To date, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger has had quite the professional career against NFL teams in his home state of Ohio, the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals, and on Sunday he’ll look to add one more victory to his totals against the former.
To date, Roethlisberger’s career record against the Browns in games played in Cleveland is a very robust 11-2-1. In fact, since the opening of FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland in 1999, there wasn’t a Browns’ quarterback who had won as many games as Roethlisberger there until Baker Mayfield won his 12th home game midway through the 2020 season. On Wednesday, Roethlisberger held his weekly media session and during it he took a subtle jab at the Browns when asked about the rivalry between them and the Steelers.
“I don’t know this rivalry ever went away,” Roethlisberger said. “I hear what you’re saying, but I don’t know if it ever went away. Yeah, sure, rivalries are great. AFC North football, they are always going to be rivals and there are going to be great games. I think I’m just glad that I’m not the most winning quarterback in their stadium history anymore.”
Whether or not Roethlisberger will be facing off against Mayfield on Sunday is yet to be determined because the Browns starting quarterback is attempting to work through a left shoulder injury that prevented him from playing in the team’s Week 7 Thursday night game. Even so, Roethlisberger is still looking forward to playing on Sunday in a hostile environment and especially on the heels of the Steelers losing to the Browns in last season’s AFC Super Wild Card game at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh.
“It will be fun,” Roethlisberger said on Wednesday. “Halloween. The fans are awesome. You can say what you want about the rivalry and this, that and the other, but the fans are awesome. They’re passionate. It’ll be exciting.
“It’s a challenge. Like I said they’re passionate. Anytime your fans have a nickname, or an area has a nickname, is pretty cool. They like to get on us and it’s part of the game. Obviously, when you go there and you play well and you win it has a little extra feeling of satisfaction, but it’s not easy to play there.”
While Roethlisberger’s career record against the Browns is 24-3-1 overall and including the one playoff game he’s played against them, Cleveland now has a two-game winning streak against the Steelers. The Browns have also won the last two games against the Steelers that they played at home. Roethlisberger, however, did not play in either of those two games. By the way, Roethlisberger’s and the Steelers’ last win against the Browns in Cleveland came in Week 1 of the 2017 season.
Unless the Steelers and Browns go on to meet in a playoff game in Cleveland later this season, Sunday could very well be Roethlisberger’s last NFL game against them at FirstEnergy Stadium so you can bet he really wants to leave his home state Sunday afternoon having notched his 12th win.
