PITTSBURGH — Three weeks into his comeback from right elbow surgery, Ben Roethlisberger could feel the rust coming off.

The timing was starting to get better. So was his confidence in a group of playmakers who are a decade younger (and in some cases, closer to two) than the longtime Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback.

It all came to a screeching halt last week when Roethlisberger and the rest of the unbeaten Steelers were hit with an unexpected weekend off following a COVID-19 outbreak in Tennessee that brought the Titans' season to a standstill.

Roethlisberger understands there are bigger issues at play than the state of his team's offense. Still, his frustration is palpable. While the Steelers have so far avoided a single positive COVID-19 test since the regular season started, they found themselves at the mercy of things far beyond their control.

Yeah, it's frustrating.

“I guess I'm going to start back over from scratch and hope this week I didn't take too many steps backward,” Roethlisberger said Wednesday. “Just try and see how it goes this week, I guess.”

While coach Mike Tomlin has made it a point not to harp on the prospect of playing 13 straight games to end the regular season — a reality now that the makeup date with the Titans has been set for Week 8 and their original bye week set for Week 7 is now a trip to Baltimore to face the Ravens — the ripple effects of the cancellation are telling.

Typically the Steelers use the bye to evaluate their rookies and sprinkle in some extra teaching they typically can't get to during a normal game week.

Not this time. They spent last week preparing to face the Titans. It wasn't until they arrived at the team's training facility on Thursday that they found out the game was being pushed.

Roethlisberger gave an atypically blunt assessment on the odds of the Titans ultimately forfeiting the game, something NFL commissioner Roger Goodell hinted at as a possible penalty.

“I don't think they will consider forfeiting our game, and of course, we got the short end of the stick,” he said.

The Bills-Titans game has been moved from Sunday to Tuesday night at 7 p.m. EDT as long as Tennessee has no more positive tests for COVID-19 in the interim.CBS will televise the game.The NFL also is rescheduling Sunday's Broncos-Patriots game from Sunday to Monday at 5 p.m. EDT as part of an ESPN doubleheader. New England had a smaller outbreak of COVID-19.The Chiefs at Bills game scheduled for Oct. 15 is moving to next weekend if the Buffalo-Tennessee game actually is played on Tuesday.