Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown are all the way back.
Not that Brown's performance was ever an issue, but the Steelers' 40-17 rout of the Titans on this Thursday night at Heinz Field, in which Roethlisberger completed 30 of 45 passes for 299 yards and four touchdowns, also more specifically saw him go 20 of 23 in the second half with three touchdowns.
But the most important part of his performance was his very first drive of the second half that ended with a 5-yard touchdown pass to Brown. The drive went for 75 yards on 10 plays and took up 4:48 on the game clock. Roethlisberger completed seven passes on nine attempts for 61 yards. Two of his completions were to Jesse James for 12 yards, another two to Le'Veon Bell for 20 yards, another two to Brown for 17 yards, and a single 12-yard pass to JuJu Smith-Schuster.
Roethlisberger kept recognizing the defensive looks presented by the Titans, and so did his teammates. A perfect example of this came on a huge third-down conversion in the red zone when he hit Smith-Schuster for 12 yards to keep the drive alive.
It was the first catch of the series for Smith-Schuster -- who would finish with four catches and 47 yards -- for the lone third-down conversion of the drive. He ran a slant route against a Cover 2 zone scheme in which Roethlisberger saw that he had the rookie wide receiver from USC matched up against a rookie linebacker, Jayon Brown. Liking the matchup, Roethlisberger delivered a strike and Smith-Schuster came up with a huge catch:
A Cover 2 zone defense is one which prioritizes taking away the sidelines and dividing the field in half with defenders being responsible for specific zones. However, that defense exposes the middle of the field where linebackers have to cover large patches of space. Roethlisberger knew that when Smith-Schuster's slant route attacked that part of the field that there would be a good chance the linebacker, Jayon Brown, couldn't get to the spot in time.
After the game I asked JuJu for his personal recap of the play and what it was like to go against a longtime friend and teammate from USC in cornerback Adoree' Jackson:
Roethlisberger wasn't done picking apart the Titans as he would finish the drive with another slant, but this time to Brown in the end zone.
He faced a zero coverage man defense from the Titans that was hoping to get home with a six-man pass rush. Zero coverage is a concept that means that nobody on the defense plays back as a safety support behind the coverage assignments of the rest of the defense.
It is always a man coverage scheme, and when a quarterback recognizes it, it leaves the defense extremely vulnerable. On this particular play the Titans used that concept to overload the Steelers' front and try to force Roethlisberger to panic and throw an errant pass.
But thanks to a solid job by the offensive line and Bell, Roethlisberger's pocket was solid and he was able to see Brown beat Jackson with a routine slant route for an easy touchdown:
Notice how both the touchdown pass to Brown and the third-down conversion to Smith-Schuster were both well-placed and strategic decisions that attacked the weakness of those defenses. While Roethlisberger came out firing passes as hard as he could, he made sure to do so while making strategic decisions about how to attack each defense he faced.
You can get a clearer sense of how well-orchestrated the play was against the Titans' all-out blitz with the overhead replay. Roethlisberger can easily identify the zero coverage scheme by the Titans by seeing no player patrolling in the back of the end zone to support the defenders located in the box. That allows Roethlisberger to isolate which defenders will match up with his receivers and how those players might win their routes and get open.
Notice how obvious it became that Brown only had one man to beat:
This play capped a series in which Roethlisberger was on fire with both his reads and the precision of his passes. The fact that none of the passes traveled more than 14 yards is a testament to how well Roethlisberger was able to understand the defenses he faced; he didn't have to rely on a deep pass to get behind the defense. What seemed like a fired-up quarterback to those of us in the press box was a focused leader to the rest of his teammates.
Martavis Bryant, who finished the game with two catches for 30 yards, said that Roethlisberger made a point that the offense had to step up in the second half after it only scored one touchdown in the first two quarters of the game.
"Ben came in at halftime and gave us the talk to get us together and have each other's back and perform," Bryant said of his quarterback's halftime speech. "Guys really bought into what he said at halftime and we went out and made plays in the second half."
Tackle Marcus Gilbert said it was a little bigger than just that and said Roethlisberger put pressure on the offense to step up and deliver with more than just field goals. Watch how he described Roethlisberger's challenge to his teammates, as well as the "dilly dilly" audible that Roethlisberger called out:
All commercial references aside, the Steelers came into the second half and delivered in a big way. The defense gave up its second touchdown of the game, and the second touchdown all season on the first drive of the second half. Giving up a 75-yard touchdown for the longest pass they've surrendered all season was a major letdown. But knowing the defense had lifted the offense in support several times this season, Roethlisberger knew it was long overdue for the offense to return the favor.
The touchdown drive put the Steelers ahead 23-14 with 10:01 left in the third quarter and set the tone for three consecutive touchdowns and a field goal to follow. But it wasn't just four scoring drives that followed the way Roethlisberger came out to start the second half, it was the rest of the team.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY