Steelers to start Batch at QB
The veteran QB who made the team as an afterthought is now the Steelers starter in week three.
Charlie Batch, a journeyman quarterback who has been a back-up in Pittsburgh since 2002, has not started a game since 2007, in a meaningless game at the end of the season. Batch will get another chance to perform after throwing just 13 passes in regular-season
games since then.
"It feels good," Batch said Wednesday. "I never imagined it would turn out this way, but here we go."
The Steelers did not plan to carry three quarterbacks on the roster while Ben Roethlisberger was out with suspension, and Batch is lucky to be on the roster in the first place. An injury to Byron Leftwich in the last game of the preseason meant that the Steelers
kept Batch on the roster.
The Steelers had been expected to choose between Batch and the recovering-from-injury Byron Leftwich after Dennis Dixon went down to injury last week. Evidently, Mike Tomlin wasn't prepared to wait and see if Leftwich could play after spraining knee ligaments
in the preseason.
Tomlin decided to make Batch the starter now, giving the veteran time to practice with the starters. A roster loaded with quarterbacks in the preseason meant that Batch only took limited reps with the backups.
Batch may not have a ton of game experience with the Steelers, but having been with the team so long, he has an intimate knowledge of the offence and the players around him.
"He's been with the starters, he's been with the second team, he's been with the third team," Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward said. "He understands all the wide receivers. He probably understands this offense better than anybody. We feel good, we've just
got to protect Charlie."
Batch isn't expected to struggle with the X's and O's, but will have to get used to the speed of the game after averaging just 16 pass attempts over the last nine seasons.
"You try to simulate as much as possible on the practice field," he said. "I think for me, going against our defense every week, it kind of allows me to go out there and work the pocket a little more in practice and be able to shift that into an actual game
situation."
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