Sorting the Sunday Pile, Week 4: Big Ben Is Clearly Better Than Philip Rivers

Sorting the Sunday Pile looks back at the NFL weekend that was. It's also an unofficial Wade Phillips blog.

Midway through the Chargers-Steelers game NBC flashed a graphic showing how Pittsburgh had steamrolled opponents in the first quarter. Sunday night was no different; the Steelers led 14-0 and looked like they might hang 50 on the 11 dudes masquerading as San Diego defenders.

Nope.

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Instead, it was a replay of the previous two weeks. Dominate early, disappear late. Jeff Reed's two honked field goals played a big part in the Week 2 loss to the Bears, and Limas Sweed's Hands of Brick Touchdown Drop didn't help things against the Bengals last week. And the Chargers took advantage of a Steelers special teams that took the night off.

If nothing else, give Pittsburgh points for creativity; every game it's something different. But unlike Chicago and Cincy, San Diego couldn't overcome their defense and the Steelers did something they haven't done, well, ever: late in the fourth quarter with the game on the line, they gave their quarterback the keys to the offense.
In the past, this would be Jerome Bettis time. After 50 minutes or so, defenses would get tired of trying to tackle a twinkly-toed 250-pounder* and and he'd eat up the clock while racking up first downs. It was a great strategy, particularly with the likes of Kordell Stewart and Tommy Maddox under center. Plus, the Bus was late-game insurance for Ben Roethlisberger during the early part of his career.

But now Big Ben is a six-year vet and two-time Super Bowl winner. And the organization thought so much of him that they signed him to a $100-million deal after the 2007 offseason. You don't give that kind of coin to a guy who's really good at handing off. And Sunday night Roethlisberger earned his money.

It's not so much a milestone -- he's made a career of engineering game-winning drives -- as a nod to the faith head coach Mike Tomlin has in his 27-year-old superstar to manage the offense with a lead, milk the clock, and keep a Polamalu-less defense off the field. Maybe the philosophy changes when Troy returns in a week or two, but for the first time in three tries, the Steelers were able to hold a fourth-quarter lead.

Interestingly, during Sunday morning's NFL Matchup show, ESPN analyst Ron Jaworksi made the following observation: "You have to understand this about Ben: he's a random kind of quarterback. Sometimes you just don't know what you're going to get. There will be peaks, there will be valleys -- right now, there in one of those valleys. But I guarantee you this: when you have the talent of Ben Roethlisberger, there are a lot more peaks than there are valleys so he'll be fine."

Hardly a scathing indictment, but it's weird that Jaws would think that Ben's in a valley. As a Steelers homer, I'd say that Roethlisberger is playing some of the best football of his career. Yes, he holds the ball too long, and yes he takes sacks like there's an incentive clause in his contract, but his decision making has been nearly flawless. Cincy cornerback Johnathan Joseph had a pick-six last week, but that was because Santonio Holmes ran the wrong route. And Big Ben's 71 percent completion percentage would be even higher if his receivers didn't drop three or four balls a game. If that's a valley, the potent combination of Brady Quinn and Derek Anderson are in the Marianas Trench. (I know, comparing the defending Super Bowl champs to one of the best high school teams in the Northern Ohio is a stretch, but my point remains: Roethlisberger isn't the problem. He hasn't been all season.)

The "hey, let's keep pimping conventional wisdom even though it's seldom either!" Monday morning storylines will be that Rashard Mendenhall's 166 rushing yards will have everything to do with the Steelers' victory. You know, because -- repeat it with me -- teams can't win unless they can establish the run. Right. The eggheads at Football Outsiders only debunked that myth five years ago. No reason to not continue banging that drum.

Oddly, nobody was saying the Chargers needed to fix their running game, even though it was among the worst in the league heading into Sunday night. Presumably because of Philip Rivers' big brain and funky throwing motion. Here's the thing: Rivers had nice numbers against the Steelers, but the Chargers were only in this game because of their special teams -- and the Steelers' lack of them. And now San Diego heads into their bye week at 2-2, and more than that, they're two games behind the Broncos in the AFC West.

Pittsburgh is also 2-2, but they face the Lions next week before hosting one of the best high school teams in the Northern Ohio in two weeks.

* 250 pounds is a euphemism for 325 pounds

Muffed Punts
Leftovers from Sunday's action...

