Steelers hoping for 2006 replay

Associated Press

Pittsburgh

Ben Roethlisberger has already hit the reset button.

Sure, the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback has no problem discussing his team’s miserable 2-6 start. He’d just rather not dwell on it. Last he checked, there’s still half a season to go and eight opportunities to turn the narrative that the Steelers are in decline on its head.

Pittsburgh gets its first chance Sunday against Buffalo (3-6) in what Roethlisberger is likening to a reboot.

“We’re 0-0 right now, trying to get our first win,” he said Wednesday. “And that’s going to have to be the approach the rest of the way out. Winning does help a lot of things, so we’re going to do our best to get that.”

Even if Pittsburgh’s best so far has done little to stop a slide that started a year ago. The Steelers are 5-11 over their last 16 games, not counting a winless preseason they insisted was no big deal.

Rock bottom — they hope — came in a 55-31 dismantling at the hands of New England last Sunday, when the Patriots pumped in 31 points over the final 17 minutes in what became Pittsburgh’s worst statistical defensive performance in the team’s 81-year history.

The Monday video session was gruesome yet oddly encouraging. Even as the deficit mounted, coach Mike Tomlin saw no “blatant” evidence of his team quitting. That includes Roethlisberger, who remained in the game long after things were decided.

“We’re still a group that believes good football is ahead of us,” Tomlin said. “We also acknowledge that we’re a group that needs to improve. That was an opportunity to do that. The healthy guys are going to stay on the field and play with an attempt to move the ball and, obviously, get better at our football.”

It was the same way on the other side of the ball, where safeties Ryan Clark and Troy Polamalu kept giving chase even as New England did whatever it wanted, however it wanted.

Polamalu called the mistakes “correctable.” Like Roethlisberger, he’s also not in the mood to declare the season over, adding there will be plenty of time for “hindsight” down the road.

Yes, things aren’t so great at the moment. But there’s time to build momentum. Polamalu is one of seven players who were on the 2006 team that started 2-6 but rallied to finish 8-8.

When reminded about the team’s calamitous first half coming off the franchise’s fifth Super Bowl title, Polamalu just smiled.

“I forgot we were 2-6 that year,” he said. “Next year I’ll probably forget this year.”