Cincinnati Bengals: Keys to victory vs. Steelers in Week 6
By Kenn Korb
Will Big Ben Play Well On The Road?
Across the landscape of sports in general, players tend to play better on their home turf than they do when they must travel to their opponent. For Ben Roethlisberger, the contrast between his level of play at Heinz Field as opposed to anywhere else in the league has become starker as he’s aged. With Roethlisberger still being an elite or near-elite quarterback throughout the past five seasons, it is mostly a relative dropoff of course, but it is a clear dropoff nonetheless.
His touchdowns-to-interceptions ratios from 2014-17 are one area where we can really see just how much of a different player he’s been depending on if he is playing at home:
- 2014: 23 touchdowns, 4 interceptions (home); 9 touchdowns, 5 interceptions (away)
- 2015: 16 touchdowns, 7 interceptions (home); 5 touchdowns, 9 interceptions (away)
- 2016: 20 touchdowns, 5 interceptions (home); 9 touchdowns, 8 interceptions (away)
- 2017: 16 touchdowns, 8 interceptions (home); 12 touchdowns, 6 interceptions (away)
That’s only a drop in the bucket of the differences, by the way. His yardage, yards per attempt, completion percentage, passer rating and numerous other areas take a precipitous drop in pretty much every instance as well.
2018 has worked mostly the same way for him to this point as well. In three home games he’s got seven touchdowns and two interceptions. In two road games, he’s got four of each. Those road games look even worse when you realize that those stats are made up of one terrible game (at Cleveland) and one mostly good game (at Tampa Bay).
He had five turnovers (two lost fumbles, three picks) against a Cleveland defense which now ranks shockingly high in Defensive DVOA through five weeks (No. 2 overall). He went 30-of-38 for 353 yards with three touchdowns and one interception against the Buccaneers, but that is much less impressive when you realize that their defense is far and away one of the worst the league has to offer this year.
The question here will be whether he’s able play well against defenses on the road which aren’t dragging along the bottom of the rankings. On the whole Cincinnati has been a middling defense so far this year (20th in Defensive DVOA and Pass Defense DVOA), but they have stars and useful depth pieces littered throughout all levels of the unit who could make plays.
To win Roethlisberger will probably need to have a strong game here, but while it is well within his ability to do so for any singular road matchup it isn’t as automatic as it may have once been for the future Hall of Famer. If he can’t step up the way Cincinnati is (unfortunately) used to seeing him do, the Bengals will have a prime opportunity for victory on their hands.