Ravens linebacker Terrell Suggs proved correct in his prediction — Ben Roethlisberger will start at quarterback Sunday for the Steelers barring any setback between now and their game in Baltimore.
Roethlisberger practiced again Thursday, and a source said he took more snaps than he did the previous day and that it appeared he would start.
The 34-year-old quarterback had surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his left knee Oct. 17, the day after it was injured during the Steelers’ 30-16 loss in Miami. He missed the following week’s game against New England in which Landry Jones started at quarterback in a 27-16 loss. The Steelers had last week off, when Roethlisberger threw some passes in practice. He did much more this week.
“He looked good out there today, knows what he’s supposed to do, made some good throws,” offensive coordinator Todd Haley said after Thursday’s practice. “We’ll see, or coach [Mike Tomlin] will see.”
Provided his knee holds up as it has the past few days, he will start Sunday.
“I think with something like that it’s just each day how he feels the next day, Haley said.
The Steelers officially listed Roethlisberger as being “limited” in practice on Wednesday and Thursday and backup Landry Jones as going through a full practice each day.
“He’s been in there some snaps and Landry obviously has gotten a bunch of snaps,” Haley said. “It will come down to the end of the week and what coach and he decide.”
Teammates also were confident in how Roethlisberger practiced.
“I thought he looked pretty good,” guard Ramon Foster said. “He was throwing the way he normally does, but that doesn’t say how his knee feels.
“Our job is going to be to not letting him move around, pushing it more than he should or letting guys hit him — and they’re going to be aiming for that.”
Versatile Bell in backfield
There is another way for the Steelers to beat the Ravens without putting Roethlisberger at more risk by having him throw the ball 40 times.
Hand it off to Le’Veon Bell.
That is not a novel concept because they have done it in the past and they will do it again. Sunday is the time to do so.
Bell leads the NFL with an average of 147.2 yards from scrimmage in his four games played since his suspension. Those are combined rushing and receiving yards. Arizona’s David Johnson is second, more than eight yards per game behind him.
Haley has done a good job of moving Bell all over the place — split wide, in the slot, in motion — to get him the ball and spring him loose. Bell is so versatile that Haley is right to try to get him the football in so many different ways, not only to prevent a defense from targeting him but to break him into the open.
Here is how he should line him up most often in Baltimore: in the backfield. Let the man run 25 times against a banged-up Ravens defense that gave up 100 yards rushing to Matt Forte in a 24-16 loss to the New York Jets in their last game. In that game, Jets quarterbacks threw just 22 passes and Forte ran 30 times.
It is a way to keep the pass rush off Roethlisberger (the Ravens have 16 sacks, twice as many as the Steelers).
Bell says he is ready to do whatever, including lining up in the backfield and taking handoffs.
“You run at a defense for a certain amount of time, everybody’s going to break down eventually,” Bell said of the Ravens. “So I think they’re going to try to discourage the run early. We have to do our best to have our game plan set, go in and continue to run the ball whether we’re get 1 or 2 [yards] at the time.
“We just got to stick to the run and keep it going.”
The Steelers did not do that in their upset loss Oct. 16 at Miami. Bell carried just 10 times, gaining 53 yards. He carried just twice in the second half even though the Steelers trailed by just eight at halftime.
Some say there may be no difference between Bell running out of the backfield and throwing him a short pass. But the defense usually is not worn down by those short passes. Those runs up the middle by a 6-1, 225-pound Bell takes its toll after awhile.
Bell knows the Ravens might key on him.
“It doesn’t matter;. I feel like every team knows the players they got to game-plan for. They know they got to stop me, they got to stop [Antonio Brown], other playmakers.
“I want to do whatever it takes for us to win the game so if they lean on me, whether it’s running the ball or catching the ball, whatever it is, I got to get the job done. I mean, we lost two in a row so we know this Iis a big one. I know it’s a big one so I got to do whatever it takes to get the job done.”
First Published: November 3, 2016, 7:44 p.m.
Updated: November 3, 2016, 9:03 p.m.
