Pittsburgh Steelers: 5 players who stood out in dominate win over Panthers
The Pittsburgh Steelers continued their hot streak in the most dominating fashion imaginable. Their 52-21 pounding of Carolina was Pittsburgh’s fifth straight victory.
It sure was nice to be able to watch a Steelers game without any heart attacks. After allowing a pretty dominant opening drive touchdown to Carolina, the Steelers quickly put that behind them and absolutely torched the Panthers.
The quick 75-yard strike to JuJu Smith-Schuster was a terrific answer to the Panthers’ opening drive and the T.J. Watt-forced pick-six turned the game to the Steelers’ favor rapidly. While Ben Roethliseberger was under center, the only time the Steelers’ failed to put points on the board was a late and short possession right before halftime.
In a game where the offense and defense combines to score 52 points, it’s hard to narrow a list of stand out players to just five, but here’s our best effort. However, there is a clear best player on the field from Thursday night.
Ben Roethlisberger
This ol’ cowboy still has a bit in him. Yeah, he is still an elite quarterback in this league.
Ben Roethlisberger was dominant in every sense of the word. He was literally as perfect as the quarterback rating allows him to be. And he better have been since he threw more touchdown passes than incompletions.
Big Ben was 22-of-25 for 328 yards and five touchdowns and did not turn the ball over. All of the touchdown passes went to different receivers. He also ran three times for 27 yards, including an 18-yard scamper that helped the Steelers score a touchdown.
Of all of Ben’s traits, probably his most valuable trait now is his ability to read defenses. His pre-snap ability to see what a defense is bringing or disguising is at elite status. His communication helps the offensive linemen know their assignments and tells receivers what matchups to exploit.
This ability of Big Ben was on full display Thursday night. He is what makes this offense click. And when he is this locked in, this is the best offense in football.