Ben Roethlisberger has a suspicion as to how much he and the first-team offense might play on Saturday afternoon in Buffalo, but he isn't certain.
In the wake of the Steelers losing center Maurkice Pouncey and the Packers wide receiver Jordy Nelson to significant injury last Sunday at Heinz Field, Roethlisberger maintained previous plans might be altered.
"This is typically (the game in which starters play) the full half, maybe the first series of the second (half)," he said. "That's the expectation going in.
"With what happened I don't know if that's going to change but that's my expectation."
Roethlisberger addressed a number of other subjects with the media this week, including:
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Whether the offense needs additional preseason work:** "I don't think so. I think we've shown enough, we've worked hard. The good thing about our offense is we have everybody back. We don't have a lot of moving pieces and so we can get that work and just kind of pick up (in the regular season) where we left off from training camp."
Whether players can take steps to avoid injuries in the preseason: "As a competitor, my mentality, it's hard for me not to just play my game. You have to consciously say 'don't do anything crazy here,' get down, throw it away, whatever it is. You can say that but in the heat of battle it's hard to do that."
The offense's theory that the only way it'll be stopped is if it stops itself: "That's always been our mentality, (that) no one's stopping us but us. I'm sure every offense in the league says that or believes that. We really feel that way, that no one stops us but us.
"We had that (against Green Bay). We had a couple penalties, we had first-and-25 and we overcame it. Both punts we had the first two series were off of plays that could have/should have been made, that should have kept drives going. And then the third series we went no-huddle and went down the field and scored.
"We feel comfortable with where we're at."
The offensive pass interference penalty against wide receiver Antonio Brown that negated a 58-yard touchdown pass against Green Bay: "I should have given him a better ball."
Running back DeAngelo Williams' performance through two preseason games: "That's what we expected from him, that's why I think they signed him and that's what he's proven to be able to do in his career so far in Carolina. We expect those things from him when (running back) Le'Veon (Bell) isn't playing."
Using Williams as a receiver, as the Steelers do with Bell: "We do some empty (-set) stuff where we spread those guys out. That's nothing really special for (Williams), he's versatile. We can use him out there. We're not going to be afraid to do the same things we did with Le'Veon. (Williams) might not be the first read in the pass play like (Bell) might be but we're going to put (Williams) out there."
Maurkice Pouncey's durability: "People talk about, is he injury prone? No, he's just always in the play. He's always around the ball because of his intensity. You don't find too many linemen that are 10, 15 yards down the field trying to block safeties for the running back. That speaks for his toughness, his tenacity and his desire to be the best."
