3 winners and 3 losers from Steelers 24-19 win vs. Cowboys

Winner: Ben Roethlisberger

I’m not going to lie, I struggled to put Ben Roethlisberger on the winner’s list. Yes, his end of the game stat line looked good. Over 300 passing yards and a trio of scores looks really solid, but his game tape tells a different tale. While he looked accomplished as a middle to short-range passing quarterback, his long ball has continued to be an issue.

Every time Roethlisberger winds up to throw the ball deep, it seems like the ball is way off the mark. Besides that, though, Roethlisberger was sharp short. Without him, the Steelers would have easily lost on Sunday. His game wasn’t perfect, but it was more than enough to get the win at the end of the day. He did just enough and avoided mistakes to guide the Steelers to the win.

Is Roethlisberger playing the best football of his career? No, but he is doing more than enough to win games (as evident by the 8-0 record). The Steelers need to maximize what Roethlisberger is doing well and play complete games in order to get over that. The Steelers don’t need to put up 40 points a game, but they need to do enough as a team to maximize Roethlisberger. If the game constantly falls onto Roethlisberger throwing the ball, it will likely lead to more losses than wins.