In the days immediately after an NFL game, players often compare the feeling to being in a car crash, with sore muscles and aches in places normal humans rarely feel.
After his first game in 364 days on Monday night, Ben Roethlisberger felt a little worse for wear following the Pittsburgh Steelers' 26-16 win over the Giants.
"I was saying today I feel like I was just in a car accident. Yesterday I felt like I was in a train wreck. Hopefully tomorrow it'll feel like I just fell off a bike," he said Wednesday, via Brooke Pryor of ESPN.
We'll presume that by "bike," Roethlisberger meant bicycle, not motorcycle. Big Ben has experience in motorcycle accidents, getting into a serious crash and breaking his jaw and nose back in the summer of 2006.
The best news is that while Roethlisberger's body might be aching, his arm is not.
"I'm definitely sore. The good news is my arm is the only thing that doesn't hurt," he said.
The elbow is the biggest concern after an injury kept him out all but two games last season. The Steelers kept a warming sleeve on Big Ben's arm when he was on the sideline Monday. We'd expect that to continue to ensure it stays loose, especially as the weather cools in Pittsburgh.
Roethlisberger was sacked twice and New York compiled five QB hits Monday night.
The veteran QB noted he'll continue with his routine of having Wednesdays off from practice to help stay fresh. The extra day of rest should help him recover on a short week before Sunday's Week 2 matchup against Denver.
While it took some time for the offense to kick into gear, Roethlisberger looked like his old self for the final two-plus quarters, leading the Steelers to points on three of their final five drives -- including icing the end of the game.
Big Ben completed 21 of 32 passes for 229 yards, 7.2 yards per attempt and three TDs. The QB showed an increased rapport with top receivers JuJu Smith-Schuster and Diontae Johnson as the game progressed, portending to good things down the road.
Roethlisberger displayed that, when he's healthy, the Steelers are a playoff-caliber team who can make noise in the AFC. Now he just needs to get used to that postgame soreness once again.
