In addition, if Ben wasn't the QB that year, a lot of whether they would have still won the SB would have depended on who was. I seem to recall that Maddox wasn't around that year so would it have been Charlie Batch?
Lym, Maddox was the backup in 2005, Batch was #3. Ben was injured early in the season and sat out the Jacksonville game, I believe in week 4, and Maddox stunk it up so bad there were some classless fans who trashed his house. Ben came back the following week and played a few more games before having surgery on his knee. Batch came in to start the games against Green Bay, where they barely won, and Cleveland. Batch lit it up against Cleveland and the Steelers had the game safely in hand by halftime. Batch broke a bone in his hand in that game and Maddox had to come back in and I think he was allowed to throw about 4 passes throughout the entire second half. The following week, we played the Ravens with Maddox as the QB, Randle El as #2 and Ben dressed as the emergency QB. Unfortunately, Maddox stayed healthy and the Steelers lost again on mistake after mistake by Maddox.
Ben came back the following week against Indy, and he probably rushed back because of the poor backup play, and struggled, looking very tentative of his knee. After a tough loss to Cincy the following week, Ben led the Steelers on an 8 game winning streak through the Superbowl.
Based on Pittsburgh's Defense and their running Game in 2005, I think it is not out of the question that if the Steelers could have made it to the SB they would have still won it as Ben's performance in the SB was not that good.
Lym...Ben undoubtedly struggled in the Superbowl. He could find no rhythm. I don't question that Batch would have won that game if he were called upon to do so. Ben did, though, make some big plays that other QBs might not have made. There were a couple of scrambles for first downs and of course the 3rd and 27 completion to Ward that were key plays in the Steelers win. However, you can't discount what Ben did in the 7 games leading up to the Superbowl.
When looking at Ben as a QB and trying to decide if Pittsburgh could be as successful without him, all I would ask you to do is watch the 4 Browns games from the last two years. Watch those four games again and come back and tell me that the Steelers would have won all four of those games with anybody else under Center.
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