The Pittsburgh Steelers won their fourth straight game Sunday but find themselves in a bad spot.
The Baltimore Ravens come to Heinz Field for a Sunday night game with a one-game lead in the AFC North over the Steelers, who likely will play without quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.
Roethlisberger has a sprained right shoulder from an early third-quarter sack.
“That’s all the information I have at this point,” coach Mike Tomlin said, calling the injury an SC joint sprain.
“Whatever that is. I coach football,” Tomlin said.
While it’s not known how long he will be out, Roethlisberger almost surely will miss the game vs. Baltimore.
The sternoclavicular joint is the front of the shoulder where the clavicle meets the shoulder. The sprain indicates ligament damage. The injury is the same one that ended Brett Favre’s consecutive starts streak at 297 in 2010. Recovery time varies greatly depending on the degree of the sprain and could be a three week or three month injury.
It’s a game the Steelers likely have to win in order to have a shot at a division title. What’s more, they play the Ravens again in Baltimore two weeks later and there’s no telling right now if Roethlisberger will be back by then.
Byron Leftwich played in his first real game in two years and that was only brief mopup duty in the final game of the 2010 season against Cleveland, when he threw seven passes. His only previous action came on Sept. 27, 2009 when he started the first three games for Tampa Bay and then did not play again and wound up on injured reserve.
Right now, he’s their man.
“We feel comfortable any time one of our quarterbacks is in the game, whether it’s Roethlisberger, Leftwich or Charlie Batch,” receiver Mike Wallace said.
“Byron Leftwich will be ready to go,” said halfback Jonathan Dwyer. “We believe in him. He’s won a lot of games in his career. If he was anywhere else, he would be starting. He has sacrificed to be here.”