Ben Roethlisberger has won 157 games during his decade-and-a-half in the NFL, including two Super Bowls. But at one particular stadium, against one particular quarterback, the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback remains winless.
In his five career visits to Gillette Stadium — home of the New England Patriots, whom Pittsburgh has battled for AFC supremacy throughout Roethlisberger’s tenure — the 37-year-old signal-caller has won just once, against a Matt Cassel-led Patriots squad in 2008.
In road games against Tom Brady, Roethlisberger is a cool 0-4, including a 37-16 thumping in the 2016 AFC Championship Game. He’ll look to end that drought this Sunday night when the Patriots and Steelers square off in Foxboro to open the 2019 NFL season.
“It’s not fun there,” Roethlisberger told reporters in Pittsburgh on Wednesday. “They’re the best for a reason, coaches and players. And it’s not just like we’ve had a problem with them — the league’s had a problem with them. They’re that dominant. Playing (the Patriots) at home is hard enough. Going to their place is almost impossible.”
Indeed.
Since 2001, the Patriots have won an NFL-best 84.4 percent of their home games (141-26) in the regular season and playoffs — more than 10 percentage points higher than the second-place Baltimore Ravens (71.8 percent). Of those 26 losses, four came with either Cassel or Jacoby Brissett behind center, and two more came in meaningless Week 17 games Brady didn’t finish.
Brady has enjoyed similar success against Pittsburgh regardless of venue (11-3 in 14 career matchups), but Roethlisberger got the upper hand in the teams’ most recent meeting.
With New England deploying five and six defensive backs throughout the game to slow the Steelers’ prolific passing attack, third-string running back Jaylen Samuels racked up 142 yards on the ground, and Pittsburgh’s defense held Brady and Co. to three points over the final three quarters in a 17-10 victory at Heinz Field last December.
Roethlisberger, whose team had dropped the previous five games in the series, knows his squad will need to find a new edge if it hopes to finally best Brady in his own building.
“You’re not going to surprise the Patriots twice, I promise you that,” Roethlisberger told reporters. “… You’re not going to get over on the Patriots twice. That coaching staff’s pretty good, and their players are pretty darn good, too. So we’ll have to figure some new things out.”
Before the game, the Patriots will unveil their Super Bowl LIII champions banner. It was the franchise’s sixth Super Bowl title, tied with Pittsburgh for the most in NFL history.
“I think it’s cool to be a part of, honestly,” Roethlisberger said of the banner ceremony. “You go out there and you watch it and you sit there and you try to channel it to say, ‘OK, that needs to be us next year.’ That’s the way I look at it.”
