Sports Then and Now

Giants quarterback, Eli Manning, celebrated his latest 4th quarter comeback on Sunday, beating the Redskins 27-23.

As always, the latest week in the NFL left us eager for the next one to start.

Here are the biggest feats, news stories and injuries from the week that was around the NFL.

No surprise here, but Drew Brees threw a touchdown pass in a record 49th straight game, extending his own NFL record. The Saints came back from down 21-7 to beat the Buccaneers after a 4th down touchdown catch was refuted by a penalty to end the game. After an 0-4 start, the Saints have won their last two.

Brees ] threw for 313 yards in the 1st half – the most by a quarterback in the 1st half of a game since Michael Vick threw for 329 against the Redskins in 2010. It was also Brees’ 18th career 4-touchdown game, which is good for fourth all-time and 62nd career 300-yard passing game, which is good for a tie for third on the all-time list. He is now tied with Dan Marino for the most career games with 4+ touchdowns and 300 yards with 16.

Patriots quarterback, Tom Brady, remained ten games behind Brees as he threw a touchdown pass in his 39th consecutive game in his team’s 29-26 overtime win against the Jets. New England extended its all-time series lead to 54-52-1 against New York. Rob Gronkowski caught two touchdowns and now has 10 multi-touchdown games since 2010 – more than anyone else.

This was just the fifth time in their history that the Patriots scored 29 points in a game. The last time was on Oct. 14, 2001 against the Chargers and also a 29-26 OT win. New England, who has won 15 of the last 19 meetings with the Jets, scored points with their offense, defense and special teams in the 1st half.

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Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is ranked as only the 41st best player in the NFL, according to current players.

Last night, I was watching the NFL Network’s “Top 100 Players of 2011” and saw that Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was ranked 41^st in a poll ranked by current NFL players.

This proves once again, that Roethlisberger is one of the most underrated players in pro football.

Ever since he joined the league back in 2004, all Big Ben has done is win, as he complied a 69-29-career regular season record, 10-3 in the playoffs, and appeared in three Super Bowls, winning two of them.

And this guy is the 41^st best player in the NFL?

I guess one of the reasons Roethlisberger is not ranked so high on the list is the way he plays, which is not pretty at times. Read the rest of this entry →

All eyes will be on Ben Roethlisberger during Super Bowl XLV.

The quarterback is the heartbeat of any team. All possessions go through him, and he makes the decisions on the field, albeit with the advice of his coaches. Win the Super Bowl, and the QB is a good bet to be named MVP (Most Valuable Player). Lose, and the same guy often takes a large shame of the blame.

Benjamin Todd ‘Ben’ Roethlisberger, nicknamed Big Ben, is the man tasked with leading the underdog Pittsburgh Steelers to victory against the Green Bay Packers on Sunday. At 6 foot 5 and 241 pounds, Roethlisberger is certainly not small. He will however need to be at his best in what the Super Bowl odds suggest should be a really tight game.

Fortunately for Pittsburgh fans, being at his best is what Ben does, well, best, at least most of the time. He has a 63% pass completion percentage and averages 8 yards per completion, which puts him near the top of the field. In layman’s terms, he is super-efficient. When he picks out a man, he usually finds him, for a significant gain. Read the rest of this entry →

Ben Roethlisberger has the Steelers one win away from their third Super Bowl appearance in seven seasons.

With Ben Roethlisberger poised to lift the Pittsburgh Steelers to the Super Bowl for the third time in his seven year career, some sports talk hosts and NFL analysts have started asking the question of whether “Big Ben” should now be mentioned in the discussion of the best quarterbacks of all-time.

While Roethlisberger is a better than average NFL quarterback and seems to be heading toward a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, to even waste breath on comparing him to the best quarterbacks in NFL history is an example of how desperate sports talk radio can sometimes be to find topics of interest and controversy.

When it comes to looking at all-time greats, there is a definite difference in how quarterbacks are evaluated than players at any other position. Statistics are given some weight when looking at the best quarterbacks of all-time, but they are just one factor.

Of the 10 quarterbacks we recently ranked as the best of all-time, eight led their team to at least one Super Bowl title and Dan Fouts was the only one who never played in the NFL’s biggest game.

But all 10 of these quarterbacks had something in common and it is something that Roethlisberger has yet to, and probably is never likely to, achieve. Each of these quarterbacks was unquestionably the best player on their own team and there was little doubt that the team would not have enjoyed as high a level of success without them under center.

This is one reason that three quarterbacks with multiple Super Bowl rings and spots in the Hall of Fame are rarely mentioned when talking about the greatest quarterbacks of all-time.

While Terry Bradshaw, Troy Aikman and Bob Griese were all very good quarterbacks and deserve to be in the Hall of Fame, they were never “the man” that opponents had to game plan for when playing against their squad. Read the rest of this entry →