Roethlisberger's Record-Breaking Day Bests Packers

Supposedly, two of the NFL's best defenses faced off in Pittsburgh Sunday. No one who watched the Steelers' 37-36 last-second win will believe that, but it was clearly a face-off of two of the best quarterbacks in the NFL.

Aaron Rodgers threw for 388 yards and three touchdowns for Green Bay. It was the second-best passing performance of the day in the NFL -- but it was 115 fewer yards than Ben Roethlisberger threw for. Green Bay's Dom Capers and Pittsburgh's Dick LeBeau may be masters of the zone blitz, but neither defensive coordinator had any answers on Sunday.

It was so bad that Mike Tomlin called for an onside kick when his team took a 30-28 lead with four minutes to play. It didn't work, and Green Bay took possession just 10 yards outside of field goal range. But maybe Tomlin knew what he was doing -- by giving the Packers the ball in Steelers' territory, he ensured Pittsburgh got the ball back after the Packers' go-ahead touchdown with more than two minutes to play.

At that point, with the way Roethlisberger had shredded the Packers' secondary, it was just a question of whether Pittsburgh would run out of time before Roethlisberger drove the length of the field. Roethlisberger went 5 of 10 for 93 yards on the game-winning drive. He converted a fourth-and-seven and a third-and-15 before throwing the 19-yard game-winner to Mike Wallace on third down as the clock hit zero.

Roethlisberger's 503-yard game was easily the Steelers' franchise record. It's only the ninth 500-yard passing game in NFL history, putting Roethlisberger in some pretty impressive company. Thanks to Pro Football Reference's Play Index for the breakdown:

Player	Year	Tm	Result	C	A	Yds	TD	Int
Warren Moon*	1990	HOU	W 27-10	27	45	527	3	0
Boomer Esiason	1996	ARI	W 37-34	35	59	522	3	4
Dan Marino*	1988	MIA	L 30-44	35	60	521	3	5
Phil Simms	1985	NYG	L 30-35	40	62	513	1	2
Drew Brees	2006	NO	L 16-31	37	52	510	2	3
Vince Ferragamo	1982	LA RAMS	L 26-34	30	46	509	3	2
Y.A. Tittle*	1962	NYG	W 49-34	27	39	505	7	0
Elvis Grbac	2000	KC	L 31-49	39	53	504	2	2
Ben Roethlisberger	2009	PIT	W 37-36	29	46	503	3	0

The asterisk denotes Hall of Famers. Brees could end up in the Hall of Fame, and Simms and Esiason had excellent careers as well.

It's also a reminder that, for all of the Steelers' problems on defense and special teams, Roethlisberger is having one of the best seasons in team history. Thanks to his 503 yards, Roethlisberger also broke the Steelers' record for passing yards in a season. He now has 3,849 yards, besting Terry Bradshaw's 3,724 yards in 1979.