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Pittsburgh's OL clearly had some issues, but Ben has admitted that he creates a good number of the sacks he takes by holding onto the ball longer than he should.
To me, Roethlisberger is a freelancer in the Favre mold. He wants to win more than he wants stats, and he'll risk a lot to gain yards, wait for a receiver to get open, or force a ball into a tough slot. There's both good and bad to this.
On the good side he clearly can pull out some wins where wins should not happen. The 4th-quarter comebacks spring to mind as good examples. He's also clearly a problem for opposing defenses. Whereas someone like Rivers or Eli might just go through a progression and then toss the ball away, Roethlisberger will use his size & strength to prolong the play. It has to wear a defense out, mentally and physically.
But it's also a con. He gets nailed a lot, despite his size. Sometimes a string of risky choices will not go his way and he's just dug a deeper hole. How many of those 4th-quarter comebacks, for instance, were necessary because he got his team in a position to lose?
Because he's won two Super Bowls, however, we, like with Favre, tend to remember the risks that went well.
This is not to say he isn't a good, or even great QB. It's just to say that he's a QB whose true value to his team is harder than normal to determine, and I would suggest, based on what I've seen, that he is, in fact, somewhat overrated.
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