68.5% 556 1 0 4 10.3 18 33.3%
Josh Freeman 32 47 68.1% 510 0 1 0 10.9 16 34.0%
Eli Manning 36 53 67.9% 555 2 1 0 10.5 17 32.1%
Joe Flacco 31 48 64.6% 540 0 1 3 11.3 22 45.8%
Tom Brady 37 58 63.8% 467 1 0 0 8.1 20 34.5%
Jay Cutler 45 72 62.5% 762 1 2 2 10.6 23 31.9%
Donovan McNabb 28 45 62.2% 266 0 1 1 5.9 9 20.0%
Matt Ryan 28 45 62.2% 314 0 1 4 7 12 26.7%
Matt Hasselbeck 30 49 61.2% 331 0 0 2 6.8 14 28.6%
Tony Romo 28 46 60.9% 296 0 1 3 6.4 16 34.8%
Matthew Stafford 27 45 60.0% 288 0 1 2 6.4 7 15.6%
Ryan Fitzpatrick 20 34 58.8% 378 1 1 0 11.1 10 29.4%
Sam Bradford 21 36 58.3% 212 0 2 1 5.9 8 22.2%
Drew Brees 37 68 54.4% 448 0 5 1 6.6 20 29.4%
Alex Smith 11 21 52.4% 138 0 1 0 6.6 6 28.6%
Kyle Orton 22 42 52.4% 280 0 1 1 6.7 9 21.4%
Mark Sanchez 22 42 52.4% 282 0 2 3 6.7 6 14.3%
Matt Cassel 18 37 48.6% 208 0 2 1 5.6 8 21.6%
Philip Rivers 20 42 47.6% 334 0 2 3 8 13 31.0%

2008-2012 Quarterback Passing Stats Inside Own 10 Yard-line Third Downs

Player Cmp Att Cmp% Yds TD Int Sk Y/A FD FD%
Eli Manning 10 13 76.9% 214 1 0 0 16.5 7 53.8%
Matt Schaub 6 8 75.0% 55 0 0 0 6.9 3 37.5%
Aaron Rodgers 12 16 75.0% 139 0 0 1 8.7 5 31.3%
Peyton Manning 8 11 72.7% 110 0 1 0 10.0 6 54.5%
Josh Freeman 8 11 72.7% 129 0 0 0 11.7 5 45.5%
Matt Ryan 11 16 68.8% 112 0 0 3 7.0 6 37.5%
Carson Palmer 8 12 66.7% 82 0 0 1 6.8 4 33.3%
Matthew Stafford 7 11 63.6% 71 0 0 1 6.5 3 27.3%
Tom Brady 5 9 55.6% 63 0 0 0 7.0 3 33.3%
Sam Bradford 5 9 55.6% 64 0 0 1 7.1 2 22.2%
Drew Brees 9 18 50.0% 161 0 1 0 8.9 7 38.9%
Ben Roethlisberger 6 12 50.0% 117 0 0 1 9.8 4 33.3%
Joe Flacco 6 12 50.0% 164 0 0 1 13.7 3 25.0%
Matt Cassel 4 8 50.0% 75 0 1 0 9.4 2 25.0%
Mark Sanchez 7 14 50.0% 59 0 0 0 4.2 1 7.1%
Jay Cutler 8 17 47.1% 178 0 0 1 10.5 5 29.4%
Alex Smith 2 5 40.0% 44 0 0 0 8.8 2 40.0%
Donovan McNabb 3 8 37.5% 19 0 0 0 2.4 1 12.5%
Matt Hasselbeck 4 13 30.8% 26 0 0 0 2.0 1 7.7%
Philip Rivers 4 14 28.6% 46 0 2 2 3.3 3 21.4%
Kyle Orton 2 7 28.6% 22 0 0 0 3.1 0 0.0%
Tony Romo 3 11 27.3% 34 0 0 1 3.1 1 9.1%
Ryan Fitzpatrick 2 9 22.2% 42 0 0 0 4.7 2 22.2%
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