We’re unlikely to know whether or not Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will play this coming Sunday in the team’s road game against the Baltimore Ravens until later on in the week. With that said, Ravens head coach John Harbaugh said Monday that he’s is fully expecting the Steelers starting quarterback to play.
“Ben is Ben and we respect him tremendously,” Harbaugh said during his Monday press conference, per Jeff Zrebiec of The Baltimore Sun.
Even if Roethlisberger winds up not playing Sunday, Harbaugh doesn’t sound too concerned about how his defense will prepare for the game this week as he feels the Steelers offense doesn’t change much with Landry Jones under center.
While Harbaugh might be right to a certain extent when it comes to the Steelers offense not being drastically different when Jones replaces Roethlisberger, he should obviously know by now that the latter of the two executes it much, much better.
Perhaps Harbaugh is hoping deep down inside that Roethlisberger does indeed wind up playing Sunday in Baltimore being as the Steelers quarterback hasn’t necessarily played well there so far during his career. Not only is Roethlisberger 2-5 in games that he’s started against the Ravens in Baltimore so far during his career, he’s 0-4 in last four starts in the Charmed City.
In Roethlisberger’s seven career starts against the Ravens in Baltimore, he’s completed just 58.5% of his passes on his way to throwing just 5 touchdowns versus 9 interceptions. He’s also been sacked a total of 24 times in those seven games.
In case you missed the news from earlier, Roethlisberger practiced in a limited capacity on Monday and that reportedly included him getting some first-team reps in addition to running the scout team. You can watch some video from Monday’s practice below that was provided by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
“Me knowing Ben, no (I wouldn’t be surprised), but the rest of the world, probably,” said Steelers center Maurkice Pouncey after Mondays practice was over, per the team’s official website. “Whenever you have a leader like that, that comes out there and shows the team you are willing to do whatever it takes to come out and play with your brothers, man you can respect that. Everyone knows and sees why he is a leader and captain on this team.”
Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin should provide a little insight into Roethlisberger’s chances of playing Sunday when he holds his weekly press conference on Tuesday.
