During an appearance on Kentucky basketball coach John Calipari’s podcast on Thursday, Ben Roethlisberger spoke candidly about the Steelers’ relationship to AFC behemoths the New England Patriots, terming them “little brother trying to keep up with the big brother”.
Steelers fans like to brag about the team’s six rings and big dog stature in the NFL, so Ben Roethlisberger‘s statements may seem blasphemous. However, it’s hard to argue with the Patriots in recent years.
Roethlisberger and Tomlin have made a great team, but they are arguably surpassed by the once-in-a-lifetime team of Tom Brady and Bill Belichick.
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The only thing casting doubt on Ben’s assertions is the relative dearth of high-stakes Steelers-Patriots matchups. The Patriots, of course, trounced Pittsburgh in the 2016 AFC Championship game two weeks ago, but it was the two teams’ first playoff matchup in nearly twelve years to the day.
The Patriots beat the Steelers in Ben’s rookie year to win the AFC title, between that season and this one there have been no playoff meetings between the two.
They met in the regular season this year, a 27-16 Patriots win that backup QB Landry Jones admirably kept close in Roethlisberger’s absence.
Roethlisberger commented about the AFC title game to Calipari:
"“When you move farther in the tournament, every mistake is magnified. When we played in that championship game, they didn’t make very many mistakes. They have to play a bad game and you have to play a good game. We were a very young team. It might have been a little overwhelming for some of them.”"
Youth is certainly a double-edged sword for Pittsburgh, as Sammie Coates is 23, Eli Rogers is 24, the injured Markus Wheaton is 25, tight end Jesse James is 22, and star Antonio Brown leads the pack at 28, a geezer by comparison. The defense is also young but maturing, and Ben is right to note that youth and inexperience can kill a team against a well-oiled machine like the Patriots.
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The Steelers may be the “little brother” to the Patriots for the time being, but there’s no shame in that. There can only be one king, and it’s New England at the moment. Next year’s team, another year older and wiser, stand a good chance to finally knock them off.