All the buzz about Ben Roethlisberger, I'm betting, following his first and final action of this NFL preseason will be about how dynamic, how daring, how fresh, how young he'd looked through the Steelers' 26-20 victory over the Lions on this Saturday night at Heinz Field.
And hey, that's more than fair.
There was, after all, this old-school scramble:
And this 44-yard launch to Diontae Johnson:
And these two bulleted touchdowns to Pat Freiermuth, the first of those staged by a top-tier pump-fake ...
In general, Ben and his arm and his legs and all else performed as if he were 29, not 39. Which is precisely how it'd gone all through training camp to date, the lone exception being that this was an exhibition game rather than some intrasquad thing and, in turn, a whole lot more people appreciated, not least of whom were the 45,374 on hand for the largest gathering of humans in our city since the pandemic's onset.
So, there it is, Pittsburgh. Believe it. Ben really looks like Ben again.
But sorry, I'm taking the opposite tack on this one. I'm here to praise how old he looked.
For one, and I'm leery of delving too deeply into this, there's a genuine joy to what he's doing that I hadn't always detected.
Take this from someone who's covered most of the man's career, but the snarl, the sarcasm, the isolation and so forth that always felt like his default mode have been totally transplanted. At least from this singular perspective. In the past, anytime I'd catch Ben smiling or be being super-gregarious, it'd invariably be accompanied by a slice of cynicism, fair or not. It felt forced, even phony.
Not anymore. Not at all, to be honest.
Take a minute to press play on this exchange he and I had after the game about his second touchdown to Freiermuth, one that required quite the challenging stretch:
See that? Sense that?
Forget the football and focus on what's being spoken and how. The ease. The eye contact. Yeah, the smile, too.
There are countless ways he could've answered me. The way he chose was to share a lesson he'd taught Freiermuth early in OTAs, one he's been doing forever with young players but hadn't ever put forth like this. He wanted it to be known.
"You watch practice," Ben said to me. "I try not to throw good balls all the time. I want to see what they’re capable of doing. I’m sure when rookies come in here, they’re like, ‘Man, Ben isn’t very accurate.’ It’s intentional. I’ve thrown that ball to him dozens of times in practice. He was ready for it, and he made the rest happen."
He then lauded Freiermuth keeping both feet in bounds on this touchdown, noting that he'd kept only one foot in bounds on a touchdown try in practice earlier in the week.
"I’d like to give him credit, too, because probably three or four times, he hasn’t gotten his feet in. He’s gotten one in — which doesn't work in the NFL. He had one this week. On this one, he kept both in. He’s working on his craft, as the coaches say."
Well, I'm here to attest Ben was a bystander in that practice earlier this week. It was Mason Rudolph who threw that ball. And Ben was standing behind the line of scrimmage, to Mike Tomlin's right, observing and clearly recording it.
The kids have noticed.
"The first time in OTAs when he came, he was throwing it all over the place for me, and I was just very confused," Freiermuth recalled, referencing Ben. "I was like, 'Am I doing something wrong?' And Eric Ebron and Zach Gentry were, like, 'He does this to see what your range is like.' So it helped me a lot in OTAs and training camp, stuff like that. He sees where I can make adjustments and stuff like that, so it’s awesome and, you know, it kind of showed on the field today."
Najee Harris, who turned a catch-and-run with Ben into 46 fun yards, expressed something similar.
"When Ben's in the game, you feel the presence of how persistent you need to be with things," Harris said. "It's like that in practice, too."
So did Johnson.
"It’s the energy he brings to the offense, to make sure that we want to play for him at all times," Diontae said. "You want to go out and make plays for him."
Anyone else contrasting and comparing with Ben's frequent complaints in the past about how he might be finished?
My friends, this edition of Ben's in love with the game anew. He just might be in love with these young Steelers, the way he's behaving. And for sure, he's in love with life overall, as I'd watched earlier this week when he had his whole beautiful family with him for a full practice here. He's in love with what he's found spiritually from his religion in recent years, as he's now shared publicly and proudly.
Don't dare underestimate this element, however hard it might be to quantify. It's as real as the arm and the legs and all that.
He's older. He's wiser. He seems at peace.
But then, there's also the component that can be quantified: He completed 8 of 10 passes for 137 yards, the two touchdowns and a perfect passer rating of 158.3. He also took a quarter of his snaps under center. And ran play-action. And rolled out. And had no trackable issues with Matt Canada's offense. And absorbed a hit, bouncing right back up, this on the second touchdown.
"I thought he did a nice job," was Tomlin's assessment. "I thought we got what we wanted to get accomplished, get him familiar with administering the offense in an in-stadium-like circumstance. I thought he did a great job in communicating. He made good and fluid decisions, and we were able to move the ball."
More about Ben's smarts and experience than arms, legs, etc.
He was asked about all the youth-like facets of his performance, and he demonstrably shrugged.
"I’m just trying to win a football game, even thought it’s preseason," he replied. "The pump-fake wasn’t an intentional pump-fake. I was going to throw it, but he was still leaning on the guy and wasn’t quite ready. The deep ball to Diontae, I didn’t like that throw. I put too much air on it. Luckily, he’s a heck of a football player, and he made a play for me."
More intangibles.
Add all this up, and candidly, it all still amounts to nothing. We're talking about camp, preseason, etc. Nothing counts till Orchard Park.
But it's plausible from what's already occurred, I'd say, that this Canton-bound quarterback's most significant contribution to this specific offense, given its youth and apparently imminent promise, will be much more challenging to enumerate than we could've expected.
DK'S 10 TAKES: I'll have a full 10-bullet column up, as always, Monday morning. Just wanted to share this much right away.