Smizik: You can't pin this loss on Big Ben
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It was a little less than a year ago when the Steelers were developing into a team that could win a football game any way that was required. Some 11 months later, they have become a team that can lose a football game any way that is required.
The Steelers are so bad they can even lose when their beleaguered quarterback, the man who had been blamed for many of their previous defeats, passes for 433 yards.
They can't blame this one -- a 31-20 loss to the Denver Broncos yesterday at Heinz Field -- on Ben Roethlisberger.
For the Super Bowl champions, who are 2-6, the playoffs are no longer a goal. With eight games remaining, many of them against superior teams, their goal is respectability and avoiding the worst record -- 6-10 -- by a defending Super Bowl champ.
They've become experts in turnovers, stupid penalties and allowing the opposition big plays, and those were all part of this latest defeat. The mental discipline that so marked their success in 2005 is mostly absent. Teams have been known to lose focus after winning a Super Bowl, and if ever there was one that fits that description it's the Steelers. There's still an abundance of talent, although not necessarily enough to win another Super Bowl, but the intangibles are missing.
They play New Orleans, which is 6-2 and whipped Tampa Bay, 31-14 yesterday, next week in a game where their best hope might be that the Saints take them lightly. In three weeks, they play at Baltimore, also 6-2 and a 26-20 winner against Cincinnati yesterday, a team which always has a score to settle with the Steelers.
The ugly could get uglier.
If there is a speck of optimism in this misery it was the play of Roethlisberger. The game plan against the Broncos called for the Steelers to come out passing and Roethlisberger, who threw four interceptions in a loss to Oakland last week, must have appreciated the vote of confidence because he was up to the challenge. He completed 38 of 54 passes and a touchdown.
The completions were a Steeler record and the yardage was the second most in team history
Apparently the abundance of shortcomings attached to Roethlisberger by his many critics have vanished. He did not play like a quarterback who was still suffering the effects of a concussion or one who was afraid to take off with the ball or one who had no idea what he was doing.
He did throw three interceptions, but one came on a desperation heave at the end of the game and another on a third-down play that was every bit as effective as a fourth-down punt. The other one hurt. It came on a third-and-7 from the Broncos' 14 and probably cost the Steelers three points.
"They brought the blitz," Roethlisberger said. "I tried to throw it away but I just didn't get enough on it." Instead, he threw the ball into the hands of Denver cornerback Champ Bailey.
If it were not for two extremely costly fumbles, Roethlisberger might have been the quarterback on the winning team.
On the first, with the Steelers trailing, 14-0, in the first quarter, coach Bill Cowher elected to go for it on a fourth-and-2 at the Denver 41. Roethlisberger threw to Cedrick Wilson at about the 30 and Wilson ran to the 6 where he was stripped of the ball and Denver recovered.
On the second, after Roethlisberger had passed the Steelers down the field to the Denver 11, he threw a short pass to Hines Ward with about two minutes remaining. Ward was hit just as he was about to cross the goal line and the ball popped loose. Again, Denver recovered.
``It's one of those days, it's one of those seasons,'' Roethlisberger said. "I guess that's the way it goes. Cedrick did a great job of getting all the way down there, so you can't get mad at him. People are going to say things about Hines -- are you kidding me? I would give the ball to Hines 100 times there, and he's going to score.''
But that's been one of the problems with the Steelers this season. Normally reliable players have made unexpected mistakes.
Perhaps the most heartening aspect of Roethlisberger's play was that he was back scrambling and making things happen.
On the Steelers' first touchdown, a 15-yard pass to Willie Parker in the end zone, Roethlisberger made it happen by running around in the backfield, avoiding several near tackles and allowing his receiver to get open.
"I liked him getting out of the pocket," said Cowher. "I talked to him earlier in the day about that. When he had a chance to step up, he stepped up. When he had a chance to get out of the pocket, he got out of the pocket.''
Roethlisberger said, "I might have run more than I ever did."
If their problem at quarterback is solved, and there's strong reason to believe it is, perhaps the Steelers could come back to being a respectable team the remainder of the season.
On second thought, after watching this team through eight games, that's probably not going to happen.
Correction/Clarification: (Published Nov. 7, 2006) Steelers' quarterback Ben Roethlisberger threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Willie Parker in the 31-20 loss to Denver on Sunday, Nov. 5, 2006. This column as originally published Nov. 6, 2006, incorrectly stated that it was a 39-yard pass play.
First Published November 6, 2006 12:00 am
