Big Ben Catches his Own Pass
Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger essentially flipped the script during Sunday’s divisional showdown with the Bengals at Paul Brown Stadium. Roethlisberger often throws passes to his guys, but on Sunday, he was on the receiving end of one of them, on a busted play.
He dropped back to pass on a first-and-20 situation in the first quarter of the game, but the pocket collapsed on him quickly. Big Ben tried to throw a quick screen to tight end Jesse James, but the pass was tipped at the line. No problem, though, as Roethlisberger caught it himself and ran for a few extra yards to prevent disaster. It was a great play from a great QB. Speaking of great, the only way this game could have been better is by wagering on the Steelers at this great site Novibet, an online sports book where you can bet on all the NFL games.
Big Ben finds Big Ben for the catchpic.twitter.com/5Q4SkIMITG
— Dov Kleiman (@NFL_DovKleiman) October 14, 2018
Big Ben is a versatile player.
Tomlin Breaks Up a Fight
There’s no love lost when the Steelers and Bengals square off on the football field, as the two division rivals have had plenty of controversial moments over the years — with Vontaze Burfict often in the middle of it.
Sunday’s game was no different, as Burfict put a brutal helmet-to-helmet cheap shot on Steelers receiver Antonio Brown.
The Steelers apparently didn’t forget about it, either, as the two teams got into a fight on the field after the final seconds ticked off. Tensions were so high that Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin had to get in the middle of it to break it up.
Some rough stuff at the end and coach has to go break it up.#Steelers #HereWeGo pic.twitter.com/PDybn5DMmQ
— Tomlin Reactions (@TomlinReactions) October 14, 2018
Those two teams clearly do not like each other.
And It Gets Uglier…
Games between the Steelers and Bengals will always get chippy, as long as Vontaze Burfict lines up in the middle of Cincinnati’s defense.
Burfict has been known to put a number of cheap shots on Steelers players over the years, including this one on Antonio Brown in last Sunday’s game.
And Brown apparently wasn’t the only player he was targeting, according to Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger. Big Ben claimed that Burfict threatened to hurt receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster as well.
“When he hits (Antonio Brown) and knocks AB and his (own) guy out, that very next play… he’s standing there, points to JuJu and says ‘You’re next,'” Roethlisberger said, via NFL.com. “To me that’s completely uncalled for and that’s where I think I had the biggest issue.”
Here’s the play Big Ben was referencing.
This is the play Ben Roethlisberger claims Vontaze Burfict yelled “You’re next!” at Juju Smith-Schuster. You can see Burfict point at Smith-Schuster twice here. pic.twitter.com/WVLXCwtlPw
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) October 16, 2018
If this were any other player, we’d probably question the validity of Roethlisberger’s claim, but this seems right up Burfict’s alley. At some point, he’s going to need to get a lengthy suspension — if he is indeed targeting players — before he hurts someone.