Ben Roethlisberger Used Playground Trick to Beat Ravens Defense

It was a tale of two halves for Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger in Week 8 against the Baltimore Ravens. Big Ben struggled in the first half, throwing for just 24 yards. He called upon some playground tricks after halftime, which helped to lead his team to a big victory.

After passing for JUST 24 yards in the first half, Ben Roethlisberger was drawing up plays in the huddle, a huge reason for their comeback. Ben saying “My whole career, people say I have that playground background football, today it was that in its truest form."
— Dianna Russini (@diannaESPN) November 2, 2020

While Roethlisberger's 182 yards and 2 touchdowns will not blow anyone away, 158 of those yards and both touchdowns came in the second half. Relying on his instincts, Big Ben started drawing up plays in the huddle, much like you may have done on the playground back in the day.

This is the reason why Roethlisberger coming back was so valuable for the Steelers. It's possible they could have brought in a talented passer, but one with a football IQ as high as Big Ben's is hard to come by. The Ravens had every answer for the Steelers' game plan, so Roethlisberger took what the defense was doing and called his own plays to exploit this.

Pittsburgh would out-score Baltimore 21-7 in the second half, coming away with the three-point victory, which could prove to be massive in the AFC North. The Steelers are the NFL's lone undefeated team, and a big reason for that is Roethlisberger's brain.

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