Q. Hey, Ben, that final touchdown to Claypool seemed like you were directing the traffic a lot before the snap. Was that moving people around because you saw a soft spot somewhere? Can you just describe that play and what you saw beforehand?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: That's a new formation we put in this week, with Ray-Ray in the game, taking the back out, and we went to it a couple times today. So we expected them on that particular play to kind of go with an all out blitz. So we had a play called to get the ball out quick and hopefully try and beat the blitz. They sat back in a cover two zone, and it just wasn't what we expected. I saw that, and I changed the play.
I think the coolest part about the whole thing is we've never run the play I called with that formation or that group on the field. So Chase has never been in that spot. Ray-Ray has never been in that spot. The other three kind of know what they were supposed to do, but, yeah, we changed the play, and I can't say enough about Chase getting down the middle of the field and kind of making that play for us.
Q. Ben, how is it a rookie with no preseason is able to have this kind of impact this early in his career?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: He's talented. He has got some God given abilities that not many people in this world have. He's big, fast, and strong, and he's very, very smart. So we're able to do those things like move him around and do some things with him.
You know, that last touchdown, a perfect example, like I said, changed the play, and he makes it happen. I just have to give him a little bit of a cue on it, and it's awesome. So I'm just really proud of the way that he's playing right now.
Q. Ben, it wasn't just that touchdown adjustment. All game, you had kind of using different formations, unbalanced line, a lot of reverses. That bunch formation on the one touchdown, you kind of -- it looked like you broke open the playbook right there, at least went through a lot of different stuff.
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: Yeah, we kind of threw the kitchen sink at them today. We kind of had to. That's a really good defense. You can say what you want about being banged up in the secondary, but that front eight, nine guys get after you, rotating guys in, and they rush hard.
Someone asked me how I feel, I feel like it's a typical Eagles game. I mean, sore -- it's just one of those games. It's real physical. Those guys up front really got after us today, made some things uncomfortable for us, so we had to throw some different looks and different formations and reverses and personnel, and we persevered.
Q. Ben, one of the things that Chase said afterwards was that he credited you for having so much trust in him, but is that a little bit of a chicken and an egg sort of thing? Like do you just do that on blind faith? If not, how exactly has he earned so much trust?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: He works. He works hard. He doesn't make a lot of mistakes. I've said this numerous times. If he does make a mistake, he won't make the same one twice, and I think that says a lot about a young guy.
We were texting on, I think, Friday as I was looking at film and sending him clips and talking about it with him through text, and I forget if he said it or I said it, but we were talking about a specific play, and I just told him, hey, you keep doing what you're doing, you're going to have a big game. I'm glad it came to fruition.
Q. Ben, the offense is really clicking there with I think you scored on five consecutive drives. Was there any concern coming in, though, having that week off, if you were going to be able to click as much as you did?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: You don't really know, right? You talk about rust. You talk about just trying to get back in the flow of things. We talked about it early in the week, but once the week gets going, you've got to just go and play ball. So we came out here, tried to do what we do, and that's have a nice balanced offense. I didn't look at the numbers. I don't know exactly what we were, but I felt like we were balanced out there. We converted a lot of third downs.
Once again, I took a knee at the end of the game, and that's always the best play in football.
Q. Ben, this was supposed to be the year that it was going to be tough for new guys to make an impact, whether they're rookies or even just new to a team. What does it say about whether it's Randy, the coaching staff, or even yourself, that you guys have, not just adjusted to these guys, but really made them a big part of this offense?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: Yeah, it's a group effort. I mean, from the coaches to veteran players to that player. You can coach them all you want and have veteran players around them, but they have to be the ones that go on the field and do it.
Kevin Dotson coming in and stepping up, playing again today. We've got a lot of guys that are just believing in each other, and when someone stumbles, someone else is there to pick them up, and that's what makes this team special. We're all picking each other up, and we're all doing it for each other.
Q. You talked about during the week about the league may be slowing your roll with the last week's unplanned bye. Do you feel like you were able to continue the momentum today that you had in those first three weeks?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: Well, we won the game, so that's all that matters to us. That's the most important thing.
Q. This is the first time since 1979 this team has started 4-0. What does it mean to you guys to have a start to the season like this?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: Well, it's always important to kind of get out early because you don't know what the season holds, right? We play a lot of home games. Obviously, that helps. But there's still a lot of football ahead of us. We try to break the season down into four quarters. We were successful in this first quarter, but we still have a lot to go, a long way to go.
So we've got to continue to play football and really, like I said, just be there for each other.
Q. You talked earlier in the week about the momentum and the flow, and you guys might be the lucky ones when you look at the schedule around the league and how it's been disrupted. How are you going to process that moving forward just in terms of the possibilities? As good as your team has done as well and managing the risk.
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: Well, knock on wood, we'll just do our part to keep trying to be safe. I think that's the first and foremost, you've got to do that. I know my wife is locking the house down and stuff like that. So I think we all take it pretty serious around here. Hopefully, we can continue to do that.
I know this week will be a challenge because we're allowed to have fans. People coming to games and family flying in and friends and things like that. So the challenge will continue to arise, and we'll have to just keep trying to answer the bell and do what we can to be smart. I'm sure, as you -- I don't even know what things have evolved today, but I'm sure the schedule is going to keep changing. So we just have to be prepared to play a game whenever they tell us to and give it everything we have.
Q. Ben, I wanted to ask you a follow-up on that bunch formation. You had four guys out there. Have you ever used that? Is that something brand new?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: We've ran that every week for the last three or four weeks in practice. We've run that, and every single time I've thrown it to Ebron to the other side. Today they kind of had two guys over there, so I threw it to Chase. We have had that in in practice, and we practice it at least once a week, but I've never thrown it to Chase yet.
Q. Ben, could you just talk a little bit about Ray-Ray and the kind of jolt he's given you with his legs and catching passes.
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: Right. We know what Ray-Ray brings to the return game. He's dynamic. Whenever the ball is in his hands, something fun could happen. I'm really proud of him because he takes the reps that he gets during the week on offense, when he can get them, obviously, depending on how guys are practicing and whatnot. So we're moving guys around all over the place, and it's never easy. So we ask Ray-Ray to do more, and I believe in him.
We put some stuff in for him, obviously, the reverses and the passes. His role will continue to grow because he's worked hard, he earned it, and he deserves it.
Q. Ben, you said last week that you would tell us when you had a good game -- 27 of 34, 239 yards, 3 touchdowns, 38 points. What's your critical evaluation right now?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: I'm still missing the deep ball too much, still overthrowing. I know last week I talked about it and said I'd rather overthrow it than underthrow it. But I've got to figure it out. I don't know if the Doc made my arm I guess a little stronger, I don't know. I've got to figure out how to connect on those deep balls a little more.
Q. I'm just curious of how you feel your mental game is going with making the checks, decision-making, and that process of coming back.
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: I feel good doing it. That might be a better one for the coaches to evaluate if I'm making the proper checks or looks. I feel comfortable. I feel like we definitely have some new things in this offense that I'm not as familiar with in terms of having plays for a long period of time and things like that.
But I feel like I get us in the right play most of the time.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports