Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger acknowledges pain, but says 'we have a lot of time to get ready to go'

For nearly 10 minutes Wednesday morning, Ben Roethlisberger spoke with reporters on topics ranging from his painful left pectoral muscle to the Pittsburgh Steelers’ no-huddle offense (apparently a shell of its former identity) to offensive coordinator Matt Canada.

Of course, the question that matters most is whether Roethlisberger’s pec — on his non-throwing side — will allow him to play Sunday against the Cincinnati Bengals at Heinz Field.

“I’m going to do everything I can (to play),” he said while standing up straight in no apparent pain. “Today’s only Wednesday, so we have a lot of time to get ready to go.”

He explained he feels the pain “typically, when I reach for something outside of the framework of my body. Or try to push up off the ground or something like that.”

Given those descriptions, most of the pain must subside for Roethlisberger to be at his best against the Bengals.

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said Roethlisberger “took too many hits” in the Raiders game. But pressure from the Raiders’ pass rush was not an unexpected development.

“We knew going in they had a good rush that was going to be high-motor guys who were going to get after it,” Roethlisberger said. “You have to prepare for that.”

He said improving in all aspects of the game — not only protecting him — only will happen in the scope of a team effort.

“We all need to be better to eliminate hits, to have a better run game, to have more big plays, to be more efficient,” he said. “It’s on all us to help those things.

“I tell the guys, no one has to be great. If we’re all good, then collectively we can be great. It takes, literally, all 11 guys to make it work. If one guy’s a little off here or there, it can affect the whole thing.”

Only wide receiver Diontae Johnson has more than 100 receiving yards over the first two games, but Roethlisberger said the team has plenty of playmakers. Rookie tight end Pat Freiermuth is one he would like to see get more looks.

“At some point in that game, third quarter or something, I went to coach and said, ‘Hey, we need to get Pat involved.’ Over the ball, some of that shorter area stuff.

“Truthfully, we have a lot of what I think are really good weapons on the outside, from receivers to tight ends to running backs. I don’t think we’ve really gotten anybody loose yet that has had good games. There are a lot of reasons for that, and I’ll take the blame mostly because I’m the one who has to get them the ball.”

When he was asked what details his offensive linemen might need to fix, he said, “I’m not a lineman, so I don’t know how to answer that question, sorry.”

Roethlisberger also clarified his remark after Sunday’s game that the Steelers do not have a no-huddle offense.

“We don’t have it,” he said, “in the sense of what we’ve had in years past, where we’ve got this whole menu of plays that I can go to and call.

“You always have a no-huddle in the sense that you have a two-minute offense, and you’re not huddling in the two-minute offense. In that sense, we have 10-12 plays where in the past, we’ve had 50-100 plays.

“It’s different the way we run it. It depends on how you technically define a no-huddle offense.”

He expressed no dissatisfaction with a lesser menu.

“We let the coordinator call the plays. We need to execute the plays that he calls,” he said. “We had a good plan (against the Raiders). We just didn’t execute them well enough.”

When he was asked to compare Canada with the four previous offensive coordinators he has worked with since 2004, he declined to make a comparison.

“I don’t like to compare guys, just like I won’t compare players that we’ve had that are different. That’s not fair to anybody,” he said.

“But I enjoy working with Matt. He works really hard. He’s very passionate. He has a fire for this game in wanting to win. When you add those things up, it makes for a good coach and someone you want to play for.”

He said he remains on the same wavelength with his coordinator.

“I think he’s done a great job,” he said.