...You think Todd Haley wishes he stayed in Arizona as the offensive coordinator? (The Chiefs and Browns are dreadful, and if we're lucky, they'll both be winless when they meet on Dec. 27.) Ken Whisenhunt passed up the Raiders' gig in 2006 to stay in Pittsburgh, and he was offered the Cards job a year later. If he had gone to Oakland, he'd now be out of the league, probably running a bed and breakfast. At least Haley had the good sense to hitch his wagon to Scott Pioli, even if Matt Cassel isn't exactly Tom Brady. Or Tyler Thigpen.

...Oh, the cognitive dissonance. Teevee talking heads were falling all over themselves to proclaim that the Ravens were the best team in the league, and that they finally had an offense to match the defense. These same people were also promising that Tom Brady and the Patriots can't be underestimated because they were unstoppable earlier this decade. So Baltimore goes into Foxboro and doesn't exactly march up and down the field against the NFL's 18th-ranked defense. It wasn't Kyle Boller-tastic, but it wasn't quite like watching Cam Cameron and Drew Brees when both were with the Chargers, either.

One game doesn't make a season, and the Ravens are still the formidable blah blah blah, but we should probably wait a couple months before crowning their asses. Such sentiments are reserved solely for the Tom Brady All-Stars.

(By the way, future defensive coordinators who will face the Ravens, here's how you stop the unflappable Joe Flacco: triple-team Derrick Mason. I've been screaming this for two years now. Flacco's progressions go something like this: Mason, Mason, Heap, Mason, Mason, McGahee. You're welcome.)

...Vince Young has had a rocky relationship with fans and media for most of his NFL career. Losing his starting job to Kerry Collins early last year didn't help, and at times during the 2008 season he couldn't have looked more disinterested on the sidelines if he were asleep on the bench. At the time, I thought he was just immature, another young, rich athlete dealing with being young and rich while the world watched him fail at his job. Now, though, after a month of Collins, VY has my full support. I know, "team first" and all that crap, but the Titans are 0-4, they just got blown out by the Jaguars, and Collins is playing like he's back in Oakland. If Jeff Fisher thinks that Collins gives the Titans its best chance to win (and he doesn't plan to make a change next week), then Vince could show up next Sunday night in a sideline hot tub sipping Patrón and I'd understand. As would Myron, I'd suspect.

...Congratulations to the Redskins, a team that somehow managed to eke out a home win against the winless Bucs. Pretty sure this is the first time an actual victory also qualified as a moral victory. Thankfully, the game was over by 3:30 PM ET, so we were spared the horror of having to watch Jason Campbell play catch with Aqib Talib all afternoon.

...Well, the Browns are getting better. Teams now have to play nearly 75 minutes to beat them. Still, there are no moral victories in the NFL (unless you're the Redskins) and Cleveland now sits at 0-4. Derek Anderson was marginally better than Brady Quinn, but that's sorta like getting excited because the Redskins are 2-2. Never mind that they're 2-2 against teams that were a combined 0-6, and could very easily be oh-for-'09.

Anyway, it's clear that new Browns offensive coordinator Brian Daboll hasn't found his stride yet and I'd like to offer him a little advice. Consider it this year's Wildcat. Josh Cribbs had 239 all-purpose yards Sunday, all but 15 coming as a returner. Instead of running a conventional offensive set, how about this: have Cribbs line up 40 yards behind Anderson. When the ball is snapped, Anderson turns, and throws a punt to Cribbs, who then does the rest. It's like a long handoff, but doesn't require the 10 other Browns on the field to do anything but get out of the way. And I'm confident they can do that virtually every time.

...JaMarcus Russell was 12 of 33 for for 128 yards in the Raiders' six-point explosion against the Texans. Even better news: Darrius Heyward-Bey actually caught a pass.

...Mark Sanchez was lacking poise against the Saints.

...Kyle Orton still has a better career record than Jay Cutler.

... The Rams last won a game 50 weeks ago.

Post-Game Debaclings
Quotes that Emmitt Smith might like...

"We're really killing ourselves, we're shooting ourselves in the foot all over the place." -Tom Cable, Raiders coach, trying out new material for his post-game presser.

"One of the worst second halves of football I have ever been associated with. We were poor on special teams, we were poor on offense, we were poor on defense. We were outcoached, we were outplayed ... their trainers were probably even better than ours in the second half." -Jim Schwartz, Lions coach, borrowing material from former boss Jeff Fisher.

"Happy to win. Real happy to win." -Bill Belichick, Patriots coach, speaking with all the enthusiasm of Bernie Lomax.

"We kinda got it handed to us today." -Rex Ryan, Jets coach, explaining why Mark Sanchez was poise-less.

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