Oct 17, 2015 5 min read

PITTSBURGH – “Retirement” has been pretty good for Bruce Arians.

All the head coach of the Arizona Cardinals has done since the Steelers announced his “retirement” as their offensive coordinator following the 2011 season is win NFL Coach of the Year honors twice, get his first NFL head coaching job at the age of 61 and get his team off to a 4-1 start this season.

Arians will lead the Cardinals into Heinz Stadium to face the Steelers (3-2) today in his first meeting with his former employer since he became a head coach.

“It’s really not the first, because I came back for a preseason game the year after I left with Indianapolis,” said Arians, a longtime NFL assistant who was with the Steelers from 2004 through 2011. “So, I’ve been in that visitors’ locker room a number of times. It won’t be totally new to me.”

It might not be totally new, but this will be the first time he’ll do so as a head coach.

Arians, who was replaced by Todd Haley, won his first NFL Coach of the Year award in 2012 after leading the Colts to a 9-3 record as interim head coach when Chuck Pagano was diagnosed with cancer and had to take a leave of absence. He was hired by Arizona the next year – replacing another former Steelers offensive coordinator, Ken Whisenhunt – and was voted the NFL’s top coach again in 2014.

There’s no doubt this game will have a little more meaning for Arians.

“I got a pretty good guess. Yeah, sure he is,” said Steelers defensive coordinator Keith Butler of whether Arians is bitter about the way things ended in Pittsburgh.

“You might say it’s just another game, but it’s not. He’s a good coach and he’s a good friend of mine. It’s like playing your brother. You don’t want to lose to your brother.”

The Steelers will be without quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for the third consecutive game. Roethlisberger began practicing on a limited basis last week but will again sit out with a sprained MCL suffered in a Sept. 27 win at St. Louis.

Mike Vick, who has led the Steelers to a 1-1 record in Roethlisberger’s absence, will make his third start. Vick twice led the Steelers from behind in the fourth quarter of a 24-20 win at San Diego last Monday night, completing a 72-yard bomb to Markus Wheaton and going 3-for-3 on third-down passes on the game-winning drive that was capped by a 1-yard TD run by Le’Veon Bell as time expired.

“I am still getting there. It’s still only been like a month and a half,” said Vick, signed by the Steelers Aug. 25 to be Roethlisberger’s backup. “It’s just a constant grind for me right now. I have to put in overtime and work extremely hard to make sure I have the basics of everything down. I am still a ways away. But the confidence is still there. My coaches are doing a great job of making sure I understand what we are doing and what they want from me.”

What the coaching staff will want from Vick is to take care of the football. The Cardinals have 11 interceptions, four of which they’ve returned for touchdowns.

Wide receiver Antonio Brown has asked Vick to throw him the football more often – he has just eight receptions in the past two games – but that might not be the path to take against the Cardinals.

“If the game is tight, you might try to feed Le’Veon Bell,” said Vick. “You have to make sure you pick and choose your spots. There is a big difference being in second-and-four and being in second-and-10.

“I am not saying I don’t have confidence in myself or confidence in A.B. It just all depends on what happens in the game. Trust me, those plays will come.”

That might be tough. Brown figures to see a lot of Pro Bowl cornerback Patrick Peterson in one-on-one coverage.

“It’s going to be an intense battle,” said Brown of the matchup.

Kind of like the game in general as Arians tries to prove to Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin he made a mistake in letting him go.

“Knowing him and how competitive he is, I’m sure he’s going to want to come in and put on a show, seeing how many people counted him out and wanted him out of here,” Brown said.

The Cardinals played at Detroit last Sunday and then traveled to White Sulpher Springs, W.Va., for the week instead of flying back to Phoenix. … Today’s game is the first in the regular season for Arizona wide receiver and former Pitt star Larry Fitzgerald at Heinz Field. … Steelers linebacker Bud Dupree is tied for first among NFL rookies with three sacks. … Arizona’s sack leader, linebacker Alex Okafor, will not play because of a calf injury. … Robert Golden will make his first career start for the Steelers at strong safety in place of injured Will Allen (ankle).