While Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger enters Week 6 as the AFC’s leader in passing yards, he’s been very inconsistent with his throws so far through the team’s first five regular season games of 2018. While quite a few of Roethlisberger’s incompletions to date have been deep passes that ultimately landed out of bounds, several others that have been in the field of play have seemingly sailed on him.
During his weekly interview Tuesday morning on 93.7 The Fan, Roethlisberger was asked about how sharp he looked throwing the football in the second half of the team’s Sunday home win over the Atlanta Falcons and if that was a result of him making some sort of a mechanical adjustment to his throwing motion at halftime.
“You know, honestly, it was just dealing with a little bit of an elbow issue and it made me drop my elbow,” Roethlisberger revealed. “A little bit for a comfort factor, which caused the ball to sail. I know we talked about it on this show before, when your arm drops a little bit, the ball tends to sail. And so, in the second half I just kind of came out and I kind of had a talk with myself and said I got to suck it up and deliver the ball the way I need to, and I need to play better. And so just kind of forced my way through it.”
Having to force his way through an elbow issue or not, Roethlisberger was indeed much sharper in the second half against the Falcons than he was in the first. In fact, the Steelers quarterback completed 10 of his 12 second half pass attempts against the Falcons for 155 yards and two touchdowns after completing just 9 of his first 17 pass attempts in the game for 95 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
Roethlisberger was then asked if the issue he’s having with his elbow will be a lingering concern for him moving forward.
“No, it’s fine,” Roethlisberger said. “Remember, I got hit in the Cleveland game and just had that. So, we’ve been dealing with it, but it’s just something that I need to mentally get over in terms of with my throwing motion, you know. I got to keep that arm high to keep the ball driving instead of sailing. That’s all.”
Roethlisberger, in case you forgot, suffered an injury to his throwing elbow late in the Steelers Week 1 overtime tie against the Cleveland Browns. That injury happened during the second to last Steelers offensive play of the game.
The Steelers have been giving Roethlisberger practices off on Wednesdays so far this season and there’s currently no reason to think that schedule will change for him anytime soon. For now, it just sounds like hell need to do a better job of reminding himself not to drop his elbow prior to the starts of games.
