USA Today Sports Weekly Cover Story: A Week In Big Ben's Life: Prepping For The Big Game
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger broke down his day-by-day game-preparation routines for USA TODAY:
PITTSBURGH — As Ben Roethlisberger shuffled toward a stairwell door at the Pittsburgh Steelers' facilities last Friday afternoon, he spotted team chairman Dan Rooney.
"How do you feel, Ben?" Rooney asked.
"Right now, Mr. Rooney, I feel old," Roethlisberger said.
"Old?" responded Rooney, 75, slightly incredulous.
But it had been a busy week for Roethlisberger, Pittsburgh's starting quarterback. The Steelers were coming off a Monday night game, so he faced a condensed week of preparation. Plus, NBC's Sunday Night Football crew was in town, so Roethlisberger had the added responsibility of meeting with announcers Al Michaels and John Madden on Friday.
Roethlisberger, 25, might not feel his age, but he's playing like a rejuvenated man this season. He's thrown a career-best 25 touchdown passes while leading Pittsburgh to first place in the AFC North with a 9-3 record. CBS analyst Solomon Wilcots compares him to Buffalo Bills Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly, only "with more athleticism."
It's not like Roethlisberger hasn't tasted success before. In 2004, at the age of 22, he became the only rookie quarterback in NFL history to win his first 13 starts. He broke Dan Marino's rookie records for passer rating (98.1) and completion percentage (66.4%). The next year, he became the youngest starting quarterback to win a Super Bowl.
But 2006 was a year to forget. A June motorcycle accident — he wasn't wearing a helmet — nearly cost him his life. An emergency appendectomy caused him to miss the season opener. He finished the season with an NFL-high 23 interceptions and the defending champion Steelers missed the playoffs with an 8-8 mark.
"He never really had a chance to get himself in shape," says former Steelers coach Bill Cowher, now a CBS analyst. "He had to play himself into it. I think most of his problems last year were due to his health situation."
After the season, Cowher stepped down, and offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt took the top job in Arizona.
This year, Roethlisberger faced a crossroads. Would he continue to struggle under new coach Mike Tomlin while learning new offensive coordinator Bruce Arians' system? Or would he build on the success he enjoyed early in his career?
The answer began to emerge in training camp. At one point, Roethlisberger strung together a number of practices without throwing an interception. "It might have been 12 or 16," Arians says. "It was like a baseball pitcher throwing a no-hitter."
These weren't gimme throws, either. The Steelers defense, arguably the NFL's best so far this year, wanted to get its hands on the ball. It was then, Arians knew, Roethlisberger was ready for a big season.
"It showed me that, when the ball was coming out of his hand, he knew where it was going — and why," Arians says. "The 'why' was more important than the 'where.' Because when your eyes are in the right place, they'll tell your hands where the ball should go. It was really gratifying to see him grow that way."
Roethlisberger also matured into more of a team leader. "Before, he was a young guy on a veteran team," says backup quarterback Charlie Batch. "He's probably thinking, 'I'm not gonna say much.' He had (running back) Jerome (Bettis), (receiver) Hines (Ward), (guard) Alan (Faneca). But now, if something needs to be said, he'll pull guys aside and say it. I don't think that was the case before."
Now, according to tight end Heath Miller, "Ben has realized everybody wants him to be the leader. We all look to him to kind of carry us."
It all adds up to an elite package. Roethlisberger's passer rating is up from 75.4 last year to a career-high 102.9. His completion percentage has soared from 59.7% to a career-best 66.9%. And after throwing a career-high 18 touchdowns last season, he already has 25 in 2007 and is closing in on Terry Bradshaw's single-season franchise record of 28.
"When people talk about quarterbacks, they always talk about arm strength," Wilcots says. "But people need to look at the intangible things you can't measure at the combine. Does he play with guts, or does he play with fear? Does he approach the game afraid to make a mistake, or does he approach it as a playmaker? Ben's got that kind of guts and toughness. He ain't afraid of gettin' dirty."
