“I don’t know what hurts more — my body or my pride,” Roethlisberger said.

Actually, he did know.

“It hurts the most right here,” Roethlisberger said, tapping his chest over his heart.



From Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette today:

It’s nice that Ben Roethlisberger stood up and took blame for the Steelers loss Sunday to the Cincinnati Bengals. It’s nice that he went to many teammates in the locker room to say, “I’m sorry I let you down.” It’s nice that he told the media later, “They need more play and better play from the quarterback.”

You expect nothing less from Roethlisberger.

“That’s what captains and quarterbacks do,” Steelers safety Ryan Clark said.

Clark was one of the final players Roethlisberger found after the game. The Steelers defense had a terrific day, holding the Bengals to field-goal drives of 19 and 21 yards.

“I told Ben it wasn’t all on him,” Clark said. “It’s never on one player because it’s never all about one play …

“We just never meshed everything together as a team. When the defense played well, we needed the special teams or the offense to make a play and it didn’t happen. There were other games when we as a defense didn’t get it done. The Oakland game … we couldn’t stop them and they couldn’t stop our offense. That’s why we’re in this position. We all contributed to this.”


You can read more from Mr. Cook’s column here.