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Mandalore76 on 11 October 2021
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It was nice to see Big Ben (253 yards, 2 TD's, 0 int's) and the Steelers offense (Harris 122 yards rushing, 1TD; Claypool 130 yards receiving, 1 TD)
have a good game even without JuJu Smith-Schuster, after a few weeks of articles trumpeting "Steelers need to bench Roethlisberger and sign Cam
Newton ASAP."  Like seriously, the people who write that kind of nonsense can't possibly actually watch football.  There is a reason that the Panthers
moved on from Newton 2 years ago, and also why the Patriots didn't bring him back this year.  He hasn't had a winning record as a starter since 2017. 
And here's his 2020 stats compared to Big Ben:

Cam Newton:

Year Age Tm G GS QBrec Cmp Att Cmp% Yds TD TD% Int Int% 1D Lng Y/A AY/A Y/C Y/G Rate QBR Sk Yds 4QC GWD AV
2020 31 NWE 15 15 7-8-0 242 368 65.8 2657 8 2.2 10 2.7 133 50 7.2 6.4 11.0 177.1 82.9 47.0 31 195 1 3 13
Ben Roethlisberger:
Year Age Tm G GS QBrec Cmp Att Cmp% Yds TD TD% Int Int% 1D Lng Y/A AY/A Y/C Y/G Rate QBR Sk Yds 4QC GWD AV
2020 38 PIT 15 15 12-3-0 399 608 65.6 3803 33 5.4 10 1.6 193 84 6.3 6.6 9.5 253.5 94.1 60.1 13 118 4 4 9

Even when you add in Newton's 12 rushing TD's last year, Big Ben still produced 13 more TD's, gained more yards (even with Newton's rushing stats
factored in), was sacked less, and recorded more game winning drives.  The Steelers have not had a competent running game since 2017, and have a
horrendous offensive line this year, which has led to first round draft pick Najee Harris struggling through the first few weeks of the season until the
Broncos game.  Anyone who believes that Cam Newton is somehow a better alternative to run this offense doesn't know what they are talking about.  

Ben Roethlisberger may be diminishing at age 39, but he remains the best option for this team's success this season.  And his arm strength is far from
gone, contrary to what gets heralded in the "Bench Ben" articles that have proliferated this season.  He is still more than capable of the launching the
ball downfield 45-50+ yards through the air.  In fact, the biggest missed opportunities in the Packer loss a week ago was Ben overthrowing JuJu
Smith-Schuster on deep balls downfield on more than one occasion.  That wasn't the case this week as he was connecting with Claypool downfield in
stride.
Long story short, those articles bugged me, and it was nice to see the good offensive output this week silence them for the time being.  I don't doubt
that it will be a long season for the Steelers this year with probably mixed results, but they are playing the toughest strength of schedule in the NFL,
so I have tempered my overall expectations accordingly.
Other thoughts for the week:  Ouch at Giants losing 70% of their offense in the Cowboys game, but I doubt they would have beaten Dallas anyway. 
Lions can't catch a break, but they seriously need to do a better of job of defending the field for the final 30 seconds of a game.  Glad to see the
Bengals and Browns go down as it pulls the Steelers back to within a game of them.  And, I'm always happy to see the Chiefs get taken down another
peg, as they have gotten way too cocky in the Mahomes era.
*I don't know why part of the first letters of each sentence below the tables are cut-off.  The complete sentences show in all my edits and then disappear after submission.
Last edited by Mandalore76 - on 11 October 2021