Terrell Suggs isn’t about to fall for ‘rat bastard’ Ben Roethlisberger’s tricks

Ben Roethlisberger is having a rough 2017. Through three games, he’s thrown for only 741 yards and a career-low 6.7 yards per pass. It’s been bad enough for the two-time Super Bowl champion to call himself out after Week 3’s surprising overtime loss to the Bears.

But Terrell Suggs, Pro Bowl linebacker for Roethlisberger’s arch rival Baltimore Ravens, isn’t buying into the veteran quarterback’s slow start.

“He’s setting us up,” he told reporters Wednesday. “Yeah, you know, he’s playing mind games, the rat bastard. He’s setting us up. Tell Ben I’m on to his tricks. I know what he’s doing. I’m not going to let him fool me with trickery and Jedi mind tricks.”

It’s not the first time Suggs has questioned a supposedly diminished Roethlisberger before facing him on the field. When a knee injury forced the big quarterback to miss time in 2016, Suggs fully expected to see him back on the field in time to face Baltimore.

Roethlisberger wound up starting that game, but completed barely 50 percent of his passes in a Pittsburgh loss.

This time, there’s no doubt Roethlisberger will take the field — the question is which quarterback the Ravens will see. The Steeler is mired in a nine-game stretch in which he’s thrown for fewer than 300 yards per contest, his longest streak since 2008. He’s unlikely to end that skid Sunday — in 19 games against Baltimore, he’s only broken the 300-yard barrier twice.

Despite their intense rivalry on the field and playful one off it, Roethlisberger still has plenty of respect for the linebacker who has tormented him for more than a decade.

”This game is crazy. It’s a special game. I am still here. Suggs is still over there. We’ve got a lot of respect for each other in this rivalry,” Roethlisberger said Wednesday. “Suggs is still him. He is still getting after it. A lot of respect for him doing it this long.”