Pittsburgh Steelers: Ben Roethlisberger will be surgical in return

Pittsburgh Steelers star quarterback Ben Roethlisberger will make his return to the field for tomorrow’s 1:00 p.m. ET rivalry game against the undefeated Cincinnati Bengals, and Steelers fans are looking forward to the triumph return of a QB who was only outplayed by Aaron Rodgers and Tony Romo in the 2014 season. Prior to his multi-week absence as a result of a knee injury, Roethlisberger was off to a similarly scorching start this season, and we can expect him to pick up where he left off against a Bengals defense that has been more “decent” than “great” so far.

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What stands out the most when looking at Roethlisberger’s stats through three appearances is the fact that he’s completing 75.3% of his passes, which is quite ridiculous. Against the San Francisco 49ers and St. Louis Rams, Big Ben threw a combined ten incompletions.

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He wasn’t just nickeling-and-diming defenses either, as evidenced by the fact that Roethlisberger boasts an average of 10.2 yards per attempt after picking up 8.1 yards per pass in 2014. We all know what he’s capable of when he’s at his best, and the Bengals own best efforts on defense probably won’t be enough to counter that.

While it’s hard to expect Roethlisberger to be 100% in his first game back from an injury of significance, how can you expect anything less than brilliance from a player who was averaging 304.0 passing yards per game before his injury (and that average includes his injury-shortened game against St. Louis)?

The Bengals have consistently been one of the best teams in the NFL at limiting the deep ball, thanks to the standout veteran safety duo of Reggie Nelson and George Iloka. That is an important positive for Cincy against arguably the NFL’s best deep passer and his main vertical threats Antonio Brown and Martavis Bryant, but a key negative goes with this.

According to Sporting Charts, while the Bengals allow the fifth-least number of at least 25 yards, they allow 70.4% of all passes thrown at them to be completed. That’s one of the worst three marks in the NFL, and it means that Roethlisberger can go to work in surgical fashion against them.

Although Big Ben’s calling cards are his arm strength and his ability to connect on the big play, it’s worth keeping in mind that his completion percentages have been above 63.0% ever since the 2011 season. In fact, Roethlisberger successfully connected on 67.1% of his passes last season, and his 75.3% completion percentage in 89 attempts this season obviously must be mentioned here.

In his first game back, the Steelers may seek to ease things up on Roethlisberger, who will get to play his first game of the season with standout deep threat Bryant. Even the safe Bengals secondary will be tested by Bryant’s jaw-dropping physical tools, and that extra attention could allow others like Brown and Le’Veon Bell to put in some serious work in the short and intermediate games. Brown can win literally everywhere on the field, and he’s beyond matchup-proof against Cincinnati, especially when you consider just how big of a weakness Dre Kirkpatrick has been on the right side (LCB).

Sep 27, 2015; St. Louis, MO, USA; Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger (7) passes against the St. Louis Rams during the first half at the Edward Jones Dome. Steelers defeated the Rams 12-6. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports

Speaking of Bell, the superstar RB is just as good as he was last season, and he’ll be going up against a Bengals run defense that is allowing 4.9 yards per attempt.

It’s hard to take that average at face value, though, because the Bengals offense has been so prolific that they’ve forced teams to forego the running game and engage in a shootout.

So when those teams do run, their yards per carry average looks higher than it should be, as the Bengals don’t particularly care about stopping the run with the game already in-hand (they are, after all, without blemish in the win-loss column).

These caveats are imperative to note, but Bell is no ordinary back. To wit, he’s gone for over 110 rushing yards in three of his five appearances, and he has yet to play a full 60-minute contest with Roethlisberger at QB.

Against the Rams when Big Ben was in for 24 pass attempts, Bell had seven receptions for 70 yards; he never surpassed 21 receiving yards under either Michael Vick or Landry Jones.

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Bell figures to play a huge role in the passing game this week, and we’ll see just how he and the Roethlisberger-led passing attack work together tomorrow afternoon.

The Bengals are undoubtedly one of the NFL’s best, and Andy Dalton and the red-hot offense will force Roethlisberger to match them blow-for-blow in his first game back. Considering his high level of play since the start of the 2014 season, there’s no reason to doubt him, and the players around him are seemingly even better than they were last year.