Ben Roethlisberger On His Health: 'As Healthy As You Can Be This Time Of Year'
PITTSBURGH (93-7 The Fan)- Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger says he may not be 100 percent healthy until after the season.
Ben joined "The Cook and Poni Show" on Sportsradio 93.7 The Fan for the "#1 Cochran Ben Roethlisberger Show" as he does every Tuesday at 11 a.m. during the season.
The Steelers, at 6-4 are coming off their bye week. They will return to action Sunday in Seattle to face the Seahawks at 4:25 p.m.
Being well-rested coming off the bye, Ben talked about his health and said he's not quite at 100 percent.
"As healthy as you can be this time of year," Ben said in describing himself. "The foot is getting better, the knee feels good, you know it will take an offseason probably to get 100 percent, but I feel well enough to hopefully play some good football."
While Ben may not be 100 percent, he's at least still playing, and that's more than you can say for Baltimore Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco, who suffered a season-ending knee injury Sunday. This is the first time in Flacco's career that he will miss a game and Ben gave us his thoughts on that run coming to an end.
"When you talk about guys that haven't missed a game, you can say what you want about that person being tough, and it definitely is toughness, but you have to be lucky...There's some of the toughest guys that have ever played the game have missed games, so you definitely have to get lucky," Ben said.
Looking ahead to their first game back coming off the bye, Ben talked about going into Seattle and dealing with their rowdy fans, The 12th Man.
"It's the last stadium I haven't played in and heard a lot of amazing stories about Seattle and their fans and how loud it is there. So, excited to go up there and play a great football team," Roethlisberger said.
When looking specifically at the Seahawks fans, Ben talked about how loud they can be, but adds that he's not so sure you won't see some Terrible Towels in the stands.
"That's all I've heard is it's the loudest place," Ben said. "I'm excited, I know their fans are passionate. I'll be interested to see how many Steelers fans, if there's any Terrible Towels up there. I know that every place that I've gone to date there's been tons, so it will be interesting to see how many. I know there will be some, but how many will be up there."
Getting past the impact of the fans, Ben talked about the 5-5 Seahawks on the field. He was asked about how tough that defense still is to play against and what they're expecting from them.
"Physical, get up, get their hands on us," Ben said. "Obviously, we know about their secondary, but their pass rush really gets after it. Their front seven is as good as it gets as well and they're going to get after it. Another big challenge for our O-line, especially being that we'll have to use the silent count, so that's advantage them and their pass rush."
It will certainly be tough sledding this week as the Steelers will be facing the second stingiest defense in the league in terms of yards per game, but Ben says he's looking forward to the challenge.
"I'm excited. I'm excited for, like I said, the atmosphere that I've heard so much about. You see it on TV, you hear it. I assume that they're over the Super Bowl from '05, but maybe not. So, maybe there's still going to be some hard feelings, I don't know," Ben said.
The "#1 Cochran Ben Roethlisberger Show" is heard exclusively every Tuesday at 11 a.m. during the Steelers' season on "The Cook and Poni Show" on Sportsradio 93-7 The Fan.