Tuesday, December 28, 2004
By Ed Bouchette, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
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</TABLE><!--END PHOTO-->It appears rookie Ben Roethlisberger will retire from the regular season as the quarterback with the best record for a season in NFL history.
Roethlisberger has bruised ribs, and it is extremely doubtful he will play for the Steelers Sunday at Buffalo, sources told the Post-Gazette. He will, however, be ready for their first playoff game Jan. 15-16 in Heinz Field.
The Steelers had no official comment yesterday on Roethlisberger's injury, other than to confirm it was to his ribs, the result of a late hit by Baltimore linebacker Terrell Suggs in their 20-7 victory Sunday against the Ravens. An MRI Sunday night showed no serious damage to Roethlisberger's ribs.
No quarterback in the history of the game can match Roethlisberger's 13-0 record as a starter in the regular season -- not just as a rookie but in any season. Jim McMahon was 11-0 as a starter for the Super Bowl champion Chicago Bears when they went 15-1 in 1985. Bart Starr started every game for the NFL champion Green Bay Packers when they went 13-1 in 1962.
Roethlisberger long ago snapped the rookie quarterback record for consecutive victories, once held by Mike Kruczek at six in 1976.
By not playing in Buffalo, Roethlisberger will have set two more rookie quarterback records, held by Dan Marino since 1983. Marino completed 58.3 percent of his passes as a rookie, Roethlisberger completed 66.4. Marino's rookie passer rating was 96.0, topped by Roethlisberger's 98.1.
He also will become third all-time in the NFL among rookie quarterbacks with the highest average gain per pass attempt -- and the best since the 1970 merger.
Cincinnati's Greg Cook averaged 9.411 yards in 1969, Cleveland's Bob Waterfield averaged 9.409 yards in 1946 and the Chicago Bears' Zeke Bratkowski averaged 8.36 in 1954. Roethlisberger averages 8.88.
So, it appears his rookie regular season is in the books. Now, Roethlisberger can set his sights on the postseason and another first: No rookie quarterback has ever started a Super Bowl. Roethlisberger will have three weeks to rest those bruised ribs and try to make a run at that one.
Wide receiver Plaxico Burress said coach Bill Cowher did not tell the players how he would use them in Buffalo, "but why go out there and risk our starting quarterback in a situation that can hurt him later down the road?" Burress asked.
Others may be rested as well, including running back Jerome Bettis, who said he would forgo the chance to gain the 59 yards he needs for another 1,000-yard season if he could rest his weary body Sunday.
Burress, who missed the previous four games with a hamstring injury before playing against Baltimore, also would not mind another week's rest.
"I don't want to go out there and risk further damage to my leg or to my body, period," Burress said. "But I definitely want to go out and get my feet wet a little more and catch a few balls and just get the speed of the game down because it's going to start to pick up as we go along."
The game has wild-card playoff implications for Buffalo, Denver, Jacksonville and the New York Jets. NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue does not look kindly on teams not using their players merely to rest them for the playoffs, particularly if it affects other teams' playoff chances. There is little the league can do about it, though.
Traditionally, Cowher's teams are competitive in this kind of "meaningless" game, where they were locked in to either the No. 1 or No. 2 seed or could not otherwise improve their playoff position. In 1994, they went to San Diego and lost, 37-34. In 1995, they lost at Green Bay, 24-19, when Yancey Thigpen dropped a pass in the end zone in the final seconds. In 1996, they lost at Carolina, 18-14. To end the 1997 season, they lost at Tennessee, 16-6, and, in 2001, they beat Cleveland, 28-7.
Mike Mularkey, who coached the tight ends and then the offense for Cowher the past eight years before becoming the Bills' head coach this season, said he doubts his old boss will take the game in Buffalo lightly.
"Hey, I know the coach there," Mularkey said after the Bills won their sixth consecutive game Sunday in San Francisco.
"I know them well. They will be there to play. I don't care who they play, they will play."
With Mularkey and Bills President Tom Donahoe, fired by the Steelers in 2000 as their director of football operations, there are subplots to this game as well. "There's a lot there," Donahoe told the Buffalo News, "but the game is about our players, and it's a game we need and we're going against arguably the best team in the NFL right now. Pittsburgh's just an added angle to it. It's an important game for our players."
