3 reasons resting Ben Roethlisberger could backfire on Steelers
By Tommy Jaggi
The Steelers are sitting Ben Roethlisberger against the Browns in the final week of the 2020 season, but here’s why this decision could backfire on them.
With a Week 16 win comeback win against the Indianapolis Colts, the Steelers locked up the AFC North this year. As a result, resting Ben Roethlisberger in the final week of the season seems like an easy choice. After struggling to throw the ball down essentially all season leading an offense that failed to score more than 19 points in 4 straight games, Ben finally looked like his old self again. But is it enough?
Admittedly, if anyone could use a week of rest before the playoffs this year, it’s Roethlisberger. The 38-year-old quarterback has been one of the most banged-up players in the NFL throughout his 17-year NFL career, and he has been asked to throw the ball far more than expected this year. While getting some rest only seems like a good thing, there is actually a handful of plausible scenarios why the move to rest Big Ben could potentially come back to haunt the Steelers. Here are three reasons why this could backfire on them:
One dominant half is not a big enough sample size
What we saw in the second half against the Colts in Week 16 was certainly encouraging. After an embarrassing first two-quarters of play, Ben caught fire and not only salvaged the game but his numbers in the box score.
Since looking to throw the ball down the field, Roethlisberger was able to finish the contest completing 34 of 49 passes for 341 yards and 3 touchdowns with a 109.3 quarterback rating – arguably his best game of the year so far. Though Ben’s play in the third and fourth quarter was terrific, we still need to consider that we have seen just one good half of play on offense over the last five games, and there’s no guarantee this will continue in the playoffs. The best way to ensure that it would is by playing Ben Roethlisberger this week and practice this style of offense Steelers fans are not used to seeing in 2020.