September 10, 2007 - Toledo Blade | By Dave Hackenberg
Roethlisberger takes giant step to erase last year
CLEVELAND - While the Browns' quarterbacks were wasting time yesterday, Ben Roethlisberger was busy turning back the clock.
He was a rookie again. Or maybe it was the Super Bowl season. He played with smarts, took what the defense gave him, trusted and relied on all of the many weapons at his disposal, didn't force the action, and, as a result, pretty much dominated it.
Roethlisberger, the Findlay product, threw a career-high four touchdowns as his Pittsburgh Steelers creamed the Browns 34-7 in the NFL season opener.
Big Ben has had better completion percentages than yesterday's 12-of-23, he's had bigger yardage totals than 161, and he's had higher passer ratings than 114.3 - although that was shooting the moon compared to what the opposition accomplished. But Roethlisberger has rarely enjoyed a day that produced as big a sigh of relief.
Behind him, finally and fully, is the motorcycle crash. He missed last year's opener because of an emergency appendectomy. In his first three games back, he threw seven interceptions and zero touchdowns. The 2006 season soured early, much like, we learned after the fact, his relationship with former coach Bill Cowher.
With a new coaching staff, a new season, and his health, Roethlisberger looked like the same quarterback who went 13-0 as a rookie starter in 2004, or the guy who a year later became the youngest ever to lead a team to a Super Bowl championship.
He mastered a touch pass early, lobbing a short ball to Hines Ward in the back corner of the end zone for a 7-0 lead. He threw a perfect mid-range pass to ex-Buckeye Santonio Holmes, who burned both Cleveland safeties and caught the 40-yard strike in stride at the goal line to make it 17-0. He zipped a laser shot to tight end Matt Spaeth to open the second half, stretching the lead to 24-0. And he surveyed the field and all his options before firing a little sidearm change-up to Heath Miller for yet another touchdown.
"He did a great job," Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin said. "His getting off to a great start is a big plus."
The Browns' quarterbacks, meanwhile, were a big minus.
Cleveland coach Romeo Crennel took the entire preseason camp to identify a starter, and then Charlie Frye didn't last an entire half before being benched. He was 4-of-10 for 34 yards, one interception, and a passer rating of 10. That's a perfect number if you're Bo Derek, but it makes for a very imperfect NFL quarterback.
Speaking of Dereks, Anderson came off the bench and had a bit more success than Frye, but all in all, in every facet of the game, the Browns were far inferior. The crowd, when it wasn't booing, got into the habit of chanting, "Brady, Brady" for No. 3 quarterback Brady Quinn, who did not step onto the field while the tough Steelers defense was stepping all over the Browns.
Roethlisberger said "whew" when asked if he felt sorry for the Cleveland QBs.
"I know what they're going through when you're getting hit that much and nothing is going right," he said. "It's never fun."
But those kinds of days, the '06 variety, were finally memories for Big Ben.
"Today was fun, it was good, especially coming off last year and especially after all the work I put into getting ready for this season," he said. "Everybody played well."
No one more so than the quarterback. Ben looked for real, again. And so did the Steelers. The Browns? They looked like the Browns, only worse.
