The start of the Ben Roethlisberger era coincided with one heck of a time getting there. Appearing on CBS Sports Sunday morning, former head coach Bill Cowher said getting to Miami for Roethlisberger’s first career start was the most miserable experience he’s ever had due to Hurricane Jeanne?
“The lights were not that night,” Cowher said on Sunday morning’s That Other Pregame Show. “I had to hand out flashlights that we got from a local place. And so we were having meetings with flashlights.”
A Category Three hurricane at its peak, Jeanne was the latest in a highly active and destructive hurricane season. It forced the game to be moved from from the afternoon to at night to avoid the brunt of the storm, though conditions were still brutal once the game got going.
Not only were the Steelers adjusting their time, they were adjusting their quarterback depth chart. Pittsburgh went into the season starting Tommy Maddox only to lose him two games into the year to an elbow injury. First-round rookie Ben Roethlisberger got the nod, closing out a loss to the Baltimore Ravens, before starting against Miami. With him, they wouldn’t lose again.
It wasn’t a pretty win but a victory all the same. Roethlisberger threw for 163 yards and a touchdown as the Steelers used two first half field goals to build a 6-0 lead. Roethlisberger’s score sealed the deal, hitting WR Hines Ward mid-way through the fourth quarter en route to a 13-3 win. Miami struggled to run the ball and totaled just 169 yards of offense. Pittsburgh racked up over 300 though Cowher said they were literally a one-direction team. And it had nothing to do with the defense’s game plan.
“We could only run on one side of the field because it was also a baseball field down in Miami at the time. We ran on the side that had grass. So we said, run on the grass, stay away from the dirt.”
It was the definition of winning ugly. Under those circumstances, there was no other option. True to Pittsburgh’s mantra, winning by any means necessary is all that matters. With Roethlisberger, the sun shined on Cowher and the Steelers the rest of the regular season and.
