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On the Steelers: Players say Seymour got off too light
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Ben Roethlisberger has his jaw looked at after being hit by Oakland's Richard Seymour Sunday.
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What if it were Peyton Manning or Tom Brady that Richard Seymour sucker-punched Sunday instead of Ben Roethlisberger? It's a one-way debate his Steelers teammates have had since they returned to practice Wednesday.
Seymour was kicked from the game and fined $25,000.
"It would have been a little more," Antwaan Randle El said. "Or if one of our guys did it, there would have been more."
Hines Ward said on his WDVE radio show Tuesday night that if Seymour had slugged Manning or Brady the Raiders defensive tackle would have been suspended.
"You're not being consistent with all the fines and the calls," said Ward, who declined to repeat what he said on his show.
"They should have fined him more," guard Chris Kemoeatu said. "I'll say that as much as I can."
- Game: Steelers (7-3) at Buffalo Bills (2-8), Ralph Wilson Stadium.
- When: 1 p.m. Sunday.
- TV: KDKA.
There is a consensus among the Steelers that the NFL has some rules for quarterbacks such as Brady and Manning, and other rules for the rest of the league. No defensive player, for example, has had a roughing penalty called on him for hitting Roethlisberger all season.
"I don't know that there've been many roughing the passer calls on me in my career," Roethlisberger said.
As he was being asked whether Seymour's hit on Manning/Brady might have prompted stiffer punishment from the league, Roethlisberger interrupted.
"I know where you're going. We all know the answer to that one. Easy."
Terrell Owens, wide receiver for the 2-8 Cincinnati Bengals, called Roethlisberger "soft" for going down after Seymour punched him.
"A hockey player would have took that," Owens said of Seymour's punch, "kept on ticking. That shows you how soft Ben is."
Ward laughed about the comment.
"We're not worried about T.O.," Ward said. "They're 2-8."
The Bengals, who swept all six division games to win the AFC North last season, have lost seven games in a row, including Nov. 8 to the Steelers. They play Dec. 12 in Heinz Field.
"We have to play them again," noted Kemoeatu, "so we'll deal with that when we play them."
Added Ward, "They had a great year last year and they're not playing good, so you shouldn't talk about anybody if you're not playing good."
You could call James Farrior a comeback kid but at 35 and with his next birthday Jan. 6, he's no kid anymore.
Farrior has bounced back in a big way from a 2009 season in which he heard talk that he had lost a step.
"I definitely heard all the comments and heard the people talking," Farrior said of last season. "But I definitely didn't feel like that. I definitely thought I had a lot left in the tank, and this year I'm just trying to go out and prove it."
After Lawrence Timmons ran out to a 26-tackle lead over Farrior after just five games, the two are tied for the lead at 98 -- each has 68 solo tackles and 30 assists.
It's not just tackles, but big plays Farrior has made. He is third on the team with 15 quarterback pressures, right behind outside linebackers James Harrison with 19 and LaMarr Woodley with 16. Farrior had seven all last season. He has two sacks.
"I really don't look at my body of work until the end of the season but I definitely think I've been playing pretty good so far," Farrior said.
Roethlisberger and receiver Mike Wallace are well on their way to establishing themselves as the best deep passing combination in team history.
The two have combined for six touchdown passes of 40 yards or more even though they've played only 21 games together since Wallace arrived as a rookie last season.
They already have tied the Hall of Fame combo of Terry Bradshaw/John Stallworth, who played 10 seasons together.
"Anytime you have two legends like that and so many things they did, we're doing pretty good for ourselves," said Wallace.
The tandem of Jim Finks/Ray Mathews also had six. No. 1 is Bubby Brister/Louis Lipps with seven.
Wallace has an average per catch in his brief career of 21.0 yards on 72 receptions. No one in the top 25 career receivers by receptions has an average that high, but Wallace still is 74 catches from breaking into that group.
"When you let one go and you know he's behind everybody and you know it's a good ball, it's kind of a neat thing to see the ball in the air," Roethlisberger said.
Coach Mike Tomlin had his team practice in shoulder pads for the second Wednesday in a row. After letting them practice nearly every Wednesday this season without pads, he had them wear them last week after their loss to New England. ... Roethlisberger's 1,579 yards passing since his return are the most of any quarterback in that period. ... No Steelers player reported receiving a fine from Sunday's game, although it's possible the mail had not yet arrived from Park Avenue. ... Antonio Brown (knee), Troy Polamalu (ankle) and Matt Spaeth (concussion) did not practice, but Brett Keisel (hamstring) and Will Allen (concussion) returned.
First Published November 25, 2010 12:00 am
