DAVIE, Fla. — The Miami Dolphins' defense has seen all the best quarterback maneuvers this year.

From Peyton Manning's play-action magic to Philip Rivers' bombardier act, from Drew Brees' throw-'em-open approach to Tom Brady's spread-the-wealth attack.

Now along come the defending Super Bowl-champion Pittsburgh Steelers and the formidable pump fake of Ben Roethlisberger.

Big Ben doesn't just give an obligatory fake to help his receivers come open. He wraps his long fingers around the laces and whips his arm forward at normal speed until somehow, at the very last second, he recoils and reloads.

"You would think the ball was going to come out," Dolphins safety Tyrone Culver says. "He's really good at it. It's definitely a weapon when it comes to playing deep."

Think of some of Roethlisberger's most famous game-winning throws, whether it be the one to Santonio Holmes in the corner of the end zone to win the last Super Bowl or the one to rookie Mike Wallace that beat Green Bay two weeks ago.

Odds are Big Ben gave one of his patented pump fakes before releasing the ball.

"You've got to use it to your advantage to try to get (defensive backs) or linebackers or guys to bite on something," Roethlisberger says. "But sometimes I'm actually going to throw it and I decide at the last minute to hold onto the ball."

That's the crazy part, the part that doesn't seem physically possible.

Some have said it is Roethlisberger's large hands that allow him to pull off this maneuver better than his peers, and there is some truth to that.

"I do have big hands," he says. "They're obviously not the biggest in the NFL or anything like that. But yeah, I have big hands and hand strength, I guess from playing baseball and basketball and fishing and all that stuff."

Thanks to the pump fake — along with his physical size (6-feet-5 and 241 pounds) and durability — Roethlisberger is able to keep plays alive long enough to put extreme pressure on secondaries.

"I don't know if there's anybody better at the pump fake or pulling the ball down and extending the play," Dolphins defensive coordinator Paul Pasqualoni says. "The thing that's different to me, with a lot of quarterbacks there's a clock that's in their head. I don't think this guy's got a clock in his head."

This is meant as a compliment.

"Six seconds will go by, and he's not looking to get rid of the ball," Pasqualoni says. "He's looking to extend the play and to make a play for as long as he can. The pump fake is with it. Sometimes he looks, he says, 'Ah, not quite,' he pulls it back down and he starts to move around again to buy more time."

Roethlisberger has been sacked a league-high 47 times this year, but those blows haven't given him happy feet or tempted him to shelve the pump fake as one of his leading weapons.

"He's got a steely resolve," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin says. "He's a competitor. He doesn't mind standing in there and taking calculated risks. It's part of his makeup."

Tomlin agrees his quarterback uses the pump fake to great effect, mainly because it "distorts zone areas" by getting safeties and linebackers to move in the wrong direction. But he also notes it's not as much of a factor against teams that play mostly man defense or those that "don't use the quarterback as the primary indicator."