By Alan Robinson

Published: Tuesday, September 25, 2012, 7:32 p.m.
Updated: Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Ben Roethlisberger insists there's no rift with offensive coordinator Todd Haley, even though he adopted some of Bruce Arians' terminology to call no-huddle plays Sunday in Oakland.

Roethlisberger said Tuesday he imported signals that were in Arians' playbook but not in Haley's, although they have since been added. Some interpreted Roethlisberger's postgame comments about the improvisational play-calling as favoring Arians' offense to Haley's.

“I really didn't think it would get blown up as much as it did, and I know some people are saying that I've been resistant to Todd,” Roethlisberger said. “But it's one of those things that we went to Todd, and it's in the playbook now. It was simply a signal that I used with our receivers on two different occasions. One was on the fourth-and-1, we got the ball to Mike (Wallace). The other one was later on third down to Emmanuel (Sanders). We converted both plays. It worked out.”

Wide receiver Antonio Brown said Roethlisberger merely simplified things to save time.

“He's really good at that stuff, (when) he gets an opportunity to see a defense and communicate with us, and communicate with us in verbiage that he's comfortable with,“ Brown said. “Same plays, same concepts, just a different way of saying it and (we) come out in a different formation.”

Still, asked about his close relationship with Arians, who is now the Colts' offensive coordinator, Roethlisberger said, “We talk every week.”

• Steelers linebacker James Harrison went through his first full practice Tuesday since having arthroscopic knee surgery Aug. 15, although he also took part in most of the Labor Day practice. Harrison's knee problem kept him out of training camp, and he hadn't practiced the past two weeks. Harrison posted a Twitter message reading: “Just finished my first day of full practice; hopefully, everything goes well (Wednesday).” The Steelers also hope to get back safety Troy Polamalu (calf) and running back Rashard Mendenhall (knee) when they play the Eagles on Oct. 7. Polamalu also said he practiced Tuesday.

• Raiders players were given baseball bats with the message “Steelers vs. Raiders, Bring the wood” before the Steelers game, according to the Sacramento Bee. Defensive end Richard Seymour said, “(The coaches) gave us the bats early in the week and told us to keep swinging.”

— Alan Robinson

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