Kovacevic: If Ben keeps going deep like this, these Steelers will, too

Certainly on the surface, this was a really bad idea.

Opening series for the Steelers' offense. Third-and-5. Ball at the Pittsburgh 33. And Ben Roethlisberger dropped back to pass.

Not that part. That's not the bad idea.

No, it was this:

That flag, for those who aren't season-ticket holders, is perched atop the towering section of bleachers above Heinz Field's north end zone. It serves as something of a useful guide for wind conditions, often utilized by kickers, punters and even quarterbacks to gauge how an oblong spheroid might behave once airborne.

This time, it seemed a harbinger of the apocalypse.

According to the National Weather Service's local bureau, the winds within city limits achieved gusts as high as 44 mph out of the southwest. Outside the stadium, security railings, trash cans and other heavy objects were floored. Inside, the game's kickoff required a holder, the banners attached to the field goal posts were flapping furiously, and that flag ... well, that photo up there might as well be a video.

So, Ben dropped back to pass. 

To pass deep. 

And with Chase Claypool sprinting up the right sideline, securing a step on his coverage, Ben heaved one high into the grey sky, hoping against all meteorological odds to connect with his prodigious rookie receiver roughly 30 yards downfield.

Only ... hey, where'd it go?

Oh. Back near the visitors' bench about a dozen yards out of bounds. Claypool came to a full stop and visibly marveled at where it wound up.

As Ben would spectacularly understate later, "We had some elements we were dealing with."

One might reasonably assume a lesson was learned. One might also be wholly wrong about what truly makes Ben tick.

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He simultaneously hates and loves when he hears he can't do something. I've been around the man for a decade and a half, and I've come to appreciate this part of his personality more than any other.

He's 38. Too old. Can't keep up with all the hot new Heisman kiddies in the AFC North.

OK, so he's now 3-0 against those Heisman kiddies, not least of which was schooling Joe Burrow, the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft this past spring, in the Steelers' 36-10 mass burial of the Bengals on this day. And if measuring his passer ratings against those three head-to-head, Ben's got a cumulative 104.1 to Burrow's 76.4, Lamar Jackson's 65.8 and Baker Mayfield's 54.9.

Or, to summarize this, too, in photo form:

He's not a leader. That's another one. He's never been a leader. He's a follower who's never won the full respect of his teammates.

OK, uh, how's 9-0 sound?

And if Ben isn't the leader of this offense, if not this entire team, then pray tell, who is?

He can't conceivably fare well after a week off practice following coronavirus contact tracing.

OK, so, per his retelling after this game, he uses the week to rest and ice his elbow and achy knees, then informally fires 50 footballs on his own Friday near his home, then shows up for an extended Saturday walk-through, and all he does in the game is complete 27 of 46 passes for a season-high 333 yards and a season-high four touchdowns.

"It really just felt nice and rested coming into today," Roethlisberger recalled of his general state. "I'm going to talk to Coach to see if I can take next week off, too."

Then there's this one: He won't be able to throw as much. Or as hard. Or as accurately. Presuming he'll recover at all from reconstructive elbow surgery at this stage of life.

OK, this one came with some smoke. Because, for as efficient as he'd been -- career-best 68.1% completion rate, NFL-best release time of 2.27 seconds, 18 touchdowns, four interceptions -- he also was averaging a career-worst 6.7 yards per pass attempt, and he'd completed only 11 of 35 passes that traveled 20-plus yards in the air.

Dink, meet dunk, meet ... the new Ben? 

Not without a fight, apparently:

Oh, my.

That's the same quarter as that chuck to Claypool. Three series later. And it's 46 yards, built on a 32-yard aerial from contact to contact, into the waiting arms of Diontae Johnson.

I asked Ben how much that meant to him, knowing full well all he'd do is spread the credit.

"Coach Randy had a good play call, the line gave me just enough time, and it was a perfect double-move," he'd reply, referring, in order, to Randy Fichtner's design, to Alejandro Villanueva fending off the Bengals' rabid-all-game-long Carl Lawson, and Diontae's juke at the outset on the Bengals' William Jackson. "When I let it go, I didn't really know where it was going to end up because the wind was blowing so much. It's just kind of those ones that you put some air on it, and Diontae did the rest of the work. He ran underneath it and made a great play. All around, kind of everyone had to contribute to plays like that."

Kind of, indeed. It's nothing without Ben looking off Eric Ebron in the right flat, it's nothing without him holding his ground in the pocket, and it's less than nothing without that pass.

