Big Ben is back, but not Burress

The receiver won't return until his hamstring is 100 percent healed.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Plaxico Burress was ruled out of Sunday's game against the Jets after missing practice with a sore hamstring Thursday, a day after he felt confident he was close to returning.
Burress, the Steelers' top downfield receiving threat, will miss a third consecutive game with the first hamstring injury of his five-year career. He hasn't played since getting hurt three minutes into the second quarter of a 19-14 victory Nov. 21 in Cincinnati.
Steelers rookie quarterback Ben Roethlisberger returned to practice Thursday after sitting out Wednesday with a bruised thigh and didn't appear to be favoring the injury. He was hurt during Pittsburgh's come-from-behind 17-16 win Sunday night in Jacksonville, though he isn't certain when.
Hamstring injury lingers
"I'm fine," Roethlisberger said Thursday. "It's not a problem."
The Steelers (11-1) can't say the same thing about Burress' nagging injury, which was initially expected to sideline him only one game. Now, Burress doesn't want to take a chance by playing again until the injury is 100 percent healed.
"This is the first time I've hurt my hamstring so I'm just trying to take it day by day," Burress said before the team announced he wouldn't play Sunday.
"You don't want to go there and hurt yourself for later down the road. I've always said that if I don't feel well, I'm not going to go out there and hurt my teammates or hurt myself more."
Burress tried warming up Sunday night in Jacksonville and ran without much difficulty, but was concerned any rapid burst of acceleration might cause the injury to flare up again -- perhaps leading to a lengthy layoff.
"I don't want to take a step back and hurt my team going down the stretch," said Burress, who is unsigned past this season.
The effect of Burress' absence has been evident, even as the Steelers have kept winning without him.
The 6-foot-5 former Michigan State star made at least one catch of 40 yards or longer in four of six games before getting hurt, but the Steelers don't have a single reception of that length in their last four games. Burress is averaging 18.5 yards on his 32 receptions.
The Steelers' scoring average has dropped from 28.5 in the six games before Burress was hurt -- when Roethlisberger was settling in as their starter -- to 17.3 in their last three games.
Burress' presence forces defenses to protect against the deep ball and prevents them from devoting as much double coverage to Hines Ward, whose own production has dropped with Burress out.