Ben vs. Kenny, by game 20

watching last night, my wife asked me how Ben looked after 20 games.

I said, "well, not that great". We won, but it was U-G-L-Y many times. Great 4th Q heroics, like our boy Kenny.

some of you here are young so you won't recall. He stunk for a while, the classic 'game manager', he was called. it used to be said to limit his throws to 25 or less and we would win, anything more and we'd lose. he was an INT machine at times. he could not read a D.

he was sandlot.

he was fortunate to have a GREAT OC, good WR's and TE and a HOF RB. oh, and a top 5 defense that bailed him out week after week.

remember his SB performance in 2005? it was abysmal.

Kenny will get next year, and most likely a new OC and OL coach. Needs better OLINE play.

anyway, Kenny vs. Ben, after 20 - thoughts?

 

Ben just seemed to have the “It” factor that I’m not seeing in Kenny

But I see much more leadership and intelligence from Kenny at this point

You can’t coach that

 

Mixed feelings on Kenny after watching him last night (my first full game this season). I thought he missed WAY too many easy throws.

He is young and I do love his toughness and leadership...he will get better (he has to right?) and I hope we talk about him as being one of our great QB's.

It did take Ben a few years but I agree that he had the "it" factor and I am not convinced yet that Kenny does.

 

Ben most definitely was not a leader early in his career. I mean had he not busted his face up after the SB year, does he even begin to settle down?

I'd also argue that the Type of leader that he grew into helped produce a lot of the discontent in the locker room.

 

Ben definitely wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed in those early years

 

no, he was not.

we won. but many times it was ugly and by his pure will and desire to compete.

and a great TEAM (s)

 

the thing with a young Ben was his overall size...he was just so big and strong he could shed would be tacklers like he was a senior in HS playing the middle school kids. plus his arm was STRONG! you never ever felt a play was dead with him. but, he was raw, and a bit to out of control with his throws, far too often...jury is still out on kenny.....

 

Kenny made some throws he would like back. He was also a victim of poor situations from the team.

Goal to go, Daniel’s has a false start.

In the red zone, called for 12 in the huddle.

Pickens doesn’t drag his feet.

Bottom line, if those 3 plays don’t happen, they could’ve put up over 30 points. Not needed for the win, but important for the discussion about his progress. While Kenny has room to improve, so does the rest of the team. When they start clicking, this will be a brand new team. One that competes with the best in the league.

 

The teams from 2004-05 were vastly superior to the 2022-23 teams. It's not even close.

Apples and Oranges. Roethlisberger had a totally different situation than Pickett currently has. Pickett with the 2005 O-line, the Bus, Burress, Ward, Miller and Ken Whisenhunt as OC would have been damn good, IMO.

 

Ben seemed to throw at open receivers rather than lead/throw them open in his early years. He had a canon so it worked ok.

 

Use your eyes, not stats. There is a HUGE difference between Ben 20 games in and Kenny 20 games in. If you can't see that on the field, then you're not paying attention. People that base their opinions on stats alone, are easily fooled by a lot of things. How many garbage time TDs are scored?

 

Not sure which Ben you were watching back then, but I saw a rookie that did things only accomplished by Dan Marino.... yes, he had an great offense around him, but a completion % of 66.... 8.9 yds per pass and a 98.1 qb rating, and much of the same in yr 2 when we hung Lombardi #5...... there is no comparison between Ben and Kenny and frankly, it's a rather unfair one

 

Well, we scored a TD on the drive where we had the RZ false start (horrible wildcat playcall there) and the 12 men in the huddle. Pickens not dragging that foot cost us 4 points for sure. We should've had 24 if we did none of those listed above. Had we connected on the crosser to Pickens on 3rd down we might've gotten points on that drive. Had he hit Austin deep over the middle that was a walk in TD. The misses were just very costly. Hard to get excited in a game where KP throws for 160 yards, but it could've easily been a 270 yard 3 TD game had he hit Austin and Pickens on those plays and Pickens actually drags his foot. Not far from this, but also needs to be better. The opportunity is there.

 

Ben in 2004 and 2005 was one of the best QB in the league in QB rating,YPA and he was a true playmaker...After 20 games,Ben was like 18-2 in the regular season

 

I never felt like we could lose a game with Young Ben, .. Kenny Pickett I'm never sure we will win the game..

 

Roethlisberger in his first two years become more and more underrated at this point and it's criminal, especially if we look at tweet like that...I have nothing against Kenny and I know Ben was in a better situation, coaching and players but Ben was still very special in his first 2 seasons.He was great in the 3 road playoffs game in 2005

 

LOL, I like the last sentence. He also sees a bunch of guys sitting on their couches with one hand down their pants, deciding Kenny's just not the guy because they said so.

 

For those who don't remember when he was young,here his 3rd career start...The play at the 1:35 was so special and he score a TD head first 2 player later or 2 play after the big hit by the browns player...He make other big play in this game....Ben was special for 15 years but young Ben was so fun to watch!

Big Ben COOKS in 1st Matchup with Cleveland! (Browns vs. Steelers 2004, Week 5) - YouTube

 

The Ben allegations and his bike accident kept fans busy with drama. Kenny thankfully does not have the off-field drama, well unless his drinking a beer and being called an alcoholic Ben ended up being a pretty good QB and game manager and I expect the same for Kenny. He is 20 games in and looks like he will be fine once he settles in.

 

And yet here you are

 

Pickett was obviously affected by the rib injury. I don’t know why people still can’t see that.

 

DR BRICE MD TV

 

Yet Kenny has 8 4th qtr comeback wins in 20 games. I’ll take that fight he has all day long. That is more than coaching right there.