Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger certainly knows how important it is to have a playoff game at Heinz Field as the home crowd can really help out in certain situations. However, ahead of the Steelers Sunday Wild Card game against the Miami Dolphins, Roethlisberger does have one message for the fans who are lucky enough to be in attendance.
“Fans, when we have the ball, just be quiet, please,” Roethlisberger said Tuesday morning during his weekly interview on 93.7 The Fan. “It’s just very loud recently when we’ve had the ball and I understand everyone’s excited, but get as loud as you want to be when they have the ball but when we have the ball, let’s keep it down and we’ll try to do our best.”
It’s a straight forward request by Roethlisberger and an understandable one at that as a quiet crowd will help the offense communicate at the line of scrimmage.
Sunday will mark the 18th postseason game that Roethlisberger has played in during his career and his 8th at Heinz Field. His career home record during the playoffs at home is 5-3.
With the Dolphins now on tap, Roethlisberger was asked to give his Cliff Notes on what he’s seen on film from their defense since playing against them in Week 6.
“I think what I’ve seen so far from when we played them the first time is they get pressure with their four, blitzing maybe one linebacker and because they count on those guys and that’s where their money is at on defense is up front,” Roethlisberger said. “They’ve got some really good players that get after the quarterback. So, they want to create the pressure, make you get the ball out of your hands quick and then their DBs, safeties and linebackers do a great job in coverage and they don’t make a lot of mistakes.”
In that Week 6 loss to the Dolphins, Roethlisberger was sacked twice during the game and hit a total of eight times. He also suffered a knee injury during that game that forced him to miss one start. So, did Roethlisberger learn anything from that game against the Dolphins?
“I started watching them last week before the Browns game, actually, and watching that game just trying to look at tendencies, look at plays that I missed, plays that we didn’t make, how can we all be better,” Roethlisberger said. So, absolutely.”
