Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger once again threw for more than 300 yards in the teams Monday night win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and even more importantly, he threw three touchdown passes in that road win. Roethlisberger’s Monday performance was also good enough to earn him the AFC Offensive Player of the Week award for Week 3 of the 2018 NFL regular season.
Against the Buccaneers Roethlisberger completed 30 of his 38 total pass attempts for 353 yards with touchdown passes to Antonio Brown, Ryan Switzer and Vance McDonald, all of which came in the first half of the Monday night game. He only threw one interception in that game as well.
Monday night also marked the first time in Roethlisberger’s 15-year NFL career that he has opened a season with three consecutive 300-passing yard games. He and Buccaneers quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick are the only two quarterbacks to have thrown for at least 300 passing yards in each of the first 3 games of the 2018 season. Additionally, Roethlisberger, Fitzpatrick and New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees are the only three players to have at least 1,000 passing yards through Week 3 of 2018 regular season.
Roethlisberger’s 273 passing yards in the first half of the Monday game against the Buccaneers were the fifth-most of his NFL career for the first half of a game and his three first half touchdown throws in that contest are now tied as his fourth-most.
Wednesday marked the 16th time during his NFL career that Roethlisberger has been named the AFC Offensive Player of the Week – the most in Steelers history. He has been named AFC Offensive Player of the Week at least once in 12 of his 15 seasons in the NFL, according to the Steelers PR Department.
Roethlisberger and the Steelers will next face the Baltimore Ravens Sunday night at Heinz Field and it will mark the first of the two team’s annual meetings. Roethlisberger is 21-3 in regular-season primetime games at Heinz Field and he is 9-0 in his last nine home primetime games.
