The Ravens put a serious beating on the Steelers Sunday, but when they returned to work today, the players in Pittsburgh wanted to let everyone know they’re not going to overreact to a bad Week One.
“It’s one game,” Steelers receiver Hines Ward said. “It’s one game. It’s not the Super Bowl. It’s one game. We have to move on. They outplayed us. We turned the ball over. You turn the ball over seven times? Tell me what team can turn the ball over seven times and win the game.”
Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger was responsible for five of the seven turnovers Ward mentioned, with three interceptions and two lost fumbles. But Roethlisberger, like Ward, said there’s no reason to be alarmed.
“There is no panic coming from this group,” Roethlisberger said. “We know that we had a bad day. I hate to take anything away from Baltimore, but we had a bad day. We didn’t play well. I particularly didn’t play well at all. Of course it’s frustrating because the week leading up to the game I felt better than I’ve ever felt. I felt good out there, felt real comfortable, but it just didn’t come together, didn’t play well. I think we’re all entitled to a bad game now and then and we just move on.”
On the one hand, Ward and Roethlisberger are obviously right: It’s one game, and we’ve all seen through the years that Week One results don’t always tell us a lot about what the next 16 weeks of the season are going to look like.
On the other hand, what the Steelers had on Sunday wasn’t just a bad game, it was a terrible game. It may not be time to panic, but it’s at least time to take a long, hard look at how the Steelers could come out looking so bad against their biggest rivals.
