LATROBE - The Pittsburgh Steelers aren't accomplishing much on offense in the preseason. Maybe that's why coach Bill Cowher wants his starters to have plenty of time to get something done Friday night against the Washington Redskins.

Cowher will play his regulars for at least a half, and has told some players they may play into the third quarter. That's far longer than they played in their first two exhibition games, and they likely won't get nearly that much time in their Sept. 1 game against Carolina.

These statistics may reflect Cowher's thinking for extending the starters' time: Touchdowns on kick or turnover returns to date: 4. Touchdowns by Ben Roethlisberger and the starting offense: 0.

"Oh, yeah, I don't think there's any question," Cowher said Tuesday when asked if he needs to see more consistency. "They still haven't been able to put the ball in the end zone yet. We certainly have a ways to go before we're where we want to be by opening day."

Cowher thinks going against a Redskins defense that was No. 3 in the NFL a year ago, trailing only Pittsburgh and Buffalo, will be a sufficient challenge for an offense that hasn't played very much and hasn't done much when it has played.

The starters went only 10 plays in a 38-31 victory over Philadelphia on Aug. 15, then didn't do much in 1½ quarters of work in a turnover-filled 17-3 decision over Miami on Saturday. On one drive, the Steelers stalled at the Dolphins' 9-yard line when Roethlisberger twice couldn't connect with open receivers. Another time, he threw an interception into the flat, similar to two such interceptions he threw during the playoffs.

Roethlisberger has been spending extra time after practice working with his receivers, mostly Hines Ward, whose holdout kept him out of camp until last week. Ward said the extra work is necessary because he will have limited game time with Roethlisberger, other than Friday, to get their timing down.

"It's really the only game a lot of the veterans are going to play a lot," Ward said. "For me, I didn't play much the last game, and pretty much the vets aren't going to play much next week, so this is really my test before the season starts."

Ward, who caught 80 passes last season, is already seeing a difference after only one week of camp.

"My conditioning is running routes full speed, so why not do it with Ben throwing to me?" Ward said. "Overall, we're looking pretty good but, hey, it's going to take time. I want to get on the same page with him so there's no thinking, only reacting. Just throw it and let me make a play for him."

Meanwhile, nose tackle Casey Hampton's new $22.75 million, five-year contract cuts his base salary this season to $325,000 from $969,000, which he was to have earned in the final year of his previous contract. Coupled with the prorated share of his $6.975 million signing bonus, his 2005 cap value becomes $1.72 million - up slightly from $1.607 million.

There is speculation the Steelers intentionally waited until now to announce Hampton's signing to put the pressure on Ward to sign now for what the team is offering.

"I would like to get it done, but I don't know what the situation is," Ward said. "I'm still optimistic something's going to get done."

Asked if he is pressuring agent Eugene Parker to get a contract done soon, Ward said, "I've been doing that since I got here. That's why I'm here. I want to get something done."

Notes:

The Steelers hold their final training camp practice today. They will have only a walkthrough drill Thursday before breaking camp and traveling to Washington.