Batch not odd man out now
TAMPA – The odd man out was pretty valuable to the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday in a 38-13 win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Charlie Batch defied all of the odds to even make the Steelers roster, but thanks to a couple of injuries sustained by other quarterbacks, he not only survived, he showed why he remains an NFL quarterback.
Batch completed 12-of-17 passes for 186 yards, with three touchdown passes to lead the Steelers over an undefeated Tampa team. Batch showed the veteran savvy coach Mike Tomlin knew he was getting when Tomlin kept Batch on the roster.
“I tip my hat to Charlie Batch,” Tomlin said. “He played like a veteran. There are not many opportunities for him the last couple of weeks and months, but he kept at it and hung around. Good things happen to those kinds of guys.”
Plenty of good things happened for the Steelers Sunday and Batch was behind most of them, at least offensively.
“These opportunities don’t come often to be the starter,” Batch said. “The one thing I didn’t want to do was be the weak link.”
Instead, he was the link that held the Steelers’ offense together, as they improved to 3-0 without suspended starter Ben Roethlisberger, injured Dennis Dixon and healing Byron Leftwich.
His touchdown passes, two to Mike Wallace and one to Hines Ward, were the team’s first of the season and the first offensive touchdowns produced in regulation this season.
“We felt offensively that we were letting this team down,” Batch said. “We weren’t holding up our end of the bargain. Today, we did something about that and ended up taking a comfortable lead (28-6) into the locker room at halftime.”
“All those guys had opportunities, but unfortunately for them, they got injured,” Ward said. “Today, Charlie stepped up big time. It’s been a tough road for him. After Ben got suspended and we brought Leftwich in, it didn’t look good for Charlie.”
“Nobody ever had to do this before,” Batch said of the team preparing two quarterbacks for the season because of Roethlisberger’s suspension. “It was pretty obvious that I was the odd man out.”
How did he persevere through such stacked-against-him odds?
“If I read what everyone wrote, I wouldn’t be here,” Batch said.
“I stayed away from the emotional side of it. All I could say was that hopefully, at the end of the day, I made this team.”
Not only did he make the team, he made the team 3-0.
Sports editor Mike Ciarochi may be reached at mciarochi@heraldstandard.com.