Steelers-Vikings sells the sizzle

Oh, Big Ben, please toll for us this Saturday.

If you’re like me, exhibition football is better than many regular season matchups in every other sport. The anticipation of what is to come plays a big role – even more so in 2006, because this is shaping up to be one hell of a season. There are so many compelling stories to follow. One of them is lucky to be alive after a horrific motorcycle accident.

Ben Roethlisberger is listed as doubtful for Saturday night’s preseason tilt at Heinz Field against the Minnesota Vikings, after suffering a strained right thumb ligament during Wednesday’s practice. It’s reportedly a minor issue; Big Ben could very well be in action during the first quarter. If not, Charlie Batch is expected to get the nod – again, just for the opening 15 minutes, with the rest of the starting unit. We’ll see a lot more of Shane Boyd and/or Omar Jacobs under the latter scenario.

Roethlisberger is one of the most intriguing quarterbacks to come down the pike in a long time. He absolutely lit up the MAC with the Miami-Ohio RedHawks, setting the school record with 84 touchdown passes and putting his name in the same breath as MAC alumni Byron Leftwich and Chad Pennington (some say Jacobs, from Bowling Green, is a sleeper candidate to join this group). Thanks to a timely injury to 2004 opening-game starter Tommy Maddox, Big Ben took over the reins in Pittsburgh in Week 2 and has yet to let them go. His QB rating of 98.3 over the past two seasons makes Roethlisberger one of the Top 5 pivots in the entire league.

And then there’s the luck factor. Somebody call Roethlisberger a proctologist, because he appears to be carrying about 100 horseshoes in his tuckus. There was the Maddox injury, which forced Pittsburgh’s hand in speeding up Big Ben’s development. It’s rare for a rookie QB to even be given the chance to lead a team; Roethlisberger became the first in 34 years to win offensive Rookie of the Year honors. Then, of course, the motorcycle accident, after which doctors told Roethlisberger he was minutes from death. But there was also Super Bowl XL, when his Steelers beat the Seattle Seahawks 21-10 despite Big Ben’s uncharacteristically abysmal 9-for-21 passing performance. What can Roethlisberger do for an encore? Saturday will give us a taste of what to expect, provided he plays.

The Minnesota Vikings can only wish they had Big Ben’s brand of good fortune. This is a club that underperformed for years under coach Mike Tice, mostly due to a paucity of talent on defense. Last year’s radical offseason makeover was supposed to put the Vikings in Super Bowl contention, but then there was the sex boat incident, and Tice’s ticket scalping, and the knee injury that put QB Daunte Culpepper on inured reserve. Now both Tice and Culpepper are history. New coach Brad Childress, an NFL rookie himself, will stick with Brad Johnson, a steady hand at the till (88.9 QB rating taking over for Culpepper last year) and a Super Bowl winner with Tampa Bay.

But 2006 is already off to a horrible start in the Twin Cities. Wide receiver Koren Robinson, who was one of the few feel-good stories of 2005 after putting aside his alcohol problems and making the Pro Bowl, was arrested at gunpoint earlier this week and charged with drunken driving and fleeing police. Reports suggest he was driving at over 100 mph. Robinson will not be in action this Saturday – or perhaps for the foreseeable future.

Also out of commission is first-round draft pick Chad Greenway, the highly-touted linebacker out of Iowa. He injured his left knee in Monday’s exhibition opener and had to be put on injured reserve. Minnesota scrambled to replace Greenway by signing free agent Jason Glenn to a deal. Glenn will help the Vikings on special teams, but otherwise didn’t record a single tackle in a full 2005 campaign with the Miami Dolphins.

The fact that we should only see the first stringers in the opening quarter tends to level the playing field somewhat – none of Saturday’s eight games has a spread as high as six points, and most are hovering around the field-goal mark – but the Vikings’ stumbles this week make it difficult for them to sail into Pittsburgh as a 3-point road puppy and come out with the cash.

Oddsmakers have also pegged a total of 34 ½ for this matchup. Kick-off is at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

If you have any questions/suggestions, please email them to Michaelp@Betwwts.com.