The ice pack, stuck between his back and the back of a chair, had fallen to the floor, and Ben Roethlisberger was ready to get up.
Problem was, the Steelers’ quarterback needed help. He couldn’t stand up by himself.
Facing his locker, Roethlisberger grabbed the wooden sides of the stall and lifted himself out of the chair.
Big Ben got beaten up by the Broncos’ defense in Denver’s 31-28 victory Sunday night at Invesco Field at Mile High.
Roethlisberger completed 24-of-35 passes for 290 yards, but threw two interceptions and was sacked a season-high four times. When he wasn’t being sacked, he was hurrying his throws.
He has the bruises to prove he took Denver’s best shots and can still manage to stand.
“They kind of came out and loaded up the line of scrimmage,” Roethlisberger said. “Sometimes they had nine, 10 guys at the line of scrimmage. It was something we had to adjust to and make plays, and I think for the most part we did a pretty good job.”
Indeed, Roethlisberger led Pittsburgh to a touchdown on its opening drive and spearheaded a comeback from a 28-14 deficit by throwing two fourth-quarter touchdown passes to forge a tie.
But before that, he had problems moving the ball because he was facing a Denver coverage that he hadn’t seen on tape. He said the run-stopping defense the Broncos began with turned into multifaceted looks that were difficult to play against.
“We got ourselves in some third-and-long situations and they dropped into a Tampa 2, something we really weren’t exactly prepared for, hadn’t really seen from them,” Roethlisberger said. “Give them credit. They did some good things.”
Roethlisberger was sacked just 11 times in Pittsburgh’s first five games. But Denver threw him to the turf three times in the first half, and almost got him a handful of other times. His three rushing attempts occurred because he was chased out of the pocket.
“We knew they would come in prepared to stop the run, and they were,” Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. “That’s why we moved down the field and had success in the first drive of the football game.”
After that, he said, it became a game of “cat and mouse, the chess match of football. And there’s no qualms of how that played out.”
Still, Tomlin was pleased to see his team overcome three turnovers – including Roethlisberger’s fumble that resulted in a Denver touchdown – and be in position to win, and limit the Broncos to 10 second-half points.
“The reality is that we dug ourselves in a hole and we needed to stop digging,” he said. “We knew we weren’t going to push the panic button and that time wasn’t an issue. We knew we had to stop giving up big plays defensively and take care of the ball offensively.”
Pittsburgh’s defense had allowed just 9.4 points per game in its first five games.
“We needed to stop people on third down, and tonight we didn’t do that,” linebacker Larry Foote said.
Mike Chambers: 303-954-1357 or mchambers@denverpost.com
