Clear road for Steelers means a better Ben

PITTSBURGH – You’ll excuse Ben Roethlisberger if he isn’t humming Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” under his breath this week.
After all, if there’s anywhere the Steelers quarterback can’t wait to get, it’s definitely not on the road again.
In the past four seasons, Roethlisberger has been an all-world quarterback at home, posting a 111.2 passer rating, well above that of all-time NFL leader Aaron Rodgers’ 103.8 for all games.
Roethlisberger’s road passer rating, however, is only 83.2 in that span, a number that would rank him 42nd on the all-time list if it were his career mark.
Roethlisberger will try to improve on his recent road struggles when he leads the Steelers (2-0) to Chicago to face the Bears (0-2) Sunday afternoon.
The Steelers would love to have home-field advantage in the playoffs. To do that, they need Roethlisberger to be as good on the road as he’s been at Heinz Field.
“I think he expects to play well wherever he plays,” offensive coordinator Todd Haley said recently. “But you can’t overanalyze it. There are a lot of factors that go into it, whether it’s him coming off an injury, other people in or out of the lineup. There’s so many factors.”
But the struggles have been real.
Roethlisberger has thrown 61 touchdown passes against 16 interceptions at home since the start of the 2014 season, leading the Steelers to a 17-4 record.
That record falls to 14-9 in road games. He’s thrown 25 touchdown passes and 23 interceptions.
It didn’t seem to matter where Roethlisberger played early in his career. His touchdown-to-interception ratio was nearly the same whether at home or away.
One of the things the Steelers wanted Roethlisberger to work on this season was protecting the football. Roethlisberger threw 16 interceptions in 2015 and 13 last season.
“I don’t know if he threw an interception (at training camp). He’s just done a great job of taking care of the ball,” head coach Mike Tomlin said.
Roethlisberger said the Steelers’ defense helped make that happen.
After he was picked off several times during OTAs and minicamp in the spring, Roethlisberger was on a mission at training camp at Saint Vincent College.
“The defense was having fun at my expense in OTAs, when I hadn’t thrown a ball in forever, and they were counting interceptions,” said Roethlisberger. “That upset me, so I wanted to prove to them that I wouldn’t throw it to them if I actually cared about the practice, which I don’t in OTAs but do in training camp. I was kind of letting them know what was going on.”
Now, Roethlisberger is taking that same mentality on the road.
He was intercepted once in the Steelers’ win at Cleveland, but also threw two touchdown passes. He followed that with two more touchdown passes at home against Minnesota.
Roethlisberger and the offense weren’t particularly sharp in either game, but he has a passer rating of 99.9.
“No one is going to be perfect. We all know that,” Roethlisberger said. “There are going to be mistakes. Nobody wants to be playing their best football now. You want to keep winning football games and getting better so that your best football is played in December and January.”
The Steelers release wide receiver Justin Thomas from their practice squad and signed offensive lineman Jake Rodgers. … Roethlisberger was given the day off from practice Wednesday as a day of rest. … Not practicing for the Steelers because of injury were offensive tackle Marcus Gilbert (hamstring), wide receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey (illness), tight end Jesse James (ankle) and center Maurkice Pouncey (illness). … Defensive end Stephon Tuitt (biceps), linebacker Bud Dupree (shoulder) and linebacker T.J. Watt (groin) were limited. Watt, who left the win over Minnesota in the first half, said he first felt the groin injury in practice last week and aggravated it in the game. … Safety J.J. Wilcox (concussion) and tight end Vance McDonald (back) were full participants in practice.