The Pittsburgh Steelers have been struggling with injuries recently and have had four key individuals sidelined. However, the latest name added on that injury list has caused more concern than any of the previous ones.
Coach Mike Tomlin said that Ben Roethlisberger, the Pittsburg Steelers star quarterback, suffered a left pectoral injury during the Steelers game against the Las Vegas Raiders.
Took 10 Hits During the Raiders Game
The Steelers coach said he didn’t know when the injury happened and thought that Roethlisberger didn’t know either. Tomlin went on to say that players often don’t know when injuries occur due to the adrenaline and competition during games, adding that, afterward, “things just come up.”
Roethlisberger took his fair share of hits against the Raiders. The 39-year-old was sacked only twice but took 10 hits during the game. He probably got injured in one of those.
Coach Tomlin thought that one of those hits injured Roethlisberger too. He said that the veteran quarterback took “far too many hits” and that the Steelers had to run and get the ball quicker.
Injuries Are Turning into a Serious Problem for Roethlisberger
It was expected that injuries would be a problem for Roethlisberger going into the season. The 39-year-old has spent a lot of time on the sidelines injured in recent years and said he felt some soreness even after the first game of the NFL season.
On Sunday, Roethlisberger said that the bumps and bruises are part and parcel of the game and that he was more disappointed that the Steelers lost the game and he didn’t play well enough to prevent that.
Mounting Injury Crisis
Roethlisberger is the fifth key Steelers player that might be sidelined due to an injury this season. T.J. Watt was forced to leave the field during the first half of the game against the Raiders, while Alex Highsmith is also said to be struggling with an injury.
If the two outside linebackers are forced to sit even a couple of games out, that would be a big blow for the Steelers defense that’s struggling more than people expected it would.
Linebacker Devine Bush and cornerback Joe Haden are also out with groin injuries, and both of them missed the Raiders game.
Coach Tomlin: We Have All the Answers in-House
Coach Tomlin didn’t want to go into detail as to when some of the injured players might return. Instead, he said that it all depended on when they returned to practice and how well they were going to train once they returned.
He added that some players need less practice than others to get ready and that there were a lot of variables involved when it came to which players he would pick.
However, he was clear that he wasn’t too concerned about the whole situation, and that the current injury crisis was “the tightrope” they walked “week in, week out” every NFL season. According to the coach, the Steelers had all the answers to this mounting injury crisis “in-house.”
