From Teresa Varley at Steelers.com:



Not only was Ben Roethlisberger back on the field on Monday night, leading the Steelers to a 26-16 win over the New York Giants, but after playing his first game in a year, his elbow that required surgery was about the only thing that didn’t hurt him the day after the game.

Roethlisberger said he was sore from simply playing football again, but the arm felt good.

“I was saying today I feel like I was in a car accident. Yesterday I felt like I was in a train wreck. So hopefully tomorrow it will just feel like I fell off a bike,” said Roethlisberger of the progression of how his body feels. “I am definitely sore.

“The good news is my arm is the only thing that doesn’t hurt, so that is good.”

Roethlisberger doesn’t plan on practicing on Wednesday, something that has been the norm for him just to let his arm recover. He also will continue to protect the arm like he did on Monday night when he wore a sleeve on it while on the sidelines to keep it warm.

“My arm feels great,” said Roethlisberger. “We’ll keep the same routine as far as Wednesday rest day and then we will get back into it. Hence the sleeve I wore on the sideline and the sleeve I wore during the game. That’s going to be the biggest thing, make sure it stays warm. For the most part we are going to do everything we can to keep it healthy and warm.”

Roethlisberger had a strong first outing, completing 21-of-32 passes (65.6 percent) for 229 yards, with three touchdowns, no interceptions, and a rating of 117.8. But he is his own worst critic.

“I looked at the way I played, decision making. There was rust early,” said Roethlisberger. “It’s not like I played perfect. I looked at sometimes maybe I got out of the pocket a little too quick or didn’t have the same feel in the pocket early on that I am used to having. I think that just comes with not getting hit, even in practice. Yeah, you have a pocket, you step up, but defenders aren’t hitting you in practice so you lose some of that feel of where you can slide to, where you […]