Roethlisberger also feels more comfortable under Arians, which might help explain the turnaround. In August, he told USA TODAY he often felt shackled last year. "We were so careful with doing this and that," Roethlisberger said then.
Says Faneca, "I've heard Ben say he's got more input to what's going on. If that leads you to be more comfortable, then that's a big thing."
From the very start, Arians included Roethlisberger in every aspect of the game plan, even allowing him to provide playbook terminology. "Because this is his offense," Arians says. "It ain't mine. I'm just along for the ride. And when a quarterback dives in and takes that responsibility, it spreads throughout the whole locker room."
Arians, who served as the receivers coach under Cowher, has given Roethlisberger more autonomy, letting him change plays, snaps counts and protection schemes.
Roethlisberger maintains this has made a huge difference in his confidence. "Just being more involved day to day, understanding what's going on and being more comfortable with the plays. Honestly, that's it," Roethlisberger says. "A lot of my time last year was spent in the weight room, trying to get my body back, instead of the classroom, where it should have been."
Roethlisberger sat down with USA TODAY, describing a typical work week under Pittsburgh's new regime.
MONDAY
The Steelers' headquarters is located in the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Sports Performance Complex. Wedged along the banks of the Monongahela River, parking is at a premium there. There are enough spots for players and personnel, but none are officially reserved. But like high school, where there are often no assigned seats, people often take the same spots.
"If someone parks in my spot," Roethlisberger says with a grin, "I'll pull in really close to them so they can't get back in (the driver's side door)."
Monday is the day the team comes in and reviews the previous day's game. Tomlin is amenable to giving the team the day off if the timing is right. But the one time he granted it, the Steelers lost to the lowly New York Jets the following week. So nobody expects a free Monday again for a while.
The Steelers' offensive staff begins its new game plan in earnest that evening. Quarterbacks coach Ken Anderson faxes Roethlisberger the early draft for his review, when he provides preliminary input.
"Every week's installation schedule is a little different," Anderson says. "You have to look at base blitzes, nickel blitzes, where are we exposed. You have to know what we're anticipating on third down and how we're going to handle that. How are you going to read a route vs. certain coverages?
"Their (the quarterbacks') homework is they get stuff early the night before everybody does so they have a chance to look at it. Then it's knowing the formations, the reads and progressions you want to have with each route."
TUESDAY
For every NFL team, this is the players' regular day off — except for the quarterbacks. "During the season," Anderson says, "they really don't get a day off."
Roethlisberger tries to arrive at the UPMC complex between 10 a.m. and noon ET. "That gives us a chance to get rolling," Arians says.
This is when the staff really begins hammering out the passing plan — "the play-actions, the boots, the nakeds (bootlegs), all that stuff," Roethlisberger says — and working their way up through everything they might want to use that week.
By the time Roethlisberger arrives, Arians and his staff have already put in most of the week's run package. "I don't sit here and go through the whole game plan with them, just the passing part of it," Roethlisberger says.
"These are the checks for this week," Arians might ask. "Does this make sense?" Roethlisberger might say yes, no, or "I kind of like it."
After the quarterback leaves, the staff starts working out the details and putting it to paper.
Roethlisberger will also try to squeeze in a workout. It's a busy day, because Tuesday is also his one day for appointments and public appearances. As the high-profile quarterback of one of the NFL's most successful and popular teams, the schedule can get hectic.
But it's also a day for him to unwind. When the weather is warm, he'll try to play golf. Or he might just run around with his two dogs: Zeus, a Rottweiler, and Hercules, a Bernese Mountain Dog. "Anything to keep my mind off football," Roethlisberger says.
He also enjoys hunting or fishing with defensive end Brett Keisel, one of his closest friends on the team.
