Nov 6, 2016 By John Steigerwald for The 4 min read

Tom Brady is on what is being called his revenge tour. After missing the first four games because of his Deflategate suspension, Brady has completed 73% of his passes with 12 touchdowns and no interceptions. The numbers he’s putting up will get a few more in the media climbing on to his GOAT bandwagon.

That’s short for greatest of all time. GDADOAT would be more like it, even if it doesn’t roll off the tongue quite as easily.

That would be Greatest Dinker and Dunker of All Time.

Brady has thrown 134 passes in three games. Know how many have gone more than 30 yards in the air?

Four.

How about more than 20 yards in the air?

Would you believe eight?

On passes from behind the line of scrimmage to 10 yards “downfield” he’s 57-74 for 450 yards and five touchdowns. That’s a good way for a quarterback to fatten his stats but, more important, it’s a good way to win in the 2016 NFL.

But greatest quarterback of all time?

Come on.

Brady threw 624 passes last season. Twenty-one of them were in the air for 31 yards or more. That’s a little longer than the distance between home plate and first base. Are you ready for how many he completed?

Three.

Think about that for a minute. In 16 regular season games last season, a New England Patriots’ receiver caught a ball 30 yards beyond the line of scrimmage three times.

I’ve been accused of being a homer or provincial or both when I declare that Terry Bradshaw could do everything better than Brady.

Of course, Bradshaw wasn’t called on to dink and dunk all that often. Somebody with way too much time on his hands analyzed Bradshaw, Brady and Joe Montana in their four Super Bowl wins and the numbers present a clear picture of the differences in what quarterbacks were asked to do in different eras.

Brady’s completions traveled an average of 7.6 yards in the air.

Montana’s went an average of 9.6.

Bradshaw’s went 14.4.

I was a little pressed for time and didn’t get around to looking at all of their games but it’s a pretty safe bet that the numbers wouldn’t change much.

If Tom Brady had been a Steeler in the ’70s, he would have been Terry Bradshaw’s back up.

If Bradshaw were playing today he might be so bored by the dinking and dunking that he would have asked to switch to tight end.

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To play or not to play.

That was the question for Ben Roethlisberger for about 10 minutes after the Steelers’ bye week was over. It became pretty obvious that, as long as he wasn’t noticeably limping, he was going to start against the Ravens after missing only one game following meniscus surgery.

Officially he was listed as questionable but just about everybody expected him to start while realizing that there was always the possibility that his coach, Mike Tomlin, is just messing with the Ravens and will go with his backup Landry Jones.

The Steelers are making a big mistake if Roethlisberger plays without his usual mobility. Not only because it makes him more likely to get hurt again but because, when he’s playing on one or one and a half legs, he stinks.

Roethlisberger’s ability to avoid tacklers, throw from several different angles and keep the play alive is what makes him a future Hall of Fame quarterback. He has had some bad games when coming back from injury and Baltimore is no place for a wounded quarterback to play.

The Steelers are 4-3 and the Ravens, who have lost four in a row, are 3-4 so a loss would put the Ravens in first place in the AFC North. It’s a big game but it’s also a bad division that a 9-7 team could win. Landry Jones has come a long way and now appears that he might end up being a decent backup quarterback. He’s good enough and the division is bad enough that it wouldn’t be smart for the Steelers to start Roethlisberger if he’s not 100 percent.

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Roethlisberger’s not that great on the road, anyway. Since 2014 his road passer rating is 86.7 compared to 111.5 at home. At Heinz Field  the Steelers are 14-3 with him at quarterback. He has 51 touchdown passes and 13 interceptions. On the road they’re 8-8 and he has 18 touchdowns and 18 interceptions.

There are only two teams in the NFL with more interceptions than the Ravens. It might be a good time for the Steelers to drag out the old run the ball and play defense approach.

Nah.