Ben Roethlisberger Makes Pittsburgh Steelers Most Dangerous AFC Team

It's hard to argue that there is a clear favorite for the AFC right now.

As the defending Super Bowl champions and the last AFC team to be beaten this season, the New England Patriots should be in that position. The Patriots are being forced to endure too many injuries to too many critical pieces to be considered the clear favorites, though.

Once you look past the Patriots, it's clear that the Cincinnati Bengals' body of work over the whole season makes them another strong contender. Because of their recent history, the Bengals are always going to draw skepticism from onlookers until they prove they can win in the playoffs.

A prime-time loss to the Houston Texans in such appalling fashion doesn't help a team that is perceived as being too small for the big stage.

Nobody will accuse the Pittsburgh Steelers of being too small for the big stage. With quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and head coach Mike Tomlin guiding the team, the Steelers have plenty of playoff success to point to. The Steelers play the Bengals this weekend in Cincinnati after losing the other matchup this season in Pittsburgh.

While it's easy to point to that result and immediately put the Bengals above the Steelers, the context around the game suggests we shouldn't. The Bengals scraped out a 16-10 victory without playing well while the Steelers dealt with an uncomfortable Roethlisberger who just returned after being out for a month.

Roethlisberger's rust in that game was easy for all to see, but the Steelers' issues at that point in the season were greater than just the quarterback position.

In the game that Roethlisberger suffered his first injury this season, running back Le'Veon Bell had returned from his suspension to start the year. When Roethlisberger returned against the Bengals, Bell left the game with a knee injury that landed him on injured reserve.

While Roethlisberger was out, starting left tackle Kelvin Beachum joined starting center Maurkice Pouncey on IR also.

The Steelers' whole offense was disjointed. No team in the league could lose so many of their foundation pieces without disruption. Compounding the lack of cohesion was the obvious lack of comfort throwing to Markus Wheaton and the need to develop timing with Martavis Bryant after his suspension meant Roethlisberger didn't throw a pass to him until Week 8.

If the Steelers had lost Bell last season, their whole offense would have capitulated. He was that important a piece to that unit. His absence was huge in their playoff loss to the Baltimore Ravens. With DeAngelo Williams as his backup this year, that's not the case. It's not solely Williams' play, though.

Roethlisberger is playing better this season than he has in recent years. If he had remained healthy throughout the year, he would be in the thick of the MVP discussion. He has been able to play to such a high level partly because of the development of Bryant.

There isn't a team in the league with a pair of starting receivers as good as Pittsburgh's.

Antonio Brown and Bryant are both difficult to match up to. If Bell were still on the field, it would likely be impossible to match up to them. Even without him, the Steelers have been able to create a high-powered offense by pushing the ball down the field more than most.

According to Pro Football Focus, Roethlisberger throws deep passes at a higher rate than any other quarterback in the league. Without Bell, that is the offense Todd Haley has turned to. His quarterbacks' average yards per pass highlights this.

Quarterback	Attempts	Yards Per Attempt
Landry Jones	55	9.3
Ben Roethlisberger	305	8.9
Carson Palmer	418	8.8
Russell Wilson	352	8.5
Andy Dalton	381	8.4
Tyrod Taylor	271	8.0
Tom Brady	507	7.7
Marcus Mariota	325	7.7
Drew Brees	456	7.7
Blaine Gabbert	127	7.6
Alex Smith	376	7.6
Jameis Winston	377	7.6

In the above chart, only quarterbacks with at least 50 pass attempts are listed. These are the quarterbacks with the highest average yards per attempt in the league, and the only player listed above Roethlisberger is his current backup, Landry Jones.

Roethlisberger ranks so highly despite averaging 5.8 yards per pass on 45 throws against the Bengals in their previous matchup.

This weekend's game is huge for the Steelers in terms of making a statement about their quality against the Bengals, but it's also huge because the Steelers aren't currently a playoff team. They have the same number of wins as the Kansas City Chiefs and New York Jets, but they miss out on tiebreakers.

Because this season doesn't have a clear favorite and the AFC South appears to be offering up an easy opponent for one of the Wild Card Round matchups, it truly is about what team gets hot at the right time this season. That may be a cliche, but when you've had a season like this one, it is an accurate cliche.

While the Steelers don't have a great defense, it is a unit that has shown signs of improvement under defensive coordinator Keith Butler. The defense is less of an issue with how the offense has been playing lately.

In the playoffs, matchups become more important than they are during the regular season. With two All-Pro talents at receiver and a quarterback currently playing on an MVP level, the Steelers figure to be the most dangerous matchup in the AFC.

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Since their Week 11 bye two weeks ago, the Steelers offense has looked more in sync than at any previous point this season. The primary reason for that is Roethlisberger's health and comfort having worked his way back into the timing of the offense.

The above chart tracks Roethlisberger's accuracy over the past two games. He has been accurate on 76.6 percent of his passes while completing 63.8 percent because of drops.

Even with his receivers dropping passes, Roethlisberger has been able to account for 820 yards, five touchdowns and two interceptions. One of those interceptions came when the ball slipped out of his hands against the Seattle Seahawks.

Roethlisberger and his offense went into Seattle and scored 30 points against the Seahawks. Roethlisberger himself threw for over 450 yards. Even though the Seahawks defense isn't as dominant as it once was, this was still a phenomenal achievement.

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Since Haley became the Steelers offensive coordinator, Roethlisberger has become a more structured quarterback. Instead of being the creative player who brushes off potential sacks in the pocket to extend plays into the flat, he has spent more time hitting receivers in time from between the tackles.

This is something he has excelled at, but the quarterback is still able to get creative when required.

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Against the Seahawks, Roethlisberger was repeatedly picking apart the secondary from the pocket, but his biggest play of the game came when he left the pocket. He wasn't forced to leave by pressure; Roethlisberger even had a chance to look back and see where the pass-rushers were as he escaped.

Instead, Roethlisberger used his intelligence to understand the coverage and extend the play to create a situation where his receivers could adjust to find space.

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Despite throwing on the move, Roethlisberger is able to sling the ball over 45 yards so it lands perfectly in the hands of Wheaton. Wheaton had broken in behind the Seahawks secondary after Roethlisberger bought him time to do so.

Because he didn't need to break stride, Wheaton was able to run in a 69-yard touchdown with relative ease.

Containing the Steelers offense when it is being run as normal is difficult enough. That is why Roethlisberger is able to lead the league in yards per attempt among quarterbacks currently starting. When he is making these types of throws, the offense will be almost unstoppable regardless of the opponent.

Although the Steelers did lose that game in Seattle, it took an outstanding display from Wilson to outscore Roethlisberger's offense.

No defense in the AFC will pose as great a challenge as that one did. The Bengals are more familiar with the Steelers offense, but they will be reliant on Roethlisberger curtailing his own display like he did last time around.

If Roethlisberger plays like he has over recent weeks, the Bengals will be facing a completely different challenge to the one they passed earlier this season.