Herm Edwards said it best; “You play to win the game!” As I sit here Friday morning coating my bleeding ulcer with coffee, I am understanding that very phrase. I have just finished watching the replay of the Titans game for the second time and found myself still yelling at Ben to get rid of the ball. I need to stop that. It is just Ben being Ben.
Perhaps Mike Tomlin said it better; “It”s never going to be pretty, throw style points out the window.” The fact is that the Steelers won. It is all that matters. It doesn\’t matter how many sacks he takes for holding the ball to long or how many interceptions he throws, if he wins the game it doesn\’t matter.
Right now Ben is on course to throw for 5808 yards, be sacked 64 times, throw 32 interceptions and 16 touchdowns. Oh and win 16 games. Now of course there is no way his stats will finish as such, but if they did, the key one is in the win column.
The biggest concern is all the hits Ben takes, but he seems to enjoy it. Much like when a wrestler gets knocked down, he gets up slowly, grimacing and clutching a part of his body. The key thing is he gets up, the rest is just Ben being Ben. Until he takes the hit that knocks him out for the season, it just doesn\’t matter.
So Yinz needs to sit back and enjoy it while it last. I remember another blonde quarterback that drove us crazy as fans. That quarterback won 4 Super Bowls and is in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. There will be a day when we compare a future Steelers quarterback to Big Ben. We will forget all of the sacks and interceptions. We will however remember the wins. We will look back one day and say, that was just Ben being Ben.
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