Pittsburgh​​​​​ Steelers

When Ben Roethlisberger talks about the Baltimore Ravens, respect is one of the first words that comes to mind. 

“When you play Baltimore you are going to get your head knocked off. They are going to try and knock your head off, you are going to try and knock their head off, but you are going to help them up and respect and say great job, let’s go at it again,” said Roethlisberger. “It’s fun playing that kind of football game in that there is a lot of respect between the two teams.

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“They are a very good defense,” said Roethlisberger. “I am not sure what their rank is, but it is probably near the top. They are an opportunistic defense. They score, I think seven touchdowns with the offense on the sideline. That is a lot of points. They get after it. They have some really good football players. It’s a really big challenge for us.”

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Roethlisberger said he was surprised when he heard JuJu Smith-Schuster was suspended for one game for his hit on Vontaze Burfict, a play he thought he should have been fined for, but not suspended.

“I didn’t think it was warranted,” said Roethlisberger. “I thought maybe a fine, a pretty steep fine, something like that. 

“I thought the play that happened did happen in the context of a football play. It wasn’t away from the ball. It wasn’t a hit on a kicker or a defenseless player. It was a guy getting ready to make a tackle, a much bigger football player. Obviously we don’t like the taunting, standing over him. I don’t like to compare suspensions, but you look at what Gronk (Rob Gronkowski) did and what JuJu did and they got the same suspension. I don’t know that that’s necessarily fair, but that is above all of our pay grades.”