The smile on Mike Adams face said it all about what it was like for the offensive line during Sunday's game against the Indianapolis Colts. Not only was quarterback Ben Roethlisberger not sacked, but he became the first quarterback in NFL history to throw for 500 yards in a game twice in a career.
When the announcement came across the Heinz Field PA system of that accomplishment during the game, you could see from the offensive line's reaction that they were pumped.
"We were hype," said Adams, still fired up about it the day after. "That says a lot about the line that he had time to throw almost 50 passes. I know he felt good back there. We felt good. It was a fun game, one for the ages."
Roethlisberger, who also recorded his 100th regular season win in the 51-34 victory, completed 40 passes for 522 yards and six touchdowns with a quarterback rating of 150.6.
"The guy was in a zone," said Adams. "He went out there and had a great game. It was something that was awesome to be a part of. To be the only guy to have two 500 yard games, and to be in there for one of them is something you will never forget."
Center Maurkice Pouncey joked about it being an okay kind of performance for Roethlisberger, then quickly went on and on about how special a player he is.
"He is awesome. He is a Hall of Fame quarterback," said Pouncey. "He does a great job of leading this team. As you can tell he can make big time plays and have big time games as well. He is awesome. We love seeing big time plays like that. When he has receivers that make the big time catches and plays like that, it all looks great.
"It's exciting, we got to share that memory with him. It will always be in our mind that we helped him achieve that. For the offensive line not to have any sacks, we just want to keep building on that and see how things go next week."
Guard David DeCastro said he saw an intensity in Roethlisberger on Sunday, something a little different than what he normally sees, beginning in pregame warm-ups. Normally Roethlisberger goes from teammate to teammate during stretching, tapping them on the helmet, talking to them, and sharing words of encouragement. But on Sunday he went about it silently, something out of the norm and DeCastro thinks some of it came from all of the attention and praise Colts quarterback Andrew Luck and their offense was receiving leading up to the game.
"You could kind of see it in his eyes," said DeCastro. "He really wanted this one, he was really into. It was like that this week. Everyone was talking about Indy's offense all week and I think he wanted to come out and prove something."
What he proved was what this team thought all along, that this was the type of performance that they have been capable of all year.
"I think there is something to be said about giving him time, he's so talented," said DeCastro. "Not letting him get hit, letting him do his thing and get in that rhythm. When you give him time he is a special player. We take pride in that.
"It feels great. It's not surprising. It feels like it's something we should be able to do. It's one week. We have to go back to work, we have a big game coming this week."
