Pittsburgh Steelers: The Good, Bad and Ugly of Super Bowl XLV (With Video) | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors
Daniel Foster The reputation has served him well. After all, he has been the best comeback artist the NFL has seen since John Elway, but when it comes to Super Bowls, Ben Roethlisberger has had to come back because of inability to get the job done for the first 3½ quarters of the football game.
After winning Super Bowl XL with the lowest quarterback rating by a winning quarterback in the history of the Super Bowl, Roethlisberger fared a bit better in Super Bowl XLIII.
But when it came down to it, Roethlisberger failed to throw a touchdown pass until the team’s final scoring drive to win the game. Instead, No. 7 relied upon the good fortune of special defensive plays like James Harrison’s record interception return for a touchdown.
The trend continued in Super Bowl XLV as Roethlisberger ended the game with a minuscule 77.4 passer rating when compared to Super Bowl MVP Aaron Rodgers (111.5 in his first Super Bowl).
On the world’s biggest stage, Big Ben played very small once again.
A total of 263 yards passing is a career high for Roethlisberger in the Super Bowl, but when you consider the inaccuracy with which he threw the football, it becomes clear that he could have thrown for closer to 400 yards.
Instead, Roethlisberger’s decision-making and incessant inability to hit his receivers downfield caused him to throw two interceptions to match his two touchdown passes.
Roethlisberger may be one of the top five to eight quarterbacks in the league, but until he finds a way to show up big for an entire game in the biggest games, he will never be put in the same category as Tom Brady, Terry Bradshaw or Joe Montana.