Arians Says Roethlisberger has been near-flawless
Ben Roethlisberger has earned praise for what he has been doing with his arm and his legs of late, but it's the Steelers' quarterback's decision-making that has impressed offensive coordinator Bruce Arians.
"He was excellent," Arians said of Roethlisberger in Sunday's 31-28 victory over Cleveland. "He has been for a month or so.
"I think he might have had one bad read in that whole ball game. I remember looking at it (Thursday) morning. It surprised me that he even had one."
Roethlisberger completed 23-of-34 attempts against Cleveland for 278 yards and two touchdowns, and ran for 40 yards and another score against the Browns.
He was also sacked four times and threw an interception.
"He's playing at a really high level right now," Arians said. "You couldn't ask any more of his performance. And when you throw in the improvisation running and passing, he's playing lights out."
Roethlisberger finished with a passer rating of 99.9, down from the perfect rating of 158.3 he achieved on Nov. 5 against Baltimore and his first sub-100 rating in five games.
But in Arians' estimation, Roethlisberger's decision-making in terms of where he went with the football -- how quickly he got rid of it and whether or not to force the ball into coverage -- was near-flawless.
"I feel like I made more mistakes than that, more errors than that, but it's going well," Roethlisberger said. "We understand what's going on and we're all feeding off each other."
Roethlisberger has 22 touchdown passes through nine games, four more than the career-high 18 he threw in 2006.
And the offense this week achieved season-high rankings of 18th in passing and fifth in total offense.
Roethlisberger's overall passer rating of 110.2 trails only New England's Tom Brady (131.8).
"It's to the point with Bruce that you feel comfortable with him because you know you live to play another day, as in the fact you know you're going to throw again," Roethlisberger said.
"In the past, we've always joked about it as quarterbacks that if you throw a pick you're so afraid to make that mistake because you feel like you're never going to throw the ball again. And on the flip side, you want to take every home-run chance you get. You don't want to take the check-down because you're afraid you might not get to throw again.
"With Bruce you feel comfortable enough to throw to the running back knowing that it's not going to be your last throw of the day."
Roethlisberger is on pace to throw 429 passes this season, down from the 469 he attempted in 15 games in 2006.
It's what he's been doing with his chances rather than the number of them that matters to Arians.
"He's worked it all the way back to the fourth and fifth receivers and then taken off and run," Arians said. "He's felt pressure and gotten out early, made completions.
"It comes from all the way back to March. He's studying. He's on top of it. And his experience, too, having as much say as he has in picking out what he wants, what he likes, I think that all shows up on Sunday."
It showed up against the Browns, as Roethlisberger rallied the Steelers from 21-6 and 28-24 deficits.
"This past week, some people have said it may have been my best game ever," Roethlisberger said. "Statistically, probably not, but I felt like we were going to win that game. After we scored the touchdown (for a 24-21 lead) they come right back and return the kickoff (for a touchdown), and you know what? There was never a panic.
"I don't know how the rest of the guys felt, but I really felt like, 'OK, now we're going to go down and score again.' "