The 21^st-century Steelers
Everyone remembers that the 2005 Steelers marched to the Super Bowl on the feet of running backs Willie Parker and Jerome Bettis. But they would have been no different than the many other teams in history that played run-first football with nothing to show for it, if not for the devastating play of second-year quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

In 2005, Big Ben averaged a league-leading 8.9 yards per attempt – a surprising 0.6 yards per attempt better than No. 2 Peyton Manning (8.3 YPA) a full yard better than every other QB in the league but Manning and Marc Bulger (8.0 YPA).

Roethlisberger remains No. 3 in the league this year (8.0 YPA), behind only Tony Romo (8.8) and Tom Brady (8.6).

He also entered the 2007 season with – buckle your chinstrap, folks, this is good – the highest average per attempt (8.25) of any quarterback since Otto Graham retired in 1955. His career mark still stands today, 12 games into the 2007 season, at 8.20 YPA, third best in history behind only Graham (8.63) and Sid Luckman (8.42) (among passers with at least 1,000 career attempts).

And here’s why Roethlisberger deserves mention as one of the game’s very elite quarterbacks (in fact, you could argue he’s the second best quarterback behind Brady):

He’s almost singularly responsible for Pittsburgh returning to championship-contender status each year.

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For the decade before Roethlisberger arrived, the Steelers were essentially the same team they are now: they played strong defense, they ran the ball often. But they NEVER passed the ball effectively. Ergo, they never won a championship and usually because they suffered meltdowns from their quarterbacks in the playoffs.

With Roethlisberger annually one of the leaders in passing yards per attempt, Pittsburgh is as good as its ever been. The Steelers:

• went 15-1 his rookie season
• won the Super Bowl his sophomore season
• struggled through last year’s 8-8 season in which he was plagued by off-field medical issues (and, not so coincidentally, he posted a career-low 7.5 YPA)
• has returned to championship-contender status here in 2007 – a season in which Roethlisberger is again one of the most productive passers in football.

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There have been a lot of teams throughout history that ran the ball well. Few of them did anything in the playoffs if they didn’t have a quarterback who could make opponents pay for cheating up to stop the run.

The Steelers have that quarterback. And if they’re going to ruin New England’s undefeated season on Sunday, it won’t be because they ran the ball well or ran the ball often.

Pittsburgh will win if its quarterback makes big plays and connects on big passes at key times in the game.

After all, that’s how run-first teams always win.

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