That's more like it
PITTSBURGH — The worse the Pittsburgh Steelers played, the more they heard about it. Their season was over. Ben Roethlisberger was damaged goods, too badly beat up from his motorcycle wreck to be an effective quarterback. They lost their edge and motivation by winning the Super Bowl.
One dominating afternoon in which the Steelers looked very much like champions may not have changed all those opinions. It may have altered the AFC North race, and in a hurry.
Roethlisberger was everything he hadn't been all season in a 45-7 romp Sunday over the Kansas City Chiefs that ended the Steelers' second three-game losing streak in 11 months. He was effective and efficient while throwing not only short but deep, leading an offense that rolled up 372 yards while building a 31-0 lead by halftime.
Maybe, coach Bill Cowher said, his quarterback was back on his game because he did merely what he can do and didn't try to do everything by himself.
"I think sometimes Ben takes too much on his shoulders," Cowher said after Roethlisberger threw his first two touchdown passes since the AFC championship game. "It was good to see him have some success. He's taken a lot of criticism in the last couple of weeks, and I'm very proud of him being accountable. He stood up to it all."
After three consecutive games in which he got little protection, Roethlisberger had plenty of time to throw but needed little of it. He threw touchdowns of 47 yards to Nate Washington and 13 yards to Hines Ward and Willie Parker scored twice by halftime during a 109-yard day.
"The line did a phenomenal job," Roethlilsberger said. "Those guys gave me a pocket, and when we do that and get receivers open, I think we can be pretty dangerous."
Roethlisberger got the Steelers going by hitting Santonio Holmes in man coverage for a 50-yard gain on the third play of the game, leading to Parker's first TD run. The QB finished the day completing 16 of 19 passes for 238 yards.
"They were saying he can't throw and there was all that motorcycle jazz. But he played awesome, he played the way Ben can play," defensive end Brett Keisel said.
The Steelers (2-3) also played the way they did during the eight-game winning streak that carried them through the Super Bowl last season. That must be a troubling thought to the two AFC North teams ahead of them, Baltimore (4-2) and Cincinnati (3-2).
Each team lost its second in a row Sunday, the Ravens to Carolina and the Bengals to Tampa Bay, and the Steelers now are one loss behind both.
"We talked about that — I told them to go out there and play and win this game, and you may end up one game out at the end of the night," Cowher said. "There's so much football left to be played."
The Chiefs (2-3) can't be hoping there are any games left like this one. For the second week in a row, they fell behind 14-0 on the road — only there was no comeback, or any semblance of the one that rallied them past Arizona 23-20 last week.
Damon Huard, so capable and efficient until now as the injured Trent Green's replacement, threw his first interception of the season. Larry Johnson, coming off his 1,750-yard season, was held below 40 yards for the second game in a row.
"You can't run the ball when you're down 21 points and you're trying to get some points on the board," Johnson said.
Johnson scored the Chiefs' only TD, after they fell behind 31-0, and stood out mostly for running down safety Troy Polamalu on an interception and tackling him by his hair. Johnson was penalized, not for his hair-only tackle but for yanking Polamalu down out of bounds to touch off a brief skirmish.
"I made the tackle, tried to get up and my hand was full of his hair," Johnson said.
