Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger takes subtle jab at Titans, makes preemptive excuse vs. Ravens

The Baltimore Ravens shouldn’t even be playing this week. Originally scheduled to have their bye in Week 8, an outbreak of COVID-19 among the Tennessee Titans altered the schedule for the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore. Now with the Steelers coming to M&T Bank Stadium this week following the Ravens’ Week 7 bye, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is letting his frustrations be known in a pretty passive-aggressive way.

According to NFL Network’s Aditi Kinkhabwala, Roethlisberger reflected how important and physical this AFC North rivalry is. But in the process, Roethlisberger took a little jab at how the Titans’ COVID-10 outbreak really only seemed to hurt Pittsburgh.

Roethlisberger certainly isn’t wrong here. It’s completely unfair for the NFL to effectively penalize the Steelers by giving them Tennessee and Baltimore in back-to-back weeks, altering the original schedule because of something Pittsburgh didn’t do wrong. At the same time, the Ravens didn’t ask for their schedule to be changed either. And with the Indianapolis Colts, New England Patriots, Tennessee, and Pittsburgh next up on the schedule in the following four weeks, having a bye in there would be pretty stellar for Baltimore as well.

Though it seems like Roethlisberger is only taking a shot at how the Titans broke the rules and were relatively unaffected, it can also be taken as a bit of a preemptive excuse this week as well. If the Ravens beat the currently undefeated Steelers Sunday, there will undoubtedly be a ton of chatter about how the schedule change was the real reason for the loss, as well as a defining storyline to their Week 12 game on Thanksgiving.

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