James Conner had arguably his worst game of the season on Sunday against the Jacksonville Jaguars, but the Pittsburgh Steelers made it sting a little less by finding a way to win. Perhaps equally as important, the tough day did not impact the way Ben Roethlisberger’s son feels about Conner.
During his weekly radio show Tuesday, Roethlisberger was asked about a pair of drops from Conner, one of which came on fourth down and one that would have resulted in a touchdown in the fourth quarter. Big Ben said one of the ways he tried to cheer Conner up was by telling him his son still wants the running back’s jersey for Christmas.
“Even when you drop balls I got something to tell you. I said last night my son, he said for Christmas he wants a Steelers helmet, gloves and a James Conner jersey and I said obviously my son doesn’t have any hard feelings toward you so you shouldn’t have them toward yourself,” Roethlisberger said. “He had a good chuckle out of that.”
Conner ran for only 25 yards in addition to dropping two key passes, but the Steelers managed to pull out a 20-16 win. In hindsight, Roethlisberger thinks Conner’s dropped touchdown worked out great.
“I said hey, two things. One, if you would’ve got that and scored that would’ve gave them a lot more time and two, if you would’ve got that and scored I wouldn’t (have) been able to score a rushing touchdown so I appreciate it,” the quarterback joked.
Conner has made Steelers Nation forget all about Le’Veon Bell, and some stats would indicate the team is even better with him than it was with Bell. One bad game isn’t going to change that or Roethlisberger’s son’s Christmas list.
