Oct 14, 2015 4 min read

Mid-Week news and notes blog 10-14

Ben Roethlisberger was back on the practice field today in a limited fashion for the first time since suffering a sprained MCL Sept. 27 at St. Louis.

But that doesn’t mean Roethlisberger has any chance of playing this week against the Arizona Cardinals.

Roethlisberger is moving around well and inching closer to a return, but still isn’t able to move around to the point where he can escape a pass rush.

And that will be the key for the Steelers quarterback. There’s a chance he might be ready to return next Sunday against Kansas City. That would be nearly a month since he first suffered the sprained MCL. I would put the odds of that happening at around 60-40 in favor of it occurring.

At the same time, Kansas City has Justin Houston and Tamba Hali rushing off the edge. The last time the Steelers played Kansas City, Houston separated Roethlisberger’s shoulder and caused a rib injury that, in Roethlisberger’s words, nearly killed him.

So there’s that.

I would put Roethlisberger at 50-50 to play next week at Kansas City.

@ Crunching numbers today, Mike Vick’s passer rating when throwing the ball to Antonio Brown is 66.4.

When Roethlisberger has targeted Brown this season, that rating jumps to 141.7.

Nobody on this team is more anxious for Roethlisberger to return than Brown, who has just eight catches for 87 yards in the past two games.

Brown complained a little about not getting the ball enough with Vick at QB. He has a point. Sometimes you have to trust the receiver to make a play.

Nobody on the team will fight for a ball more than Brown. Nobody.

And he’s also one of the team’s best playmakers. His point with Vick is that things don’t need to be as difficult as they have been the past two weeks. He wants the ball.

There’s nothing wrong with that.

@ Martavis Bryant said he expects to practice this week as he returns from his four-game suspension. Bryant practiced last Monday on the first day he was able following his suspension but tweaked his knee and wasn’t able to do anything the rest of the week.

If he’s able to get out on the field this week, he should play against the Cardinals.

@ New placekicker Chris Boswell said he was ready to go out and kick a potential game-tying field goal against the Chargers but liked Mike Tomlin’s decision to go for the win.

@ Larry Fitzgerald said he’s received a lot of ticket requests for this game, his first at Heinz Field after starring at Pitt.

But, he noted that the people asking him won’t be rooting for the Cardinals.

When asked if it took some nerve for his friends to ask for tickets when they wouldn’t be rooting for his team, he said, “You can’t expect Yinzers not to root for the Steelers.”

Fitzgerald, by the way, enters Sunday’s game with a catch in 175 consecutive games.

@ I really liked Arizona rookie running back David Johnson coming out of college and then had a chance to talk to him at the NFL Combine. He was a really good kid and I liked him as a complimentary back to Le’Veon Bell.

All Johnson has done in his first five games is score three rushing touchdowns, two receiving touchdowns and score on a kick return. That makes him the first rookie to score multiple touchdowns rushing and receiving and also have a kick return score in his first five games since some guy named Gayle Sayers.

@ Vick has been fortunate the past two games, having some potential interceptions dropped by opponents (maybe they’re struggling with his left-handed spin).

He can’t expect that to happen against the Cardinals. Arizona already has 11 interceptions – as many as the Steelers have had in a single season since 2010.