This isn't Ben Roethlisberger's best.
It really isn't.
Contrary to the 69.9% completion rate that, if it winds up that way, would be the highest of his career.
Contrary to the 110.4 QB rating that ranks fifth in the NFL and, if it winds up that way, would be the highest of his career.
Contrary to the 10 touchdown passes that, if extrapolated over a full season, would give him 40, or six more than he's ever had.
Contrary to his one interception and zero fumbles that, if extrapolated ... oh, my goodness.
And yet, I stand by my statement. This season, Roethlisberger's 17th, isn't his best. Not yet.
But don't take my word for it.
"I'm just trying not to turn the ball over," Ben responded on this Wednesday morning from the South Side to my question as to whether or not there's any aspect of his current play that's the best of his career. "Obviously, I'm not putting up big passing numbers with yards per attempt and all those things, but to me, I just don't want to turn the ball over. That's the biggest thing I'm trying to work on. And that's going to be the biggest challenge this week, because this team, I'm pretty sure, leads the league in turnovers."
Yep. It's Cleveland week. The Steelers are 4-0, the Browns 4-1, and for an individual athlete who's always legitimately judged himself on that stat above all, I wasn't about to cull a lot more on the subject.
Oh, and the Browns do, indeed, lead the NFL in takeaways with 12. Six picks. Six fumble recoveries.
That's fine. He's free to steer the conversation any which he chooses. Because, again, this isn't his best, and it couldn't be considered that until his yardage production, those "big passing numbers" he referenced, re-approach career norms. He's currently averaging 254.0 yards per game, ranking 20th in the league, and 10.2 yards per completion, ranking 27th. His average completion's traveled only 4.7 yards in the air, meaning from the line of scrimmage to the receiver's hands. That ranks 26th in the league. He's made only 17 throws of 20-plus yards in the air, and he's converted ... four. That 23.5% accuracy ranks 30th.
"I'm still missing the deep ball too much, still overthrowing," he further acknowledged. "I've got to figure it out. I don't know if the doc made my arm I guess a little stronger, I don't know. I've got to figure out how to connect on those deep balls a little more."
No doubt.
But seriously, when one weighs that most of those have been overthrows, Ben's joking notwithstanding, it feels fair to dismiss any lingering worries about his surgically repaired elbow, right?
It also feels fair to believe this is just about rediscovering a groove that's forever been familiar to him, right?
Bottom line: Neither the deep ball nor Ben's trademark self-deprecation could -- or should -- undercut what he's achieved to date. And this comes, I'll remind, fresh off an 11-month layoff, intensive rehab, a pandemic that cost all NFL players their preseason and other offseason team work and, not to be dismissed, all those "nerves" and "jitters" Ben kept describing through training camp, almost surely linked to the elbow itself.
What he's achieved to date, within all of that and within a single word, is amazing.
I've dug up a few more fun advanced metrics:
• His throws have arrived at their intended targets as a catchable pass 78.3% of the time, 10th-best in the NFL, and this despite the misfires deep.
• He's thrown two passes deemed to be interceptable, or one more than his one actual interception.
• He's been sacked only six times, and it's fair to credit his line for that. But it's also because his snap-to-release time of 2.37 seconds is tied for fastest in the NFL with Washington's Dwayne Haskins. For further perspective, Tom Brady, long famous for this, ranks eighth at 2.62 seconds.
• He's attempted 15.4% of his passes into aggressive coverage, meaning when he'll take a chance and fire it into tight quarters. His figure represents the league's median, which I like because it indicates he's being neither passive nor reckless. The highest figures in this category tend to be younger quarterbacks who still think they're invincible.
• His receivers have been mostly OK, but they haven't exactly made it easy for him: The Steelers' average target separation -- meaning how much room is created between wide receivers, tight ends and running backs and their nearest defender -- is 0.85 yards. And if that sounds low, that's because it's the lowest in the league.
I could do these all day. It's good to hear from field level, too.
"I think he's very mentally sharp," Mike Tomlin replied this week when asked to assess Ben. "I think sometimes when you have the perspective he has now, he watched the bulk of football in 2019. Oftentimes when you get removed from your role and you get to watch it from a different perspective, you might change your perspective on performance and evaluation thereof. I am not displeased in the overall trajectory of his play. I like the fact that he is being critical of his performance. I also like where he is from a mental standpoint right now. We're just going to continue to work and knock the rust off and gain the rhythm that we're accustomed to seeing from him."
