Offensive coordinator Matt Canada didn’t grade Ben Roethlisberger’s performance at Buffalo as harshly as Pro Football Focus, which rated the Pittsburgh Steelers passer as the NFL’s worst quarterback in Week 1.
Yes, he was ranked even lower than Aaron Rodgers, who finished with a 36.8 passer rating in a 38-3 loss.
Canada’s opinion was quite the opposite.
“I thought Ben did a great job,” he said. “The grade is we won.”
Roethlisberger completed 18 of 32 passes for 188 yards, one touchdown and no interceptions in the 23-16 victory, rallying the Steelers from a 10-0 halftime deficit. His passer rating of 83.9 was 24th after Week 1 and was better than Bills counterpart Josh Allen’s 79.7.
“He did a great job of pushing through the first half,” Canada said of Roethlisberger, who was 6 of 12 for 57 yards at the break. “All of our players did. People look to Ben, he’s the leader of our team, the leader of our offense.”
Canada didn’t attribute Roethlisberger’s slow start to any unfamiliarity with his offensive coordinator coaching from the box on press level. Canada’s predecessor, Randy Fichtner, called plays from the field.
Quarterbacks coach Mike Sullivan was on the sidelines to relay any communications between quarterback and coordinator.
“Ben put the headphones on if he needed to say something to me. If he didn’t, he didn’t,” Canada said. “I thought it was very seamless and very good. I thought we were great as we went and everything from Ben’s feedback was we were good on that, too.”
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