A pair of reports are casting doubt on Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s status for Sunday’s showdown with the Ravens.
The first is from Jay Glazer of FOX and it straight out says that Roethlisberger will not play with Byron Leftwich getting the start in his place. Glazer writes that the Steelers won’t take any chances with Roethlisberger’s health at this point in the season.
On Tuesday, coach Mike Tomlin described Roethlisberger’s injury as a sprain to the sternoclavicular (SC) joint. According to Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, that’s not the only injury causing the quarterback a hard time at the moment. Per Bouchette, Roethlisberger also suffered a rib injury when he was sacked by Chiefs linebacker Justin Houston on Monday night.
With the team still sorting out just what Roethlisberger hurt and how severely he hurt it, there’s no clear picture of when he’s going to be back in the lineup. It sounds like a real stretch that Roethlisberger will be ready in time to play this week, but, as Bouchette writes, anything beyond that is just speculation until there’s more information out of Pittsburgh.
If Roethlisberger is out, the Steelers could be rolling into their matchup with Baltimore without several key players. Troy Polamalu, Antonio Brown, Rashard Mendenhall, Ryan Clark and Marcus Gilbert could all be out of the lineup as Pittsburgh tries to jump into the division lead.