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PITTSBURGH -- Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger fired back at critics who slammed the Pittsburgh Steelers for throwing a pass at the end of a 17-9 win at Jacksonville Jaguars so wide receiver Antonio Brown could extend an obscure NFL record. Roethlisberger successfully sold coach Mike Tomlin on a swing pass that Brown turned into a 16-yard catch -- and allowed the two-time Pro Bowler to extend his record of consecutive games with at least five receptions and 50 receiving yards to 21. The play stirred controversy locally because all the Steelers needed to do to leave Jacksonville with their third win of the season was for Roethlisberger to kneel down three times. Roethlisberger took three knees after the Brown reception that allowed the latter to finish with five catches for 84 yards. Roethlisberger said Tuesday on his weekly radio show that he doesn't know why the low-risk pass has stoked so much debate -- and criticism of the Steelers. "We won the game. I don't understand why this is such a big issue," Roethlisberger said on 93.7 The Fan in Pittsburgh. "I've been told that some fans are calling in (to 93.7) and saying, 'Listen, just let it go.' We won the game isn't that all that matters? That's all that matters to us." Roethlisberger proposed throwing the pass to Brown at the two-minute warning when the Steelers were at the Jaguars' 34-yard line and poised to run out the clock with Jacksonville out of timeouts. Roethlisberger said he and Tomlin both agreed that the 11th-year veteran would not throw the pass if he thought there was any risk of anything "scary or hairy" happening. Tomlin said he signed off on one pass attempt and that the Steelers would have run out the clock had Brown not caught it to extend the record. "We had a low-risk play where we had an opportunity to get the ball in his hands," Tomlin said at his weekly news conference. "We wanted to assist him in that and I think the guys were just as excited about doing that for him as he was." When asked about such a decision created the perception that the individual is more important than the team, Tomlin said, "I don't care to be honest with you. I really don't." Tomlin said the Steelers did not go into the Jaguars game with the intent of extending Brown's record "That's such a minute sidebar as far as what we're trying to do in stadiums," the eighth-year coach said. "If it happens to come up and it's brought up informally in the waning moments and we get an opportunity to do something like that we will."
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