The realistic optimism of Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger and scoring 30 points in every game

Pittsburgh Steelers' quarterback Ben Roethlisberger led the league in passing yardage in 2014, but that is not enough for his offense this season. He has higher goals than just yards.

Yesterday Roethlisberger stated one of his goals for the offense in 2015.

"We want to start fast and we want to be able to put 30 points on the board in every game," he said according to Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

"That group in front of me is as good as any in the league, and as good as any I've ever had. It's great. Then you look at outside receiver. AB is as good as anybody in this league and arguably one of the greatest that I've played with. Just all around on offense, we have just a special group. It has a chance to be really good. There are a lot of young guys, kind of the unknown other than AB. But they have as much potential and talent from top to bottom as we've had here in a long time. To me the sky is the limit for them."

Indeed we have spent much of this offseason talking about the talented players that Roethlisberger will work with this season and how this may be the most complete offense of his career, but is his goal of 30 or more points per game realistic or just an optimistic proposal from his outlook on 2015?

To answer that, let's look at how many points the Steelers averaged last season. In their 16 games they scored 436 points, a franchise record, which averages at 27.25 points per game. So in other words, to achieve his goal of 30 points per game Pittsburgh would only need to score an average extra field goal for every game they play. It's not that far off from what they've already done.

But that's not really what Roethlisberger meant when he was talking about averaging 30 points per game, he just wants to be the best offense in the league and an extra field goal for every game won't be how that is accomplished.

If the Steelers literally scored 30 points in every game this season, it would total them 480 points. Last season two teams scored slightly higher than 480, those being the Green Bay Packers and the Denver Broncos.

Both teams were led by highly touted quarterbacks in Aaron Rodgers and Peyton Manning, who threw 38 and 39 touchdowns last season respectively. Roethlisberger threw 32 touchdowns last season.

So mathematically, had Ben Roethlisberger scored seven more touchdowns last season and tied Manning, the Steelers have 49 more points and achieve the same goal of averaging 30 points per game (485 total points).

While Andrew Luck did lead the league in touchdown passes in 2014 with 40, he didn't have as solid a running back option or a receiving corps behind him as both Rodgers and Manning did. Rodgers works with Eddie Lacy, Jordy Nelson and Randall Cobb, while Manning has C.J. Anderson, Demaryius Thomas and Emmanuel Sanders. Each of those six players were top producers in their positions from 2014.

Ben Roethlisberger might be working with his own terrifying trio with Antonio Brown, Le'Veon Bell and Martavis Bryant. Bell and Brown are two players that each can be considered the best players in the NFL for their positions, while Bryant had a major splash of a rookie season, scoring eight touchdowns in the ten games he played.

For those thinking that Roethlisberger might be crazy thinking the Steelers can score 30 points for every game they play, or at least average that, this is a goal that's not far off from being accomplished.

Don't believe me? Just watch.