"I think you see that growth and development there that, when there's an opportunity to take it, you take it," Randy Fichtner said. "I think he's done a nice job of protecting the ball. We've attempted a few shots, and some don't always materialize when you attempt to throw the ball deep in this league, where you need the time. He did a nice job moving around on a couple of those the other day, where he ended up checking down. That might be one of the results of him just getting back and feeling really comfortable, getting to work with all of the wide receivers."
Fichtner added that he's expecting Thursday and Friday practices each week to include "a few more of those down-the-field throws." He and Ben had a conversation Wednesday to precisely that effect.
Bottom line, as Chase Claypool put it: "He's putting the ball where it needs to be. The way he's throwing, you've got to make the plays."
Yeah, they've got to say it. Especially the rookie who's getting fed to the tune of four touchdowns. But when it comes from the opposite side, that's something special.
Well after the fact, the Eagles, who'd led the NFL in sacks entering Sunday, were praising Ben far more than panning themselves.
Of his 13-of-13, 158-yard, two-touchdown passing performance on third downs alone, a feat Tomlin might have undersold as "spectacular.", defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz told Philadelphia reporters Tuesday, after his film study, that his main takeaway was that Ben was "on fire," adding, "Sometimes you can go out and hold a quarterback to 20% on third down, but when he’s hot like that, you have to scrap to get 50% or whatever it was in that game."
Uh, try doubling that, Coach.
Of Ben's release neutralizing the Eagles' rush, which had 13 sacks and 53 QB pressures in the previous two games alone, edge rusher Brandon Graham bemoaned, "The ball was coming out fast. It’s respect for us. He was getting it out, hitting the perimeter."
Hitting most everything, actually.
Of Ben repeatedly reading the Eagles at the line of scrimmage, in particular on the backbreaking 35-yard touchdown pass to Claypool in the fourth quarter, safety Rodney McLeod summarized, “Ben checked to it once he saw us in that particular coverage. Good throw and good catch against our coverage.”
Well, suffice it to say that explanation wouldn't fly among the angry Philly faithful -- I know, that's redundant -- who lit up the talk shows on the wrong end of the commonwealth to complain about this sequence.
Not without cause:
Doug Pederson, the Eagles' head coach, ducked a question on the play Sunday, claiming, "I need to see the tape." But it wouldn't have taken the combined defensive acumen of Bud Carson and Dick LeBeau to see what'd gone awry: The Eagles somehow wound up with a plodding linebacker, Nate Gerry, on Claypool.
I'd give you poor Gerry's number, but he's the one up there nearly falling on his face.
Watch now from this angle:
Uh-huh, that's exactly what it looks like. Ben lined up, looked around, changed the play, then shouted that right over to Claypool.
“He just told me," Claypool conceded with a giggle. "And he kinda told the whole defense.”
Oh, they knew, too. And a couple of the Eagles publicly expressed they thought a timeout might be coming. Never came.
Schwartz, the coordinator, was left to explain, first, that Pederson isn't a fan of defensive timeouts and that a timeout could only have been called by the boss. Schwartz added that he'd called for a quarters defense to try to help his corners after their best, Darius Slay, had left with a head injury. But in that situation, whoever lined up in the middle was going to be greeted by a linebacker.
Ben applauded Claypool since "Chase had never lined up in that position before, but he ran it beautifully and took advantage," but we're well past the point of coincidence in Ben being the one seeing all this.
Maybe it's because he's matured, as Tomlin suggested. Maybe it's because he's staying humble and taking what's there.
This came up Wednesday, too.
"I'm just glad we're winning football games," he came right back. "You know me. It's not about stats. It's not about numbers. It's about winning football games."
After a slight pause, he added, "Coming back from an injury and not playing last year, I was a little worried about my play and what was going to happen. I think I told you guys that before the first game, that my biggest concern was letting the team down and losing the game for them. So ... I'm just glad we're winning football games. Sometimes, when you get to this age, in life and in football, you have to find ways to win the game mentally, as well. So that's what I'm trying to do."
Anyone still remember when the rest of us were worried, too?
About Ben's ability to throw a football from here to there?
Or his unsettling metamorphosis from the 'Tool Time' guy to having emerged from Saddam's bunker?
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Funny, but that third visage up there is almost as razor-sharp as the showings of late.