Below are the long passing stats of Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for his career through week 6 of this season and they are broken down by year and by distance thrown.
The top table is the grand total of all passes 21 yards or more. The headings should be pretty straight forward and I included the total amount of passing attempts in the next to last column and the last column is the percentage of the long balls thrown of all attempts.
The first thing that sticks out this season is that only 9% of all passes thrown this year have been 21 yards or longer. This is 2% less than his career average and 3% off of the total last year. His 35% completion percentage for the long ball is on par with last year, but he also has 2 more interceptions than he had all of last year on long passes in addition.
While his 41 yard plus passing has been superb this year, his completion percentage on balls thrown in the 21-40 yard range is where he has been less effective and it shows in his yards per attempt. In 9 pass attempts in the 21-30 yard length, he has only completed 2 for a career low 5.9 yards per attempt. This has been pretty evident in his accuracy this season so far as he has been off this year.
Another problem this year has been his failure to connect with Emmanuel Sanders and Antonio Brown consistently, as this is where the completion percentages are off on all passes thrown as I pointed out a few post back.
These stats also blow the theory out of the water through the first 6 games that offensive coordinator Bruce Arians is having Roethlisberger throw long too much as he is at a career low percentage wise right now as I mentioned above.
So how is Ben doing on all other passes 20 yards and less this year? He heads into week 7 with a 65% completion percentage as he is 115 of 178 passing for 1309 yards. He has 7 touchdowns and 3 interceptions and currently owns a 92.6 passer rating for that distance. Not shabby for sure, but his week 5 game against the Titans certainly didn\’t hurt those numbers and was the reason I believe the Jaguars consistently had 9 or more defenders within 8 yards of the line of scrimmage last week. They were betting that they could get enough pressure on Roethlisberger while protecting against the short pass and offer good run support. They dared him to hit the 21-40 yard passes most of the windy day and he couldn\’t for the most part.
I expect the Cardinals to try to do the same this week defensively. If Big Ben can be more accurate this week in that 21-40 yard range, they should be able to move the ball more effectively, assuming they can run with some moderate success in addition. If the Cardinals play deep to protect against the big play, look for Roethlisberger to take the underneath stuff like he did against the Titans.
Ben Roethlisberger Career Deep Passing Stats
| Pass Thrown 21+ yds | |||||||||||
