Oct 18, 2016 5 min read

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Mike Tomlin had some good and bad news on the injury front at his weekly press conference Tuesday.

As we had already surmised, Ben Roethlisberger will sit this game out after having a procedure on his left knee Monday to repair his meniscus.

That wasn’t unexpected as the Steelers have their bye week after the game against the Patriots and it makes no sense to rush Roethlisberger back into action when he can have three full weeks to recover.

It was interesting to see Tomlin declare defensive end Cam Heyward out so quickly, however.

I spoke with Heyward on Monday and he said that, while he couldn’t play if the game were that day, he felt there was a chance for him to be ready by Sunday.

Given that the Patriots don’t know the severity of Heyward’s injury – as far as we know, anyway, since you never know with Bill Belichick – it might have made sense for Tomlin to play some cat and mouse with New England on that front.

After all, the Steelers were just gouged for 222 rushing yards by Miami last Sunday without Heyward.

Then again, perhaps Tomlin is trying to bait the Patriots into a run-heavy game plan, seeing that as a better option than having New England come out throwing.

As Tomlin said Tuesday, the Steelers can’t afford for this game to turn into a shootout.

• There was some good news on the injury front. Ryan Shazier, Markus Wheaton, Marcus Gilbert and Shamarko Thomas all have a shot to be back for this game.

Some might say it’s better to let those players sit out another two weeks and target a return at Baltimore after the bye and there is some validity to that, but if the player’s ready to come back, bring him back.

After all, few, including myself, gave the Steelers a shot to beat the Arizona Cardinals at home last season with Mike Vick at quarterback. And Landry Jones came into that game after Vick was injured and completed 8 of 12 passes for 163 yards and two touchdowns in a 25-13 victory.

That’s not to say that will happen against New England. But nobody had the Dolphins beating the Steelers this week, either.

• After this game against the Patriots, the Steelers play just one more against a team that made the playoffs in 2015, that coming against a reeling Cincinnati Bengals team.

Of course, Dallas looks better this season than it was last, which is why you can’t base things on last season. Every season is different in the NFL.

Looking at what’s happening this year, Pittsburgh has just two games – vs. Dallas and Buffalo – remaining against teams currently with winning records.

• Le’Veon Bell wasn’t happy with his usage against the Dolphins, when he got just two carries in the second half to go along with four receptions.

Antonio Brown wasn’t happy, either, after having just one catch in the first half and four in the game.

Some of that was on Roethlisberger, who seemingly ignored his stars to force the ball elsewhere. Both of his interceptions against Miami were on passes forced to Sammie Coates.

But offensive coordinator Todd Haley and Tomlin had to shoulder some of the blame for that, as well.

The Steelers trailed by one or two scores throughout the second half of that game. You need to find ways to get the ball into the hands of your best players in those kind of situations.

Of course, it didn’t help that the defense just couldn’t find ways to get off the field and allowed Miami to possess the football for 36:30.

• I continue to see the 5-11 record on the road against bad teams bandied about regarding the Steelers. But that record stretches back to 2012, when, quite frankly, the Steelers weren’t a very good team.

The Steelers were 1-7 against teams with losing records on the road in 2012 and 2013, when Pittsburgh went 16-16.

In the past three seasons, that record is 4-4. And one of those losses, at Kansas City, came to a Chiefs team that didn’t lose another game until the second round of the playoffs. Was Kansas City, which was 1-5 at the time, a bad team or just one that had been playing poorly?

And remember, Ben Roethlisberger didn’t start that game.

That doesn’t excuse the team’s loss on Sunday in Miami. The Steelers played horribly in all phases.

But I’m not buying the tired, old narrative that this is an ongoing issue.

Inexplicable losses happen in the NFL. They just do. Whether you like it or not. Otherwise, they wouldn’t play the games. We’d just look on paper and at the betting lines and declare a winner.