On Wednesday morning before practice, Ben Roethlisberger met with the media to discuss the Week 2 loss at home against the Las Vegas Raiders, his underlying pectoral injury, and looking ahead to his preparation and availability for Week 3 against division rival, Cincinnati Bengals.
Roethlisberger was a surprise addition to this week’s injury report, as Head Coach Mike Tomlin announced on Tuesday the quarterback had suffered a pectoral injury against the Raiders. Tomlin did not specify the severity of the injury. When Roethlisberger was asked about it, he was fairly vague in his responses. In regards to when exactly the injury happened in the game, Roethlisberger replied, “I don’t know how it happened; I just know it happened early in the game and I’m going to do everything I can.” When asked about the severity and what he can and cannot do, he replied, “Typically when I reach for something outside of the framework of my body or when I try to push up off the ground.” Roethlisberger confirmed it was bothering him during the game. As far as his availability for this week against the Bengals, Roethlisberger said it is only Wednesday, and we still have a ways to go in determining that.
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Against the Raiders, Roethlisberger took a lot of hits; it seemed like he was on the ground almost every other play. In addition, the collective offensive performance was pedestrian at best and had trouble getting into a groove. Seeing as though the offense has only put up 3 touchdowns in 2 weeks, Roethlisberger took questions about the lack of offensive execution and what needs to happen to become a “great” offense.
"I tell the guys, no one has to be great. If we're all good, then collectively we can be great," Roethlisberger explained. "Offense is such a group effort. It takes literally all 11 guys every play to make it work. When one guy's a little off here or there, it can affect the whole thing. We're just going to keep learning and growing and figuring out how we can try and get better."
I don’t mean to sound pessimistic, but that response sounds a lot like what we heard after the games versus the Washington Football Team, the Buffalo Bills, the Cleveland Browns, and the Bengals last season. In typical Roethlisberger-fashion, he shouldered the blame for the lackluster offense through the first 2 weeks of the season:
"Truthfully, we've got a lot of what I think are really good weapons on the outside, from receivers to tight ends to running backs that I don't think we've really gotten anybody that have had good games. There's a lot of reasons for that and I'll take the blame, mostly because I'm the one that has to get the ball to them."
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Roethlisberger has been the proverbial father-figure of the offense for the past several seasons. That role is more-so evident now than ever before, with four rookies starting and the average age of the wide receiver corps being 24.2 years of age. When asked about how he keeps the younger and new players motivated, Roethlisberger explained, "What I can do is just try and emphasize how important it is to play for your brother, to play for the guy next to you.” He went on to say,
"Doesn't matter that you can go out there say, ‘well I did my job today’. But if we didn't win the game and you didn't help the team win, then it shouldn't matter. If it does, then you kind of have the wrong mentality for this ultimate team sport. You've got to go out and do your job, but you also have to understand that collectively we have to do the job together. Sometimes that's the best way I can try and help young guys, is just helping them to understand that it's more than just what you do, it's how did you help the team today."
Of course in a competitive division, let alone competitive conference, the question of overall impatience and concern still looms. Being at 1-1, the Steelers are equal with the rest of the AFC North and their loss comes from a playoff-caliber undefeated team. Unlike what we encountered last season, there is still 15 games left in the season and there is a lot of time to recalibrate the offense. From an urgency-inside-the-locker-room perspective, Roethlisberger explained,
"Maybe a little bit, but we still have to walk a line, careful not trying to do too much.” He went onto say, "You know we're not panicking. It's only the second week. We're 1-1, we lost to a team that's 2-0 and it was a one score game till the end. It feels like a bad feeling, a bad loss, but we understand it's real early in the season. Everyone in our division has the same record, so we're going to get ourselves together and get ready to go."
This week against the Bengals is going to be an early test in forcing young players to step up and the offensive line to win the key battles in the trenches.
What are you looking for in this week’s game preparation? What is your main concern in the offense? Let us know in the comments below!
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