Kovacevic: Seriously, Ben needs to step up

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Brief and to the Point ...

• Possibly lost amid the thrill of victory and the agony of Antonio Brown's social media skills is that the Steelers' most important player again was not their most important player Sunday.

Here's what Ben Roethlisberger has to show for two playoff games thus far: 421 combined passing yards, a 67.3 completion percentage, two touchdowns that both came on long AB catch-and-runs against the Dolphins, zero touchdowns in the six-field-goal capitulation of the Chiefs and ... and ... eh.

He's been OK. And he's occasionally come up with the key play, notably the third-down rollout to AB that clinched victory here. But he again was mediocre against Kansas City: 20 of 31 for 224 yards with an interception. And going back, he hasn't topped 289 passing yards once in this nine-game winning streak, and his 12 total touchdowns have been plenty offset by nine interceptions.

He hasn't been Ben yet.



Blame it on the lack of a true deep threat since Sammie Coates' banishment. Blame it -- or credit it, for that matter -- to the offense's righteous reliance on Le'Veon Bell. Blame it on the weather, too. Could be some combination of all three contributing.

But know this: At some point, seriously, Ben needs to step up in these playoffs. And I'll be stunned if that requirement isn't mandatory as soon as Sunday in Foxboro.

"There are a lot of things we have to do to be successful against them," he said of the Patriots in the AFC Championship Game. "They're the best in the world for a reason. Not an easy test coming up. Obviously, possessing the ball, we have to score points."

Obviously. No one needs a revisitation of the red-zone blanks fired against the Chiefs.

But that's not all Ben needs to upgrade. To throw out three items, in ascending order:

3. Take the deep shot.

I know, Coates and Darrius Heyward-Bey aren't all there and, thus, aren't really options. But AB can still be that guy at least once or twice a game, and every hookup brings great benefit to all facets, especially the play-action. On top of that, all through Ben's career, his peak confidence has come when he's in gunslinger mode. He's left that stuck in the holster for too long.

2. Um ... throw taller?

He's 6-5, so there isn't much excuse for having four passes tipped at the line, as happened against the Kansas City front. One of those resulted in a touchdown-killing pick by Eric Berry. So rise up a little.

1. Stop checking out too soon.

Fingers and clenched fists across the Nation pointed angrily toward Todd Haley for the dubious playcalling once the Steelers broached the Kansas City 20. But anyone in the locker room will attest that those calls are run/pass options in which the ultimate decision is made by the quarterback. Well, the quarterback was the only one who kept Bell from taking that 170 yards to 200 and beyond, never mind reaching the end zone. Ben checked out again and again, eschewing Bell in favor of unnecessarily complex routes to AB and even Eli Rogers.

The positive in all this: The franchise QB is overdue for a gem.

• A few of the offensive linemen looked plenty animated on the Steelers' sideline after that Berry pick, and not because of the tipped pass. As two of them told me, on that very play, on every step of that series, they were bowling Kansas City's line backward. They could have walked into the end zone, if only they'd kept walking.

The Patriots are similar in the bend-don't-break feel to their defense. So it might be smart to stick with what bends.

• Anyone seen the living legend Tyreek Hill?

Oh, you mean this was him?



Yeah, as Devin Hester illustrated maybe one final time in the NFC bracket this weekend, the days of the truly great return men are sadly numbered. The NFL's deemphasis on kickoffs, in particular, are making the ultra-boring touchback as much a part of the game as even a semi-decent return. Look at the Steelers relying on Fitz Toussaint all season even though he hasn't come close to breaking one. He either downs it or runs it out 10-12 yards and clings for dear life to that ball.

No problem with that latter part, of course.

• The Steelers won't make a smarter tactical move all week than sending out Ramon Foster and Greg Warren to elegantly and candidly address the AB debacle in the team's media availability Monday. These first-of-the-week sessions are generally limited to no more than a couple of players. These were pitch-perfect.

• Packers and Falcons on the other side?

My goodness, get there. Just get there.

• Because I can't write enough about James Harrison: His salary for this season is $1.25 million, making him the NFL's third-lowest paid veteran starter. What's more, he's famously spoken of spending roughly half a million each year on taking care of his body so, if that's accurate, he's taking home about as much as a rookie.

Imagine how much would a GM in the league fork over for a player in his prime putting up these performances at the most imperative time of year:



• Remember when the NFL was dead or dying because of an early-season 11 percent slump in TV ratings?

Yeah, about that ...

NBC's broadcast of Steelers-Chiefs, shown locally on our news partner WPXI, averaged 37.1 million viewers to become the most watched prime-time playoff game in television history within the first two rounds. On the Internet -- and this is always telling because it bodes well for the future -- the game drew 52 million live streaming minutes, the most for any playoff game that wasn't a Super Bowl.

The previous day, the Packers-Cowboys matinee drew even more on Fox, 48.5 million viewers, the most for any NFL Divisional Playoff. And for further perspective, that's more than any of the other three major sports drew for their most recent Game 7s in their championship rounds.

Look, I don't like Roger Goodell or Colin Kaepernick, either, but there are no false narratives to be painted here about the popularity of the NFL or of football itself. It's our national pastime now, and it'll remain that way for the foreseeable future.