Steelers Lose Ben Roethlisberger Again For 1-2 Weeks
The Pittsburgh Steelers have had one interesting 2015 NFL season. First they kicked things off with suspensions for star players, Martavis Bryant and Le’Veon Bell. Then quarterback Ben Roethlisberger sprained his knee. Last week, Bell went down for the year with his own knee injury. And on Sunday, Big Ben suffered his second lower leg injury of the year.
Boy, it’d be nice if the Steelers could get a break right about now.
In a sense, they kind of did. While Roethlisberger’s foot injury looked pretty bad at first glance, the expectation is that the star passer only suffered a “mild strain” and that he may only miss a week or two.
ESPN‘s Chris Mortensen reports as much, suggesting initial fears were that Big Ben sustained the dreaded lisfranc injury, but ultimately the injury should end up being rather minor. It nearly played a crucial role in Pittsburgh’s week nine battle with the Oakland Raiders, but the Steelers luckily were able to get the win behind Antonio Browns 300+ yard day.
Ben Roethlisberger initial diagnosis is sprained foot with projected absence at 1-to-2 weeks, per team source.
— Chris Mortensen (@mortreport) November 8, 2015
Just like they did earlier in the year, the Steelers will once again have to turn to their bench under center. Fortunately, it won’t be for as long this time and Pittsburgh already knows they’re more than capable of getting the job done this time around.
One big reason why is the stellar play of seasoned vet DeAngelo Williams, who showed the loss of Le’Veon Bell isn’t so severe with 170+ rushing yards and two touchdowns in week nine.
Pittsburgh has been a team of strong will in the face of adverisity, and while they dodged a bullet here, it’s worth wondering how many more big hits this team can take before they go down for good. Luckily Steelers don’t have to really concern themselves with hypotheticals at the moment. The AFC North may mostly be out of reach, but with a win over the Raiders this week, Pittsburgh now owns a solid 5-3 record and is above any of the other wild card teams that could be in their path. They also hold a head to head tie-breaker with those aforementioned Raiders, meaning 1-2 weeks without Big Ben probably won’t bury them like it could.
That’s even more the case when you look ahead at what is in front of the Steelers: a date with the Cleveland Browns and a bye week. That path doesn’t look too difficult with or without Roethlisberger, which could really give him a strong two weeks to rest up for the stretch run.
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