Home Openers at Heinz Field and Ben Roethlisberger bouncing back Welcome to our house.Heinz Field is truly amazing for a Steelers fan. If you have never attended a game there Justin Layne Pittsburgh Steelers Jersey , you need to move that item to the very top of your bucket list. Between the Lombardi trophies on display in the great hall or the feeling when the jumbotron goes black just before the stadium erupts to Renegade, it is an experience that almost can¡¯t be described.With a home record of 99-36-1, the Steelers hold the third highest win percentage (73.2%) of any home team in their current stadium. Only Gillette Stadium (Patriots; 83.7%) and U.S. Bank Stadium (Vikings; 76.4%) hold a higher home team win percentage. As impressive as that is, the Steelers are even more successful in their home opening games. Since Heinz Field opened in 2001, the Steelers are 15-2 in their first contest at home each year. They are 8-1 when opening the first week of the season, and 6¨C1 when their first home contest comes in Week 2. The lone time the Steelers did not play at home in the first two weeks of the season was during the inaugural 2001 season when the September 11 attacks postponed the second week of the season and the Steelers did not play their next game at home until October.For the past three seasons, the Steelers have not played at home until Week 2. In each of those games, their opponents came in to the game with a record of 1-0. The Steelers have won all three of those games by an average of 16.7 points. Additionally, the Steelers are 12-1 in home opening games at Heinz Field that are played at 1 PM.There are a variety of statistical trends for the Steelers in their home opener that would be wonderful to replicate:Run! Run! Run!All 17 victories have occurred when the team has rushed 20 or more times, and 13 of those victories came with 30 or more rushing attempts. The Steelers are 11¨C0 when rushing for more than 100 yards in a game, and are still 4-2 when failing to reach the century mark.Cause-and-effect is a great question for each one of these games. Were the Steelers running the ball because they were winning or were they winning because they were running the ball? Either way, the attempts need to come. First and Foremost It¡¯s all about the first half at Heinz Field in the opening game. The Steelers or 15¨C0 when leading or tied at half time. The only two times they have lost the home opener they trailed at the half.Give and TakeThe two losses both occurred when the Steelers were -2 in turnover ratio. They have taken care of the ball for the most part, with only two games with three turnovers or more (1-1). D is the KeyThe Steelers have never given up more than 30 points in the home opener. Outside of a loss to the Raiders in 2002 (30 points)and wins over the Browns in 2014 (27 points) and the Raiders in 2004 (21 points), The Steelers have not given up more than 18 points. The average points against in a home opener at Heinz Field for the Steelers is 13.6 points.Bouncing back in a big way.It¡¯s an understatement to say that Ben Rothlisberger had a rough game last week. Three interceptions and two fumbles is the epitome of a disastrous outing. Steeler fans have realized that Ben bounces back rather quickly, and the numbers give much evidence to that statement.In the last 10 years (2007-2018), Ben has had seven games in which he has thrown three or more interceptions. After each of those games, the Steelers are 7¨C0 the following week. Additionally, Ben has only thrown three interceptions TOTAL in those seven follow-up games. It should be noted that after the game on December 19, 2011 where Ben threw three interceptions in San Francisco, he did not play the following week due to a high ankle sprain. Charlie Batch lead the team to a 27-0 victory over the Rams in Pittsburgh. Ben did start the following week Justin Layne Jersey Cheap , which was a victory in Cleveland 13-9.Another game of note was when Ben started the Monday night game in Washington on November 3, 2008 which was a week after he threw four interceptions against the Giants. Ben only played in the first half of that game in Washington due to a shoulder injury, but left the game with a 10-6 halftime lead. Byron Leftwich commanded the team the rest of the way for the 23¨C6 win Numbers For VictoryRun the ball 30 or more times for over 100 yards (this sounds very familiar).Hold the halftime advantage, keeping the run game in play.Bounce back by keeping turnovers to a minimum (I¡¯m talking to you, Ben). Keep the Chiefs to 17 points or less.Between the great numbers in home openers and the tendency for Ben to play big after rough outings the week before, it¡¯s shaping up to be a good scenario for the Steelers. But all the past numbers mean nothing when it comes time for kick off on Sunday. DENVER (AP) ¡ª The National Football League¡¯s annual free agency frenzy officially begins Wednesday, just 39 days after Tom Brady won another Super Bowl and 44 days before Commissioner Roger Goodell takes the stage in Nashville to announce the first overall pick in the 2019 NFL draft.Le¡¯Veon Bell, Nick Foles, C.J. Mosley and Landon Collins are among this year¡¯s headliners cashing in during the 27th year of unfettered free agency, a system that emerged after a Minneapolis federal court ruled in 1992 that the Plan B free agency system of protecting 37 players on a team violated antitrust laws.A lawyer for the league, Frank Rothman, warned in closing arguments that a verdict for the players could mean ¡°the destruction of the National Football League that we know today.