Nov 10, 2015 4 min read

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Ben Roethlisberger went on his weekly call-in to The Fan Tuesday morning and said he wasn’t shutting the door on playing this week against the Cleveland Browns.

Mike Tomlin pretty much did that an hour later at his weekly press conference.

Tomlin said that the Steelers will leave the door “slightly ajar” for Roethlisberger to play against the Browns this week but will prepare as if Landry Jones will make his second start of the season.

Roethlisberger, of course, suffered a mid-foot sprain in the fourth quarter of last Sunday’s 38-35 win over Oakland that had people, including me, wondering for the second time this year if his season might be over.

He took an ugly shot on his foot, with defensive end Aldon Smith falling on it at a very bad angle.

But the MRI came out good and Roethlisberger is obviously feeling much better.

With the 2-7 Browns coming to Heinz Field and a bye after that, however, it makes sense to allow Roethlisberger to heal up before heading to Seattle the following week.

The Browns have committed 17 turnovers already this season, third-most in the NFL. And their run defense is the worst in the NFL, allowing 147 yards per game.

If the Steelers can’t beat the Browns at home, where they’ve lost to them just one time since Heinz Field opened in 2001, shame on them – even with Jones at quarterback.

@ More troublesome is a sore foot being experienced by running back DeAngelo Williams.

Tomlin said that injury will keep the 32-year-old Williams out of practice early in the week.

It’s unlikely to keep Williams out of the game, but the Steelers can’t afford to run the wheels off Williams, either.

He had 29 touches against the Raiders – 27 carries and two receptions – his most since 2009. If Williams practices on another Wednesday again this season, I’ll be surprised.

They have to at least give the old man some rest.

@ James Harrison and Ryan Shazier also will be out early in the week with some knee swelling, but both are expected to play against Cleveland.

Tight end Matt Spaeth and linebacker Terence Garvin are both out with knee injuries.

@ Tomlin said he had no issue with Mike Mitchell trying to recover a fumble along the sidelines against Oakland that was negated because Mitchell didn’t re-establish himself in bounds.

People were ripping Mitchell for not allowing a teammate to recover the ball instead, pointing out that there were a number of other Steelers in the area. Those people must never have played a sport at a high level in their lives.

Watch the play again. Mitchell would have needed eyes in the back of his head to see the other Steelers closing on the play.

Had he attempted to bat the ball away from the sideline, there’s no guarantee that the Raiders do pick it up and run with it. And, last time I checked, the ball isn’t round. It has a tendency to take crazy bounces.

If he lets the ball hit the ground again as some suggest, it very easily could have bounced out of bounds, triggering a whole different line of criticism for Mitchell.

The bottom line is that some people just don’t like Mitchell, largely based on his play from a year ago.

That’s fine. He didn’t play well last season.

But it’s stupid to make up your mind about a player and then never allow his play to change that opinion.

Believe it or not, guys get better.

If you don’t like Mitchell’s look-at-me vamping every time he makes a play, I get that. But is it really any different than the things Joey Porter used to do?

I’m not a fan of Mitchell’s theatrics, but I will concede that he’s brought some bite back into the Steelers defense.

@ The Steelers, by the way, are on pace to force 30 turnovers this season. They haven’t had more than 21 in a season since 2010, the year the NFL began its crackdown on big, concussion-causing hits.

The Steelers are doing it by playing both physically and smart.

They have been penalized for unnecessary roughness just four times.