Roethlisberger questionable for Sunday's game after pec injury
Pittsburgh Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger was hit 10 times in last Sunday's game against the Raiders. Mike Tomlin did not say if he would play this Sunday.
Ben Roethlisberger is the latest Pittsburgh Steeler to join a long list of names on the injured list going into Week 3 of the NFL regular season.
Roethlisberger suffered injury Sunday vs. Raiders
Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said that his starting quarterback injured his left pectoral in last week’s game against the Las Vegas Raiders, but is unsure when the injury took place. Neither Roethlisberger nor Tomlin said anything about the injury in the post game press conference.
"I don't know specifically when Ben got injured in game," Tomlin said. "I don't know that he does. You know, sometimes just in the midst of competition, adrenaline and so forth, you just don't know. Sometimes things just come up after."
The 39 year old was under heavy pressure all game Sunday
The Steelers veteran QB was hit 10 times, and sacked twice in the Steelers loss to the Raiders on Sunday afternoon. Tomlin said his team need to do a better job protecting the 39-year old quarterback, "He took too many hits. We can run the ball better. We can get the ball out of his hand quicker. We can stay on schedule and not get behind the sticks and get in situations where the line of the game is so far that that that enhances the rush."
Roethlisberger said he felt the affects of the Week 1 opener after being hit a few more times than he would have liked in the Steelers loss to the Bills, but he’s been around long enough to know that comes with the territory of being an NFL quarterback, "I'm disappointed we lost the game, and I'm disappointed that I didn't play well enough to help us win the game," he said Sunday. "The bumps and bruises come with football."
The injury list goes on for Tomlin and Steelers
This is just the latest injury the Steeler and Tomlin will have to deal with. Linebackers T.J. Watt and Alex Highsmith are dealing with groin injuries suffered against the Raiders. Devin Bush and Joe Haden are also recovering from groin injuries.
Tomlin declined to put a time frame on a return to any of his players saying, "I'm not making any drastic statements about the availability of any of these guys because of the degree of the injury changes, the prognosis.”
Steelers to look in-house for replacements
Nose tackle Tyson Alualu went on the injured reserve after having surgery on a fractured ankle, and wide receiver Diontae Johnson hurt his knee on the final play of the Steelers loss on Sunday.
Tomlin went on to say, “we'll look at the quality of that practice or how much they practice and let that be a guide for us in terms of their potential participation. Some more established players can play on less prep than others. ... There are a lot of variables at play, but not overly concerned about it. This, you know, this is the tightrope that we walk week in and week out."
Steelers have a divisional matchup with Bengals this weekend
No division in football has been hit harder by the injury bug than the AFC North, but Tomlin says the Steelers have all the resources they need in house to cope with players going down, "Thankfully in today's NFL, with the flexibility of practice squads and so forth, we have all the answers in-house," he said. "I'm not necessarily worried about the injury in terms of our expectations, in terms of our performance. We have a week to prepare with known issues. In-game injuries cause more problems than known issues like you're faced with here at the top of the week."
The Steelers will host the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET. If Ben Roethlisberger will be under center to start the game remains to be seen.