“There is not an issue! Sometimes people make a big deal out of things that have been said. We always say that doesn’t affect us. I knew that there was no issue in our locker room, AB knew there was no issue in our locker room. We have a great relationship….he is one of my closest friends on the team. Even James Washington – it was nothing more than me challenging him to be ready to go. He had a great week of practice. He and I had a great talk on Saturday morning. There was no hard feelings and I didn’t think there would be…no negativitly came from it.” — Ben addressing question about any issues in the locker room with his comments last week.



Recap provided by 93.7 The Fan:

On his weekly radio show Tuesday, Ben Roethlisberger, fighting a cold, addressed the big 33-30 home loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday Night Football.

The loss gives the Steelers only a half-game lead over the surging Baltimore Ravens.

“We don’t expect to lose at home. We always talk about winning all your home games and then when you go on the road, trying to get half of them. It seems recently we’ve been a lot better on the road for whatever reason, so it’s frustrating. Especially if you let the fans down that come out to see a great show. You want to win it for them and when you don’t, you feel like you let them down and it’s hard.”



Roethlisberger said he gives credit to the Los Angeles Chargers for out playing them in the second half on Sunday. He says the loss to the Bolts was “definately tough” and sort of felt like losing a playoff game.

“It hurts. I think maybe a good accurate description, a playoff loss. The only good thing about it is, we woke up the next day and we’re still alive, it’s not the end of the season…I think it definitely was heartbreaking for all of us in that locker room.”



Asked about the poor officiating, Roethlisberger would only say,

“What are you going to do about it now? You can talk about it all you want, but it’s not like they’re going to go change the outcome of the game. Not really much I can say about it.”



One of the self-inflicted mistakes the Steelers made was a first half interception while the Steelers were driving in Chargers territory. Roethlisberger says that pick is all on him.

“It’s one of those ones where Vance was going kind of down the middle across the field, and when I let go of it, it just came off my hand, bad. Obviously it just kind of fluttered in the air, slipped off my hand. It’s no one’s fault but my own. I go to get more on it. At least give him a chance to go up and break it up or whatever. But it was so bad that he didn’t have a chance to do that. I hate it.”



Another play Roethlisberger says he is taking responsibility for is the overthrow to Justin Hunter.

“It’s one of those things where he ran a great route, we had a great play call on. I had to throw it a little bit…so I tried to look at the safety towards AB to the right, and so you let it go before he’s kind of completely open, but he’s still open, and I thought I threw a good ball. I really did. I thought, and I still to this day, thought I put it where I wanted to, but it was too far, and I feel bad. I told Justin because he got hurt on that play and I feel bad. If I would have thrown a better ball, he wouldn’t have got hurt…You have to connect on that throw, and it’s on me.”



The Steelers threw the ball 45 times and ran only 17 on Sunday night. Roethlisberger says there isn’t anything to read into it and that they are just doing what they think will get them the win.

“I don’t think that there’s any reason for people to get worked up over the number of runs compared to passes…People are always going to get worked up over the numbers, when you lose especially. I don’t know if people would get as worked up if we would have won the game. That’s why Randy [Fichtner] calls the plays for us and I think we’re all just fine with the run-pass ratio. We just want to win.”



While running back James Conner did get injured on Sunday, (Ben would not comment on the injury), he doesn’t think the NFL sophomore is slowing down.

“I see a guy that’s in great shape. A guy that worked extra hard this offseason to make sure he’s in great shape. You know we talk a lot on this show, and you hear it a lot of places about that rookie wall that guys hit it…obviously this isn’t James’ first season, but this is the most action he’s had. I’ve yet to see him hit that wall.”



You can listen to Ben’s show here.