"Admittedly, Troy Polamalu didn't intimidate the Green Bay Packers in Super Bowl XLV.

Typically, the hard-hitting safety delivers blows that shift momentum. But his shots that night were weakened by a myriad of nagging injuries, including a partial tear of an Achilles tendon that resulted in an uneven performance in the 31-25 loss.

For Polamalu, it didn't matter that quarterback Ben Roethlisberger shouldered the blame again Friday, saying, "I told everyone it's my fault we lost the Super Bowl."

Polamalu agonizes over his subpar effort.

"I didn't play very well, and we can leave it at that," he said. "I've played some of my best games injured."

Polamalu still isn't where he wants to be physically, but the 2010 NFL Defensive Player of the Year showed no signs of a tender Achilles before yesterday's practice at St. Vincent College.

"I'm not 100 percent yet," said Polamalu, who had only three tackles in the Super Bowl. "But I'm inching in on it. Sometimes, when something doesn't require surgery, it actually takes a lot longer to heal. So, the lockout helped my injury. I didn't have to push too fast.""