Mike Tomlin said that no matter what Sunday's game meant, he was going to play his guys. With just under two minutes to go in the first half of Sunday's game, that looked like the worst decision of Tomlin's young coaching career.
When
Ben Roethlisberger was slammed to the ground like your three wood after you shank a shot into the woods, the Steelers rosy playoff hopes all of a sudden looked very dim. Byron Leftwich may be one of the best backup quarterbacks in the league, but he's still someone who has thrown less than 100 passes in the past two years.
The good news is that Roethlisberger seems OK after suffering a concussion and apparently some momentary numbness. After the game, Mike Tomlin said that the Steelers expect him to play in two weeks in the Steelers' first playoff game. Tomlin and the Steelers may have dodged a disaster.
The bad news is that the injury is another concussion for Roethlisberger. He suffered two concussions in 2006 (one when he took the header into a car and another against the Falcons). The last time he suffered a concussion in a game, he returned one week later to play his worst game as a pro--
throwing four interceptions in a loss to the Raiders.