Roethlisberger: I just had a bad year in '06

He and former offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt don't see eye to eye.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger says an off-season motorcycle accident and emergency appendectomy had nothing to do with his subpar performance last season.
Ken Whisenhunt, the Steelers' ex-offensive coordinator and current Arizona Cardinals coach, said recently that Roethlisberger was rushed back into action, but the quarterback told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for a story Wednesday that he doesn't think that's true.
"No, I don't agree with Whis," Roethlisberger said. "There were a lot of things I didn't agree with Whis about, and that's another one."
Whisenhunt said at last month's NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis that he thought Roethlisberger's June 12 accident and an emergency appendectomy early in the season were partly to blame for his performance in a season in which he threw 23 interceptions.
For the record
The Steelers went 8-8 and missed the playoffs.
"No, I don't think I was rushed. I think I just didn't play well. I had a bad year," Roethlisberger said. "I'm sure Whis had a bad year once in his career."
Roethlisberger said he "might have still had the same year" even without the motorcycle accident, in which he suffered a concussion, a broken nose and facial fractures.
"Who knows? I'm not going to look back and say, 'Wow, this is what caused this and this is what caused that,'" Roethlisberger said. "There's no need for that. It's a bad year. It's going to happen. That's just the way it goes."
Roethlisberger said he was confident he was 100 percent healthy last season and that he didn't mislead the team about his health. Nor, Roethlisberger said, did the team's medical staff overlook anything in an effort to get him back on the field sooner.
"Everybody knows that Pittsburgh has some of the best doctors in the country -- look at my face for instance," Roethlisberger quipped, referred to reconstructive surgery required after the crash. "We have an unbelievable medical staff. They cleared me and, if they gave me clearance, we never hushed anything."
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