JACKSONVILLE, FLA. ? Big Ben was back. He wasn’t back to form.

Wearing protective padding around his midsection, Ben Roethlisberger returned to Pittsburgh’s lineup against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Monday night, barely two weeks after an emergency appendectomy. He was far from effective, though, and Jacksonville’s defense had a lot to do with that.

The Jaguars harassed Roethlisberger, held Willie Parker to 20 yards on 11 carries and ended the defending Super Bowl champions’ nine-game winning streak with a 9-0 victory – the lowest-scoring game in Monday Night Football history.

Josh Scobee kicked three field goals for the Jaguars (2-0), who improved to 4-0 against the Steelers in September and 3-0 against them on Monday night.

The Steelers (1-1) kept it close all game, and got the ball back with about five minutes to play, down 6-0. But Rashean Mathis intercepted Roethlisberger’s slant pass and returned it into field-goal range.

Scobee kicked his third field goal, a 42-yarder, with 4:26 left. He had a 31-yarder late in the third and a 32-yarder earlier in the fourth, and that’s all Jacksonville would need.

“We moved the ball well, but we did a bad job of scoring points,” quarterback Byron Leftwich said. “To move to the next level, we’ve got to have more than nine points but, we played a tough team, man. The Super Bowl champs. It was a tough, physical game and we came out on top.”

Mathis picked off another one with 1:44 remaining, sending Roethlisberger walking slowly to the bench. Mathis also sealed last year’s victory at Pittsburgh, intercepting a pass in overtime and returning it 41 yards for the decisive score.

The shutout was Jacksonville’s first since December 2003 against Houston. It also was the fifth time the defending Super Bowl champions have been shut out; the 1980 Steelers were blanked once, and the 1981 Raiders were shut out three times.

Roethlisberger threw his hands up in frustration after his first interception, then walked off the field with his hands on side following his next possession, when he took a jolting shot to his midsection after throwing a pass.

He was sacked twice and knocked down several more times.

“It was a lot of good hitting out there,” Jaguars coach Jack Del Rio said. “Two real physical teams going at it out there. I’m real proud of the effort they put forth.”

Coach Bill Cowher might be questioned for sending Roethlisberger out against Jacksonville’s aggressive defense, but he wanted to get his star quarterback ready for next week’s game against division rival Cincinnati.

Jacksonville, meanwhile, faces defending division champ Indianapolis. The Jags spent much of the offseason talking about closing the gap on the Colts and winning the division, and after their first two performances, they look ready to at least challenge for the spot.

The Jaguars spent the closing minutes celebrating their first Monday night win since 2001, improving to 7-2 in the league’s most coveted time slot. It marked a new low for scoring on a Monday night, however, dipping below the San Francisco 49ers’ 7-3 win over the New York Giants in 1990.