Report: Roethlisberger Checked Out Of Running Plays About 20% Of The Time In 2011

Sunday, February 19th, 2012 at 11:37 pm by Dave Bryan

We passed on word earlier today that Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders was on ESPN 970 while down at the Pittsburgh auto show on Sunday where he revealed that he was told by the coaches after the season ended that he would be returning kicks and punts for the Steelers in 2012. Sanders also was asked by Gerry Dulac during the interview how many times did he estimate that quarterback Ben Roethlisberger checked out of run plays to pass plays. Dale Lolley passes on the Sanders answer which was an estimated 20 percent of the time. Sanders reportedly said that Roethlisberger would break the huddle with two plays called, one being a run, and the other a pass. Not very surprising there.

The Steelers attempted a total of 539 passes last season with Roethlisberger attempting 513 of those. He was also sacked another 40 times in total. The Steelers rushed a total of 434 times as a team and both totals do not include plays called back because of penalties. Those raw and dirty stats produce a 57%/43% pass play ratio. If Sanders estimation of 20% is correct, and you know it isn't, that is about 110 plays that Roethlisberger checked from run to pass. That would bring the run pass ratio way back in favor of the run. Even if it was 10% of the time that he checked from run to pass, that would put the ratio at about 50/50.

Things that make you go hmmmm.

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Tagged with: Ben Roethlisberger • Dale Lolley • Emmanuel Sanders • ESPN 970 • Gerry Dulac

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Goldstar

Can’t do the math without knowing how many times he checked out of a pass for a run
Joe D

I would have to disagree with the article slightly..
Just because Ben checked out of run plays… doesn’t mean you can assume that would bring the run/pass ratio to 50/50… that makes a lot of assumptions to all the OTHER play calls would remain the same had Ben run the “run play” to begin with.

The real thing is… Ben checked out of run plays 20% of the time…
Of those, how many passes were completed and how many total yards. Then you compare the average with the average yards per run play which is about 3.8 yds/run play.
So, how many yards/play were achieved… if below 3.8 yds/play, then bad Ben… if more than 3.8 yrs/play, then good Ben!!
Joe D

A followup question would be…
how many pass plays were checked out to do a run play??
Ben’s job is to read the defense and change plays depending upon what the defense is giving…. this is part of game planning, film, etc.
This article stirs the pot sort of…
as well as speculation.. sorry… need more stats before can draw any type of conclusion.
Ron Jammes

Is someone smelling around for something here? I find that this would be common knowledge among the players on any team. QB;s walk to the line and see how many defenders are close to the line, someone looks like they’re in single coverage etc. Has Gerry Dulac not asked this question in the past?

What agenda is being served here?
Tom

The question isn’t how many times, but how effective was the play that was checked to a pass, and in the view of the coaches was it a bad decision?

If that decision making it taken from Ben this year, it may be telling.