Ben Roethlisberger on Steelers' playoff chances: 'Have fun and see what happens'

The last time the Pittsburgh Steelers entered the playoffs as the lowest-seeded team in the AFC, they won in the wild-card round in 2015.

The time before that, Steelers won three in a row on the road and then earned a “One for the Thumb” ring by beating Seattle in Super Bowl XL.

Ben Roethlisberger was the quarterback in 2005 and again 10 years later when the Steelers made some postseason noise as a No. 6 seed. While he’s not predicting a victory Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs, a two-touchdown favorite by the oddsmakers, Roethlisberger doesn’t see what the Steelers have to lose when they venture to Arrowhead Stadium for the second time in four weeks.

Or does he? Meeting with the media Wednesday morning, Roethlisberger played the us-against-the-world card and said the Steelers can use it to their advantage when they enter the postseason this weekend as the No. 7 seed.

“I would assume as a group that you understand we probably aren’t supposed to be here, probably aren’t a good football team,” Roethlisberger said. “Out of 14 teams that are in, we’re probably 14th. We’re double-digit underdogs in the playoffs. Let’s just go play and have fun and see what happens.”

The Steelers needed an overtime win in Baltimore and an upset by two-win Jacksonville against Indianapolis to put themselves in position to claim the seventh and final seed in the AFC. Then, they had to sweat out the Sunday night game between Las Vegas and the Los Angeles Chargers that nearly ended in a tie that would have knocked the Steelers from the postseason picture.

The Chiefs, meanwhile, enter the playoffs as the No. 2 seed in the AFC. They have won nine of their past 10 games, including a 36-10 victory against the Steelers on Dec. 26. Oh, and the Chiefs have represented the conference in the Super Bowl in each of the past two years, winning it after the 2019 season.

“Arguably, they are the best team in football,” Roethlisberger said. “We don’t have a chance, so let’s go play and have fun.”

RELATED: Mark Madden: How can the Steelers close the gap with Kansas City?

RELATED: Tim Benz: Feeling uncomfortable with Mike Tomlin’s level of comfort about Steelers

If the Steelers are, indeed, playing with house money, they want to push their chips toward the middle of the table for Roethlisberger, who is expected to retire after the season.

“Everybody knows what’s going on,” veteran guard Trai Turner said. “We want to win for him for sure 100%, but you want to win it for yourself. It’s added motivation.”

Perhaps the underdog role will suit the Steelers, who have not enjoyed playoff success recently as the favored team at home. Last season, the Steelers entered as the home favorite and No. 3 seed only to be upset by the Cleveland Browns, 48-37. In 2017, the Steelers were the No. 2 seed but were ousted in the divisional round by the Jacksonville Jaguars, 45-42.

The Steelers, in fact, have lost their past three playoff games since their victory at Arrowhead Stadium against the Chiefs in the 2016 divisional round.

Those three losses have dropped Roethlisberger’s career postseason record to 13-9. Although this will be his 12th — and final — trip to the postseason, he has told his younger teammates not to take this appearance for granted.

“I want to just pass along my words of wisdom to them,” Roethlisberger said. “It’s one of those things where you never really know if you’re going to get a chance to get back. When I tell them that, they’re like, ‘You’ve been here 12 times in 18 years.’ I just try to reiterate that you’ve got to appreciate it and understand it. That you have to go out there and fully, fully commit to it because every mistake is magnified. You have to have fun at the same time. Hopefully, they all understand it, and I think they do.”

The role was reversed for Roethlisberger in 2005 when the Steelers made their improbable run to the Super Bowl championship, becoming the first No. 6 seed to accomplish the feat. It was a storybook ending for running back Jerome Bettis, who concluded a Hall of Fame career by winning a championship in his Detroit hometown.

Roethlisberger was in his second season then.

“I wanted to win it for Jerome because you know what he meant,” he said. “Maybe they feel the same way. I don’t know. Jerome never came to me or said, ‘Guys, let’s go win it for me.’ He didn’t have to stay that. We wanted to go win it for him anyway.”

Roethlisberger, though, doesn’t see many similarities between those Steelers and this year’s team other than the low playoff seed.

“I don’t want to take anything away from this team,” he said, “but that was a pretty good football team. We had some Hall of Famers on it. Not that we don’t have some good football players here, but we have a long way to go to compare ourselves to that team.”