¡±Modern free agency indeed laid waste to the old way of doing business.Yet, what rose in its place has been a godsend to the NFL, which is celebrating its 100th season this year. The NFL wouldn¡¯t be the gigantic force it is in society and sports today without free agency empowering players with freedom and endowing long-suffering franchises and their fans with hope.¡°I think free agency¡¯s been great for the game for a lot of reasons,¡± said Joe Horrigan, executive director of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. ¡°Look at us, we have a whole season now for the fan. It¡¯s keeping the NFL front of mind 24/7, seven days a week, 365 days a year.¡±Without free agency, the Green Bay Packers wouldn¡¯t have returned to glory in the 1990s; the second chapter of Peyton Manning¡¯s magnificent career might have gone unwritten; the New Orleans Saints wouldn¡¯t have been able to parade the Lombardi Trophy down Bourbon Street; and Deion Sanders might not have earned two nicknames and two Super Bowl rings Ulysees Gilbert Pittsburgh Steelers Jersey , one in San Francisco and another in Dallas.Federal judge David Doty threatened to implement his own plan if team owners and the players¡¯ union couldn¡¯t agree on a free agency system following the league¡¯s loss in court in 1992.What finally won over the hardliner owners was the inclusion of a franchise tag and the coupling of a salary cap to control costs. The first salary cap was $34.6 million in 1994. Now, it¡¯s $188.2 million.The most significant free agent signing in NFL history occurred when the new system went into effect in the 1993 offseason: Reggie White chose Green Bay in a shocker that shifted the balance of power in the NFL and foretold free agency¡¯s boom and boon.¡°What was beautiful about that was everybody was fearful of free agency, fearful that all the best teams would stockpile all the greatest players and they¡¯d all go to one place,¡± Horrigan said. ¡°Well, the salary cap that came with free agency prevented that, No. 1. But then Reggie to Green Bay kind of suggested that the system was good for all.¡±White teamed with Brett Favre to lead the Packers¡¯ resurgence that ended a 30-year title drought.Manning¡¯s arrival in Denver two decades later also transformed a franchise that was far removed from its glory days.After missing the 2011 season with a neck injury, Manning was cut loose by the Colts, who were turning to Andrew Luck. The Broncos won the Manning sweepstakes, which made it easier for general manager John Elway to lure other free agents such as DeMarcus Ware, Emmanuel Sanders, Aqib Talib and T.J. Ward, the emotional backbone of the team that won Super Bowl 50 in Manning¡¯s farewell.Somebody asked Elway at the introductory news conference what he would have done had Manning turned him down.¡°Plan B?¡± replied Elway. ¡°We don¡¯t have a Plan B. We¡¯re going with Plan A.¡±Sort of like the NFL had to do when the players decertified their union three decades ago and took the league to court in the face of long-standing fierce opposition to free agency.¡°The pushback was huge, going back to 1969 and ¡¯70 with owners and labor-player management,¡± former commissioner Paul Tagliabue said.The issue led to the 1987 players strike and owners¡¯ infamous use of replacement players.¡°Dan Rooney (the late chairman of the Pittsburgh Steelers) talked about some form of free agency then, but the majority of the owners¡¯ committee would have no part of free agency,¡± Tagliabue said. ¡°Then we came up with Plan B.¡±Owners unilaterally imposed Plan B free agency in 1989 with the absence of a labor agreement, giving teams the right to protect 37 players on their 47-man rosters from becoming free agents.¡°They weren¡¯t trying to satisfy the players association, they were trying to satisfy the courts,¡± Horrigan said. ¡°They thought they could get limited free agency and (union chief) Gene Upshaw kind of chuckled at how transparent that was: ¡®That¡¯s not free agency; that¡¯s making available your castoffs.¡¯¡°And the judge also saw through it,¡± Horrigan said.While some players switched teams Ulysees Gilbert Pittsburgh Steelers Jersey , all the really good players were still stuck.¡°We knew then it did not make any sense,¡± players agent Donald Yee said. ¡°But to be fair, the owners were simply grasping at anything to present to the courts that seemed reasonable. I represented a reserve player who had never played, and all of a sudden, he was exposed in Plan B and he had numerous offers from other teams. His own veteran teammates were jealous and upset. It was a laughable situation.¡±The NFL¡¯s current system isn¡¯t flawless. The franchise tag irks the game¡¯s superstars, and a recent AP study found that teams often turn to younger, cheaper players rather than put savings from the rookie salary pools into signing proven veterans.¡°When the CBA came into effect in 1993, there was more of a middle class within the roster, and it was difficult for any young player to play, or much less make the active roster,¡± Yee said. ¡°On the vast majority of rosters now, there is no middle class, and this certainly affects the product quality on the field. If a highly paid star is sidelined, often an inexperienced younger player has to step in.¡±Both sides will try to tweak free agency again in the next round of labor negotiations.¡°Ultimately, fan response carries the day,¡± Yee said. ¡°If the fans don¡¯t like the product and reject it, that will affect owners and the union, and they¡¯ll have to work together to come up with a fix. Every ¡®fix¡¯ is a balance of competing interests, and there will be merit to a number of potential innovations.¡±