I'm not going to overblow this, I swear. It's one pass, and it'd be the only one of that scope on this afternoon.

But I won't buy for a split-second that it didn't contribute to what came next.

That's -- gasp! -- play-action, but what really stands out is the confidence to drop one into a sea of Cincinnati white for Diontae and a 16-yard pickup.

And if that touch is seen as soft, just wait:

That's third-and-2. Empty set. Ben has to wait for Ebron to break free from double-coverage, then loops one into a space only Ebron can access for 14 yards. Best ball of the day, in my estimation.

One more, anything but soft:

JuJu Smith-Schuster cuts up the Bengals' zone, but the opening won't last long, which is why Ben rips a bullet his way for 25 yards.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Wait, I left out all four touchdown passes:

It didn't subside until Mason Rudolph was summoned to mop up.

Say what one will about the Cincinnati secondary missing both corners, about Cincinnati leading the NFL in big plays conceded, about Cincinnati's league-worst pass rush failing to record a sack ... I can't be convinced that Ben didn't make at least a mini-breakthrough with that early bomb to Diontae.

I asked Mike Tomlin if Ben might've gained confidence through that throw and, even though he generally hates questions like that, Tomlin answered flatly, "There's no question."

Diontae went further when asked about the whole offense feeding off it, saying, "Yeah, that was the spark that got us going deep down the field like that."

Who says a spark's confined to a single Sunday?

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This has been bugging Ben. Make no mistake about that. He's repeatedly cracked jokes about how the surgeons repaired his elbow too well, which is why he was overthrowing everyone, but it was easy to see he was bristling each time the deep balls came up. Not every quarterback is about that, but this one is. He's always had it in his arsenal, always been able to keep safeties at bay, always been able to build a running game and an underneath passing game with it.

And to see, with each passing week, the Steelers' opponents creeping closer and closer to the line of scrimmage ... let's not pretend there isn't ego involved in the job.

But let's also not pretend this component of the offense is optional.

The running game's regressing in quality and, at times, in actual yardage. James Conner's engaged in more east-west than Lewis and Clark, the interior of the offensive line can't get any push, and I can't blame Tomlin, Fichtner or Ben for suddenly leading the universe in empty sets. If I'm putting my peak performers on the field right now, I'm adding a wide receiver and not worrying who goes off.

As Ben himself strikingly acknowledged, "There was a time today when I was yelling to the sideline to get James in the game."

James Washington, he meant, not Conner.

Not to take the quote out of context. Ben was referring to his respect for the entire receiving corps, going so far as to say, "It's a lot of fun. I enjoy the group of guys. ... I trust every single one of those guys to make a play when we call their number, and I think they trust me to get them the ball. A lot of times, people talk about, 'Oh, are there not enough footballs to go around?' I don't sense that at all from any of them. I'm not trying to force anybody the ball. I'm trying to get guys the ball that are going to make plays. Right now, that's kind of everybody. So we're just having a lot of fun with it."

All of that shows. JuJu led the game in catches with nine. Diontae led in yards with 116. Claypool led in touchdowns with two. Washington had a couple catches of his own, one for 16 yards and another for 14 as that entrant into those empty sets. 

Ben's played with better individual receivers, arguably even better groups, but never one this deep.

And that's where the deep concept won't fade.

To get the most of this season, one that's been magnificent even if it seldom feels magical, the offense will have to match the defense as championship-worthy. To get the most of this offense, one that's founded on a franchise quarterback and one, two, three, four wide receivers plus Ebron, the passing yardage will have match the passing precision. And yet, to keep that offense from becoming perilously predictable, they'll have to stretch the field to keep opponents from doing what the Bengals, Cowboys and others have done in stacking against the run.

In spite of what we've witnessed of late, both here and in Arlington, Texas, a week ago, the stated goal remains to run.

"We're a balanced group," Tomlin spoke with a straight face after Conner squeezed 36 yards of blood from 13 attempts of stone. "We can give it to you however you want it. If you want to pack a bunch on the line of scrimmage, we're going to throw it. You play two high safeties, we're capable of running it. That's what I mean when I say we strive to be a balanced group."

Eh, balance is in the eye of the beholder, I guess. The reality is that, in 2020, the pass sets up the run in the NFL, no longer the other way around. The reality of the Steelers, in 2020, is that the deep pass will open up all else, possibly to a treasure trove.

And man, are they ever lucky to have a guy seeking that out as if his legacy somehow depended on it.