| YEAR | COMP | ATT | YDS | COMP % | YPA | LNG | TD | INT | PR | TOT ATT | % |
| 2011 | 6 | 17 | 267 | 35% | 15.7 | 81 | 2 | 3 | 83.2 | 195 | 9% |
| 2010 | 16 | 46 | 587 | 35% | 12.8 | 56 | 4 | 1 | 103.1 | 389 | 12% |
| 2009 | 27 | 57 | 996 | 47% | 17.5 | 60 | 9 | 3 | 111.3 | 506 | 11% |
| 2008 | 13 | 45 | 505 | 29% | 11.2 | 65 | 5 | 3 | 83.1 | 469 | 10% |
| 2007 | 22 | 47 | 702 | 47% | 14.9 | 83 | 11 | 4 | 97.3 | 404 | 12% |
| 2006 | 15 | 51 | 484 | 29% | 9.5 | 49 | 4 | 8 | 53.2 | 469 | 11% |
| 2005 | 11 | 31 | 461 | 35% | 14.9 | 63 | 1 | 4 | 54.9 | 268 | 12% |
| 2004 | 15 | 44 | 556 | 34% | 12.6 | 48 | 5 | 5 | 80.9 | 295 | 15% |
| TOTAL | 125 | 338 | 4558 | 37% | 13.5 | 81 | 41 | 31 | 86.4 | 2995 | 11% |
| Pass Thrown 21-30 yds | |||||||||||
| YEAR | COMP | ATT | YDS | COMP % | YPA | LNG | TD | INT | PR | TOT ATT | % |
| 2011 | 2 | 9 | 53 | 22% | 5.9 | 30 | 0 | 2 | 12.0 | 195 | 5% |
| 2010 | 7 | 27 | 210 | 26% | 7.8 | 35 | 0 | 0 | 59.5 | 389 | 7% |
| 2009 | 17 | 33 | 541 | 52% | 16.4 | 57 | 4 | 1 | 124.1 | 506 | 7% |
| 2008 | 6 | 21 | 199 | 29% | 9.5 | 49 | 2 | 1 | 78.5 | 469 | 4% |
| 2007 | 13 | 29 | 324 | 45% | 11.2 | 45 | 5 | 2 | 96.8 | 404 | 7% |
| 2006 | 12 | 32 | 348 | 38% | 10.9 | 47 | 2 | 2 | 73.4 | 469 | 7% |
| 2005 | 4 | 18 | 146 | 22% | 8.1 | 49 | 0 | 3 | 21.3 | 268 | 7% |
| 2004 | 6 | 19 | 195 | 32% | 10.3 | 39 | 2 | 2 | 66.7 | 295 | 6% |
| TOTALS | 67 | 188 | 2016 | 36% | 10.7 | 57 | 15 | 13 | 74.3 | 2995 | 6% |
| Pass Thrown 31-40 yds | |||||||||||
| YEAR | COMP | ATT | YDS | COMP % | YPA | LNG | TD | INT | PR | TOT ATT | % |
| 2011 | 1 | 4 | 40 | 25% | 10 | 40 | 0 | 0 | 68.8 | 195 | 2% |
| 2010 | 7 | 13 | 268 | 54% | 20.6 | 50 | 2 | 1 | 106.6 | 389 | 3% |
| 2009 | 4 | 11 | 144 | 36% | 13.1 | 41 | 2 | 1 | 86.2 | 506 | 2% |
| 2008 | 4 | 15 | 143 | 27% | 9.5 | 48 | 1 | 0 | 89.0 | 469 | 3% |
| 2007 | 6 | 10 | 212 | 60% | 21.2 | 42 | 4 | 0 | 143.8 | 404 | 2% |
| 2006 | 1 | 11 | 49 | 9% | 4.5 | 49 | 1 | 4 | 36.4 | 469 | 2% |
| 2005 | 4 | 9 | 152 | 44% | 16.9 | 41 | 0 | 1 | 51.6 | 268 | 3% |
| 2004 | 7 | 18 | 272 | 39% | 15.1 | 48 | 2 | 1 | 100.5 | 295 | 6% |
| TOTALS | 34 | 91 | 1280 | 37% | 14.1 | 50 | 12 | 8 | 88.3 | 2995 | 3% |
| Pass Thrown 41+ yds | |||||||||||
| YEAR | COMP | ATT | YDS | COMP % | YPA | LNG | TD | INT | PR | TOT ATT | % |
| 2011 | 3 | 4 | 174 | 75% | 43.5 | 81 | 2 | 1 | 116.7 | 195 | 2% |
| 2010 | 2 | 6 | 109 | 33% | 18.2 | 56 | 2 | 0 | 121.5 | 389 | 2% |
| 2009 | 6 | 13 | 311 | 46% | 23.9 | 60 | 3 | 1 | 100.2 | 506 | 3% |
| 2008 | 3 | 9 | 163 | 33% | 18.1 | 65 | 2 | 2 | 81.9 | 469 | 2% |
| 2007 | 3 | 8 | 166 | 38% | 20.8 | 83 | 2 | 2 | 85.4 | 404 | 2% |
| 2006 | 2 | 8 | 87 | 25% | 10.9 | 49 | 1 | 2 | 72.4 | 469 | 2% |
| 2005 | 3 | 4 | 163 | 75% | 40.8 | 63 | 1 | 0 | 156.3 | 268 | 1% |
| 2004 | 2 | 7 | 89 | 29% | 12.7 | 47 | 1 | 2 | 79.2 | 295 | 2% |
| TOTALS | 24 | 59 | 1262 | 41% | 21.4 | 81 | 14 | 10 | 88.1 | 2995 | 2% |
