Ben Roethlisberger On Game-Winning Touchdown: 'I Thought It Was A Great Call'
PITTSBURGH (93-7 The Fan)- Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger joined The Cook and Poni Show on Tuesday for his regular weekly spot on the #1 Cochran Ben Roethlisberger Show following a thrilling come from behind last second win in San Diego on Monday night Football.
The game came down to the final second with the team calling a run play for Le'Veon Bell out of the wildcat formation, and Roethlisberger said to him, it was the right move to make.
"I thought it was a great call," Roethlisberger said. "Obviously we're all excited because it worked, even if it doesn't, you can't blame anybody. You give the ball to your workhorse and let him go to town. He's truly something special and he gets better and better every week. It's hard to believe and imagine, but it's true."
Roehtlisberger talked more about the wildcat formation that the Steelers implemented throughout the game and how often we could see the team use it.
"It's not going to be a staple of our offense but I think it's a good mix-up," Roethlisberger told us. "It's a good change, I think it's a change of pace, there's some different options...I'm not exactly sure how many times we ran it yesterday, but obviously we ran it at a very key time in a key moment that we felt we had to have it."
Looking at more of the play calling the Steelers made during the game, Roethlisberger discussed Mike Vick's 72-yard touchdown pass to Markus Wheaton and who made that play call as Vick gave credit to Roethlisberger for it following the game.
"I just knew that Mike really likes, in all our conversations, to get out of the pocket," Roethlisberger recalled. "And so that's kind of what happened on that play to Markus. We go over and Coach Haley, myself, Randy, Landry, we start talking about what plays can we get him moving and get him out of the pocket and give him an opportunity to urn it if it's not there and we came up with that play."
As was mentioned after the game by various media outlets, the Steelers final drive that led to the game-winning touchdown was cheated out of 18-seconds by a clock error that none of the officials caught and corrected. Roethlisberger talked about the lost 18-seconds and when they noticed there was a problem.
"I found out later and I think the coaches did too because usually, something like that is caught on the sidelines, word spreads pretty quick and someone makes a statement about it or tries to get someones attention. To my knowledge, I don't think anybody even knew at the time...I think it just kind of caught all of us by surprise after the game when we heard about it."
Talking more about the game, Roethlisberger told us about the Steelers fans basically taking over Qualcomm Stadium and making this a home game for their team.
"As you were there Ron, you saw all the Steelers fans. It was unbelievable. It's crazy when the home team gets booed at their place because there's so many Steelers fans, it's just a great atmosphere."
As the Steelers will now turn their attention to next weeks matchup with the Arizona Cardinals, Roethlisberger updated us on his rehab and when we could see him back out on the field.
"I think things are going well," Roethlisberger said as he also told us he was out on the field last week throwing some passes with Martavis Bryant. "I feel pretty comfortable going straight forward, but that's obviously not the issue. The issue is protecting myself and moving laterally side-to-side...we're making progress and we'll keep pushing it and getting back as soon as I can."
Roethlisberger added that he will try and talk to Coach Tomlin about allowing him to participate in some 7-on-7 drills this week.
You can hear the full audio of The Ben Roethlisberger Show below as the Steelers Quarterback also talked about when we could see Martavis Bryant make his debut this season and his relationship with his old offensive coordinator in Bruce Arians as the Steelers take on the Cardinals this week.
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The #1 Cochran Ben Roethlisberger Show is heard exclusively every Tuesday at 11 am during the Steelers season on The Cook and Poni Show on Sportsradio 93-7 The Fan.
