Steelers have been down this road before
ST. LOUIS – If the Rams do move away from St. Louis next season, the Steelers will be more than happy not to have to take another trip here anytime soon.
Their last two trips here haven’t exactly gone according to script.
Sure, Pittsburgh won both games, but they also lost running back Willie Parker in 2007 and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger Sunday.
Parker’s broken leg in 2007, on a Thursday night game late in the season, sidelined the NFL’s leading rusher at the time and hurt the Steelers heading into the playoffs.
Roethlisberger’s injury could keep the Steelers out of the playoffs if it is something worse than the knee sprain the team diagnosed it as being.
The Steelers have been in this situation before.
While Roethlisberger started all 16 games in each of the past two seasons, he’s missed a full season’s worth of games since taking over for injured Tommy Maddox three games into 2004.
The Steelers have kept their head above water in that time, going 9-7 without their franchise quarterback.
But some of those stretches have been better than others, most notably when the Steelers went 3-1 to open the 2010 season without their star quarterback, rallying around backups Charlie Batch and Dennis Dixon.
Batch became a beloved figure in Pittsburgh for his play during the times he subbed for an injured Roethlisberger.
Now, Pittsburgh will rest its hopes on the left arm of backup Mike Vick, a player many – including this writer – felt the team made a mistake signing.
We’ll see.
Vick wasn’t exactly sharp Sunday. Offensive coordinator Todd Haley didn’t really call for him to throw the football downfield much. But his throws were behind receivers and his one incompletion in six attempts should have been intercepted.
But, as head coach Mike Tomlin likes to say, he’s a been-there, done-that guy. That’s Tomlin code for a veteran player capable of helping a team to a winning effort.
“He got us out of the stadium,” Tomlin said of Vick’s play Sunday. “That is what the backup quarterback’s job is. If he has to play next week, then he gets a full week of preparation. My standards and expectations will be different under those circumstances.”
Actually, Vick won’t have a full week of preparation. The Steelers host Baltimore Thursday night.
Vick, who has been with the Steelers only a few weeks, will be expected to be ready to go with just a couple of days of practice.
“I’m still green in this offense, but I feel like I have enough down that I can go out there and execute,” said the 35-year-old Vick.
Vick’s past is well-documented. At one point, he was considered a franchise quarterback in Atlanta. But he threw that away with his much-publicized incarceration for his part in a dog-fighting ring.
He got a second chance when he was released from prison and signed by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2009. But they gave up on him after 2013, when it became apparent he couldn’t stay healthy and was no longer the dominant athlete he had been earlier in his career.
Vick played for the New York Jets last season, appearing in 10 games.
He was signed by the Steelers when backup Bruce Gradkowski suffered a hand injury in the preseason, much to the chagrin of a very vocal minority, who feel he should never play another down of football because of his involvement with dog fighting.
That only played a small part in why I felt it wasn’t a good idea to sign him. I didn’t feel a quarterback with waning skills was worth the public relations hit the team took for signing him.
We’ll find out if that was right or wrong.
If he helps this team keep stay above .500 while Roethlisberger is out – however long that might be – the Steelers made a good move.
If Vick doesn’t play well and the Steelers’ season spirals out of control, well …
F. Dale Lolley can be reached at dlolley@observer-reporter.com.