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Perfection pays off

Nobody's perfect. Well, maybe some people are at least for a game. Last Thursday night Ben Roethlisberger was just that in a 52-21 win over the Carolina Panthers at Heinz Field.

Roethlisberger completed 22 of 25 passes for 328 yards, with five touchdowns, no interceptions, and a perfect quarterback rating of 158.3, before coming out early in the fourth quarter.

"Ben was just on the money," said James Conner. "We had a good game plan. We kept things basic. He just put the ball where it needed to be. You can really trust him when you go out there and really dominate the game."

That perfect performance earned him the AFC Offensive Player of the Week.

"We have a lot of weapons and the offensive line protects well," said Roethlisberger. "I can't say enough about how well they played. It's a really good defense and they protected me. It's a good team win against a really good team."

Seven different players scored and10 players caught passes from Roethlisberger. On the Steelers first offensive play of the game Roethlisberger hit JuJu Smith-Schuster in stride around the 47-yard line and he took it 75 yards for a touchdown to tie the game, 7-7, and there was no turning back.

"I was going to throw it," said Roethlisberger of what he saw on the play. "I saw them rolling to a specific coverage to play a little soft from the outside, so James Conner was out there. So, I was actually getting ready to throw it to him. It looked like I kind of pump-faked but really, I was going to throw it. The safety that came down was jumping that and that let JuJu Smith-Schuster go up that seam, so I tried to take as much air off it and put it on a line to get it to him as fast as I could. He just turned on the burners and out ran everybody.

"There were a lot of situations we kind of opened the game up. Obviously, the first play was a big one. After that taking some short stuff. From there it was trying to read what they threw at us. They threw a lot of different looks and blitzes at us. I thought Randy Fichtner called a great game and the players made plays."

This is the second time this season Roethlisberger has won the honor, previously doing so in Week 3 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It is the 17th time in his career that he has won the honor.

Take a look at the best photos from the Week 10 matchup against the Panthers. The Steelers defeated the Panthers 52-21.

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