Big Ben embracing Steelers' underdog status: Let's 'play and have fun'
Ben Roethlisberger understands the daunting task his Pittsburgh Steelers face in their wild-card matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs, but he's not panicking.
Instead, he's embracing the Steelers' improbable position after they reached the postseason as the AFC's final seed.
"I would assume, as a group, you understand that we probably aren't supposed to be here," the veteran quarterback said Wednesday. "We probably are not a very good football team. Out of 14 teams, I think, are in, we're probably No. 14. We're double-digit underdogs in the playoffs, so let's just go play and have fun and see what happens."
Roethlisberger added: "We're going to the ... No. 1 team. I know they're not the No. 1 seed, but they're the No. 1 team that has won the AFC the last two years, arguably the best team in football."
"We don't have a chance. So, let's just go in and play and have fun."
The 39-year-old has been in a similar position before. He won his first Super Bowl in 2005 when Pittsburgh beat the Cincinnati Bengals, Indianapolis Colts, and Denver Broncos as the AFC's sixth seed before defeating the Seattle Seahawks for the Lombardi Trophy.
But Roethlisberger doesn't see many similarities between the two situations, though he offered that "anything can happen" in the postseason.
"I don't want to take anything away from this team, but that was a pretty good football team. We had some Hall of Famers on it," he said. "Not that we don't have some really good football players here, but we have a long way to go to compare ourselves to that team, in my opinion."
The Steelers suffered a blowout 36-10 loss to the Chiefs in Week 16. Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes completed all but seven of his passes for 258 yards and three scores in the win.
Roethlisberger led Pittsburgh to a 9-7-1 record in what could potentially be his final NFL campaign. He finished the regular season with 22 touchdown passes to 10 interceptions for an 86.8 passer rating.
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