Tuesday, November 6th, 2007 by Adam Wagner
So Ben is Better Than Kordell
After last night’s dominant performance, Ben Roethlisberger officially cemented himself as the second-best quarterback in Steelers’ history. With his five touchdown first half, Roethlisberger passed Kordell Stewart for second in touchdown passes in the Steelers’ record book. That Kordell was able to throw 70 touchdown passes says something about Bill Cowher, but that Roethlisberger has thrown 72 in three-and-a-half seasons. Terry Bradshaw, by comparison, had only thrown 41 touchdown passes through four whole seasons.
Roethlisberger has inserted himself into the middle of a Steelers’ attack that is suddenly proving to be able to score at near whim. An offense run by Kordell could never do that. Perhaps the best aspect of this new offense (and the one that results in its success) is that it is a constant threat for a big play.
Whether it is Roethlisberger going over the top to Santonio Holmes or Willie Parker breaking a 40 yard run, they are seemingly always on the verge of a huge gain or a touchdown. This is not just the fault of Ben, even though it is certainly partly due to him. The presence of an intelligent quarterback that can throw the deep ball (both flaws of Kordell) completely changes the complexion of a game, opening running games for a speedy runner like Willie Parker to take advantage of.
The presence of Parker, meanwhile, opens up passing lanes for Roethlisberger as teams must respect that he can make a run longer and more effective than one of Roethlisberger’s passes at any time.
The main difference between this rendition of a Steeler offense and others is that this one manages to keep up the consistent gains while also threatening the big gain while in the past Steeler offenses simply pounded out the consistent gain with people like Jerome Bettis (and, for a short while, Amos Zeroue). The threat of the big play looms over this team and not only makes them more exciting, but also simply better, with last night’s pounding of the supposed vaunted D of the Ravens being Example A.
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