"I've taken him fishing to a couple of my secret spots," Keisel says. "I really learned from it because then he goes on the radio and talks trash about how he's a better fisherman than me and giving away my secret locations. So I don't know if I'm going to be taking him with me anymore. I had to give him the cold shoulder for a while."
Between 8-10 p.m., the staff will have the game plan prepared, and Roethlisberger's fax will begin to hum. Pittsburgh's backups, Batch and Brian St. Pierre, also receive the faxes. While the plan is skewed to Roethlisberger's preferences, they have some input, too. "But Ben and I are pretty similar in the plays we like," Batch says.
Between 20-30 pages will come across the fax, featuring every scenario Roethlisberger might face — second-and-short, third-and-long, etc. — plus play-action passes and all of the team's protection schemes. He takes it up to bed with him and studies it until 10:30 or 11 p.m., when he usually dozes off.
This is a major change from last year, when Roethlisberger wouldn't see the game plan until Wednesday. And what Whisenhunt called, the Steelers executed. "But we don't necessarily know if that came down from Bill (Cowher)," Batch says.
Says Cowher, "Responsibility comes as you grow. Those things don't happen in the first or second year. You have to earn that. He's at a point now where he's embraced that responsibility. Some quarterbacks like it, some don't."
WEDNESDAY
This day was more hectic last year for Roethlisberger, who would have to examine the game plan that morning and then compile his questions for Whisenhunt. But because he has already familiarized himself with the plan this year, he arrives at the facility ready with his list of questions for Arians and Anderson.
Roethlisberger checks in at headquarters between 7:30-7:45 a.m. and hits the hot tub before his 8:30 meeting with Arians and Anderson. The team practices from 1-3 p.m.
It's still the toughest day of the week for Roethlisberger, "because everything is new for the offense. Sometimes, it seems like nothing is going right. You're calling stuff wrong in the huddle, everything's bad."
But by the end of the day, he'll have a pretty good handle on what's going to work that week. A recent emphasis lately has been how to deal with the blitz; in his last five games, Roethlisberger has been sacked 19 times.
"Teams have come up with more (stuff) with these blitzes," Arians says. "The original zone blitz is passé now. Now it's a three-man line with eight DBs running all over the field blitzing. So it's hard as hell to play quarterback right now in the NFL."
THURSDAY
This is the day the Steelers start ironing things out.
Roethlisberger likes Thursdays because he can review Wednesday's hits and misses. He'll tell Arians the plays that make him feel comfortable — and the ones that don't. If it doesn't click initially, they'll run it two or three more times before jettisoning it.
Every night, Roethlisberger studies a DVD of that week's opponent, an end-zone view that allows him to see the defense the way it will appear to him in a game. He plays it on the 120-inch projection screen at his home. The home theater is part of a game room that includes pool and poker tables.
While he studies a team's tendencies, he'll spread out his paperwork before him. He isn't a coffee drinker, so he might pop open a Gatorade and stand before the screen, like he's in the shotgun formation, holding his clicker.
"Of course, sometimes I'll sit," he says, "depending on how my body feels."
FRIDAY
A white dry-erase board dominates an entire wall of Arians' office. The board is lined off into sections, each featuring a different game situation. The board also features four sliding panels, and Arians fills every one with potential plays for Roethlisberger.
"When I look at my game plan board," Arians says, "that's how I know what day it is."
After Friday's practice, which usually runs from 10:45 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Roethlisberger visits Arians' office. He stands before the board armed with two markers: one green, one red.
The plays he likes gets a green mark: "go with it!" Those are the ones he wants among the first 15 plays of the game.
The plays he wants out of the game plan, he slashes with the red marker.
"A lot of times, the play might have worked in a game," Roethlisberger says. "But if I don't get a good look in practice and I don't feel good about it, I don't want to take it into a game."
Early in the season, there was a lot of red marks on that board. Now, not so much. Arians says that's a sign that Roethlisberger's growing with the offense.
