We all remember Ben's triumphant news conference discussing the touchdown pass he threw to Santonio Holmes to beat the Ravens the second time.

Ben explained the play this way: 

I was going to try and run it in, and all of a sudden these - a bunch of purple jerseys showed and scrambled back to the right because you know I hold on to the ball too long, and you know the line came and cleaned everybody up and I saw Tone and just got it to him and he made a heck of a play.

Now stop and think for a moment. This goes double for any of you who have been frustrated with Ben for not getting rid of the ball quickly enough.  If Ben doesn't throw that pass there is a decent chance we finish 11-5 and the Ravens finish 12-4. 

But I don't want to talk about how big Big Ben was during the season. I want to talk about how big he was in the post-season.  

It might be hard to remember this with all of the other action, but the Steelers only scored one offensive touchdown. Yes Limas droped one and yes Santonio had one taken away by the Zebras, but almost doesn't count for much in Football.  Just ask the Seattle Seahawks.

The only offensive Touchdown the Steelers scored was early in the second quarter.  It will go down in the record book as a 65 yard pass from Ben to Santonio, but that does not do justice to the efforts of either man.  

I've borrowed from Blitz here and broken down the tape for you guys.

The play starts at 14:16 left in the second quarter with the Steelers up by 6 and facing a long 3rd and 9 on their own 35.

From Drop Box

 You can see that the Ravens are using the "Kitchen Sink" blitz here, counting on a quick collapse of the pocket.   

From Drop Box

Here we are exactly one second later at 14:15 and the gamble seems to be paying off big. The pocket is toast.  Max Starks's man is already so far beyond him that he can't even reach out to grab his jersey.  On the inside it looks like Trevor Price has handly beaten his man as well.  

BTW, this is a fairly common theme for the Steelers pass protection. Its usually not one guy who has a free run at Ben - but two.  

From Drop Box

One more fraction of a second eclipsed and Ben is now completely surrounded.  The one thing saving disaster is a monster block by someone (can't quite tell who) on Nakamura.  You can see him literally up in the air and being thrown to side, creating a small escape lane for Ben.  

Oh and if this wasTom Brady or Peyton Manning back there in that mess, they would have already thrown the ball away and we would be hearing copious praise from the talking heads about how good they were at ball protection.  But this is Ben, so we end up here: 

From Drop Box

Ben uses some crazy black (and gold) magic to escape the collapsing pocket and ends up alone for a brief moment with one linemen standing between him and two Ravens blitzers.  

From Drop Box

Only problem is there is still no one open.  

And this is what gives heartburn and trips to the superbowl in steelernation. Ben pulls it back down.

From Drop Box

And ends up in this rather hopless situation.  

From Drop Box

This is the position from which Ben makes a great read and throws the ball off his back foot. The ball travels about 20 yards downfield and 20 yards across the field - no less then 40 yards in the air and lands gently in the waiting arms of Santonio Holmes. 

From Drop Box

What Holmes proceeds to do is deserving of another full post and should be cause for celebration in Steelernation.  

But the only way Holmes can run through the Raven secondary like he does is because Big Ben was able to occupy 7 blitzers for almost 5 seconds, causing the Raven defense to break down completely 

There may be other QBs who can keep the play alive that long. There may be other QBs who can make a throw like that off their back foot.  But to be able to do both in the same play - while essentially protecting the football, is special.  

And that, my friends is what Big Ben is.  It may give us heart burn, but we will remember these plays for a long, long time.