DETROIT – After ending his rookie season by throwing five interceptions and only one touchdown pass in two playoff games, Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger started his second pro season on an equally sour note.
In four exhibition games, he completed just 44 percent of his passes, was intercepted twice and had no touchdowns. His struggles were a popular topic on sports talk radio and in the newspapers. The team allowed wide receiver Plaxico Burress, its top deep threat and leader in touchdown catches, to leave as a free agent in the offseason, and there was speculation his departure was having a negative impact on Roethlisberger, the league's Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2004.
Not so, offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt said this week during preparations for Sunday's Super Bowl against Seattle.
Whisenhunt said he limited Roethlisberger's playbook last season because he didn't want to overwhelm him as a rookie. But the coaches decided in the offseason to expand the quarterback's responsibilities and challenge him mentally more than physically.
“At some point, if you want to advance and you want to get better offensively, you have to expose him to some things,” Whisenhunt said. “Really, where that started for us was in training camp this year. We had a rocky training camp. We didn't throw the ball very well, our timing was off; but we're benefiting from that now.
“We're reaping the rewards from that, because some of those things we experienced at that time we grew from. At some point you have to expose him to stuff so that you can get better. . . . We threw as much at him as we could. In training camp he was seeing a lot of things he hadn't seen and he was struggling with it, which you will do a lot of times when you're exposed to that. But now he's gotten a lot better because he has seen those things.”
Roethlisberger has been sensational in the playoffs, throwing seven touchdown passes against one interception. With defenses stacked to stop the Steelers' ground game, opponents have dared Roethlisberger to beat them through the air, and the former Miami (Ohio) star has been up for it. He has appeared calm and cool, much to the chagrin and disappointment of defenses that were hoping he would struggle as he did last postseason and in the 2005 exhibition season.
Ammunition
After a day of being relatively quiet, Steelers linebacker Joey Porter took a relatively innocuous comment from a Seattle player and turned it into added motivation for himself.
Porter worked himself into a figurative lather after learning that Seahawks tight end Jerramy Stevens said of Steelers running back Jerome Bettis returning home to play in the Super Bowl: “It's a heartwarming story and all that, but it will be a sad day when he leaves without that trophy.”
“I've been asleep all week, but now I got woke up,” Porter said yesterday. “I've got my first taste of blood, and now I'm thirsty for more. Until now, it was, 'Watch what I say; I can't say this, I can't say that; don't do anything silly.' But I'm ready now.
“You look for the guys that say something that aren't supposed to say nothing, and I feel like he definitely was out of pocket to say what he said. I'm going to make sure he owns up to those words.”
Then again, what was Stevens supposed to say? He would have drawn even more attention if he had said something like: “Yeah, I hope Jerome does win because it'll make a fairy-ale ending.”
Staley returns
Reserve running back Duce Staley rejoined the team after attending his father's funeral in Columbia, S.C. Lannie Staley, 53, died of cancer Saturday.
Sons and fathers
Seahawks middle linebacker Lofa Tatupu has received a lot of attention for being part of an elite fraternity of father-son combinations to appear in a Super Bowl (his father, Mosi, played fullback on the Patriots squad that lost to the Bears in Super Bowl XX). But the Steelers also have a member of that fraternity.
Starting right tackle Max Starks is the son of Ross Browner, a former defensive end who played for Cincinnati in the Bengals' 26-21 loss to the 49ers in Super Bowl XVI. Coincidentally, that game was played in the Pontiac Silverdome, the venue in which the Steelers are practicing this week.
Starks said he recently received the following advice from his father: “He told me, 'Son, you have your strength, you have your morals, be sure you don't get into the pitfalls or the distractions surrounding this week. There are a lot of things to do, a lot of things out there, but realize what the end goal is in your mind. I've been on the other end of a Super Bowl game. Trust me, you don't want to be in the “L” column, you want to get into the “W” column.' That's one thing I'm working hard on – not getting distracted and focusing on the game plan.”
Last step
Bettis and some of the veteran players weren't the only ones to address the team before the AFC final at Denver. So did club President Art Rooney II, son of Chairman Dan Rooney.
“I just told them they had the opportunity to do something special,” Rooney said. “We showed them the AFC championship trophy and pointed out that there aren't any names on that one. The Super Bowl trophy – their names go on that one, and that's something no one can ever take away from them. They accomplished that. So, there's certainly a big difference in taking that last step.”
Jim Trotter: (619) 293-1859; jim.trotter@uniontrib.com