SATURDAY
Not counting game day, this is Roethlisberger's favorite day of the work week. The heavy lifting is done, and it's time for the finishing touches.
Today the team will review Friday's practice and have its pregame walk-through. Whether it's a home or road game, the Steelers always stay together at a hotel Saturday night. That evening, about 20 or 30 minutes before the offense meets at 8 p.m., Roethlisberger, Batch, St. Pierre, Arians and Anderson huddle to review the entire game plan.
"What are your top two second-and-short calls?" Arians might ask Roethlisberger. Or, "Give me your two favorite red-zone plays."
Other plays could be a late scratch. "We'll take a play out all the way up to Saturday night," Roethlisberger says.
Sometimes Arians is convinced a certain play will work, but his quarterback might remain hesitant. "Oh, I'll try to talk him into it," Arians says. "He might say, 'Yeah, yeah. I know what you're thinkin.' "
Or he'll hold his ground. "If Ben says, 'You know what, I just don't like this play,' then Bruce says, 'OK, it's dead,' " Batch says. "That might not necessarily have been the case in the past."
Whisenhunt would do that a little bit with him last year, "but not a whole lot," Roethlisberger says. "He'd ask, 'What are your two favorite plays?' But it wasn't as intense or in as much detail."
This Saturday night meeting is important, because Arians wants to be on the same page as Roethlisberger on Sunday. "As the game progresses, I'm not one to repeat a lot of plays," Arians says. "So I'll say, 'They're giving us this. What's your next choice? What do you want to hear?' We just try to keep flowing like that as long as we can."
While he feels more entwined in the Steelers' offense, Roethlisberger doesn't know how many more hours of preparation per week he's putting in compared to 2006. "I know it's dramatically more than it was (last year)," he says. "But it would be hard for me to sit down and say, 'I'm spending X amount more hours per week.' I mean, a couple of times a week, Bruce will call me on the cell around 10 p.m. and say, 'Ben, hey, I'm thinking about changing this. … Let me know what you think tomorrow — or call me back.' "
But this is one employee not complaining about the workload, because he and the Steelers are reaping huge benefits on Sundays.
| Ben Roethlisberger is enjoying the best season of his career as a primary component of the Steelers offense. He was steady and effective in his first two seasons, though he didn't throw nearly as much as he has in 2007. A look at the progression of his overall numbers and per-game averages for games he has started: | ||||||||
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| Season | Comp. (avg.) |
Att. (avg.) |
%. |
Yards (avg.) |
TD (avg.) |
Int. (avg.) |
Rating |
W-L |
|
||||||||
| 2004 | 196 (14.2) |
295 (21.2) |
66.4% |
2,621 (188.1) |
17 (1.2) |
11 (0.7) |
98.1 |
13-0 |
|
||||||||
| 2004 playoffs | 31 (15.5) |
54 (27.0) |
57.4% |
407 (203.5) |
3 (1.5) |
5 (2.5) |
61.3 |
1-1* |
|
||||||||
| 2005 | 168 (14.0) |
268 (22.3) |
62.7% |
2,385 (198.8) |
17 (1.4) |
9 (0.8) |
98.6 |
9-3 |
|
||||||||
| 2005 playoffs | 58 (14.5) |
93 (23.3) |
62.4% |
803 (200.8) |
7 (1.8) |
3 (0.8) |
101.7 |
4-0** |
|
||||||||
| 2006 | 280 (18.7) |
469 (31.3) |
59.7% |
3,513 (234.2) |
18 (1.2) |
23 (1.5) |
75.4 |
7-8 |
|
||||||||
| 2007 | 214 (17.8) |
320 (26.7) |
66.9% |
2,564 (213.7) |
25 (2.1) |
11 (0.9) |
102.9 |
9-3 |
|
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| * Lost AFC Championship Game | ||||||||
|
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| ** Won Super Bowl XL | ||||||||