The Steelers and Patriots have met in the playoffs just twice since 2004, when Ben Roethlisberger was drafted by Pittsburgh. And even though the Steelers have two Super Bowl wins and three appearances in that span, many still believe New England's relative reign over the AFC for the last 15-20 years has deterred Pittsburgh from even more success in the Roethlisberger era. After all, Big Ben is just 4-8 as a starter against the Pats.
But now, thanks to Pro Football Focus, Roethlisberger has an interesting stat on his side. Anybody who wants to claim the Patriots have owned the Steelers because Tom Brady is so much better than Roethlisberger needs to dig deeper for legitimate arguments.
PFF's Ben Linsey recently published a list of what he calls "NFL team-killers" - basically the one opposing player who has been the biggest headache for each NFL team since 2006 (the PFF era). They are defined in the article as "the players who have played a minimum of 300 snaps against a given team and picked up the highest overall grade."
As for the player who has hurt the Patriots most over the years? Yep. No. 7 from Pittsburgh, credited with a 90.5 overall grade against New England.
Here is PFF's explanation:
"Sure to upset the #QBWINZ crowd, Roethlisberger comes out as the top-graded player against the Patriots despite being just 4-8 against Brady and company. The tape shows, however, that the subpar record hasn't been his fault. Big Ben's touchdown to interception ratio of 18-to-10 doesn't overly impress, but his big-time throw to turnover-worthy play ratio of 28:8 is much more impressive. The discrepancy indicates that luck hasn't been on his side in the matchup, but that doesn't detract from him playing at a high level."
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