Ben Roethlisberger played in the NFL for a long time. He’s thrown a lot of passes, seen a lot of catches. Heck, he was on the throwing end that led to one of the most incredible grabs in Super Bowl history. While Roethlisberger declined to rank where Diontae Johnson’s OT catch Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals ranks, he puts it up there with any other catch he’s seen.
Roethlisberger talked about the catch and the game on the third episode of his podcast, Footbahlin.
“I saw Diontae Johnson make one of the most amazing catches I’ve seen in a long time,” Roethlisberger told host Spencer. “It was unbelievable. I text him too and said, ‘dude are you kidding me? That was spectacular.’ He’s like, ‘I just felt like I needed to make a play.’ And he did. That was just crazy.”
It came mid-way through overtime. Mitch Trubisky fired a go-ball down the left sideline with Johnson making a wild, one-handed grab straight up in the air. While being contacted by the Bengals’ corner, he somehow maintained control of the ball, pulled it back into his chest, got both feet inbounds, and secured the ball on his way down. Take a look at the play from the All-22 view.
It’s a play that likely would’ve received more attention had it directly led to the Steelers’ winning in overtime. His grab set up a scoring chance by Chris Boswell doinked his 55-yard attempt off the left upright, continuing the game that seemingly didn’t want to end. Boswell redeemed himself with a 53-yarder in the game’s final seconds to give the Steelers the win.
Though it’s a play semi-lost to the other wackiness of the game, it remains top of mind for Roethlisberger.
“That catch, next level type stuff. He gets open and does some things. But that catch was sweet. Awesome job.”
While Johnson has been panned for his “bad” hands, he’s made many high degree of difficulty catches throughout his career. This is just the latest. It’s merely been a matter of focus and concentration that’s led to drops over his career, though they haven’t been a major issue since 2020.
It may sound like hyperbole but good luck finding a better catch the rest of the season. Johnson’s catch was one of the most difficult you’ll see. Jumping straight up into the air, reaching up with one hand, having the strength and body control and finish to make a grab like that. You won’t see a better one this year.
Check out Roethlisberger’s full podcast below.
