Roethlisberger On Antonio Brown Celebration: 'Obviously The Family Jewels Were At Risk'
PITTSBURGH (93-7 The Fan)- Coming off the Steelers' 45-10 thrashing of the Indianapolis Colts in which he threw for 364 yards and 4 touchdowns and helped keep his team's playoff hopes alive, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger joined the Cook and Poni Show for the #1 Cochran Ben Roethlisberger Show, which airs every Tuesday morning at 11 a.m. during the Steelers season.
Ben opened things up talking about how much "fun" they are having on the field right now.
"It was fun," Roethlisberger said. "Our goal was to go out and have fun playing football, and we wanted the world, the fans, everyone to kind of see us and say 'Boy, the Pittsburgh Steelers have a lot of fun playing football.' And when you're having fun playing football, usually good things happen."
The Steelers have scored 30 or more points in four straight games for the first time in franchise history and Ben said that has become the team's goal each game.
"We always say we want to score one more than the other team of course, but we want to [score 30] and that was our goal coming in. We want to score as many points as we possibly can regardless of what the other team does," he said.
Despite putting up 45 points, things didn't start off smoothly for Ben and the offense and he talked about what message he delivered to the team after the two lost fumbles that put them in a 3-0 hole.
"I told the defense, thanks for bailing us out and doing such a great job. Then, talking to the offense, I said, 'Hey guys, listen, we haven't been off the field. They haven't stopped us yet, we've stopped ourselves. That's kind of been our Achilles' heel all year and that's what we always say is that we don't feel anybody can stop us, we just stop ourselves."
With the offense chugging along, Roethlisberger was asked about his relationship with offensive voordinator Todd Haley and how it looks like everything is going smoothly on that front as well.
"I think that we're understanding each other, we're understanding the offense with each other, we're understanding what each other are thinking, all those things. And I think it's a good thing. I think we just keep growing and getting better together," the quarterback said.
Despite the offense's big day, the one thing everyone was talking about after the game was Antonio Brown's celebration and even Ben had thoughts on it.
"It is what it is, it's AB being silly and being AB," Roethlisberger said. "I don't think it was dangerous. Not nearly as dangerous as the front flip. It's a padded thing; obviously, the family jewels were at risk a little bit. I think we're making more out of it than probably needs to be. You talk about it for a day and you let it go; that's kind of the way I look at it."
Looking ahead to this week's game and the team's second match-up against the AFC North-leading Cincinnati Bengals, Roethlisberger talked about any remaining bad blood over the Vontaze Burfict hit that ended running back Le'Veon Bell's season and what the team thought was a celebration by Burfict after the injury.
"If anything, that would be the issue that a lot of guys would have. You just never want to celebrate someone getting hurt," he said.
You can listen to the full interview here and you can hear The #1 Cochran Ben Roethlisberger show live every Tuesday at 11 a.m. during the football season on The Cook and Poni Show on Sportsradio 93.7 The Fan (KDKA-FM).