Ben Roethlisberger is a man of steel.  You have to give the guy credit for playing through pain and injury, but Monday night in D.C., he sat out the second half of the game against the Redskins.  Until the end of the first half, it appeared the Steelers and Redskins would be trading field goals all night.  Then Roethlisberger and the Steelers put together a short drive which started with a blocked punt.  Big Ben pulled a QB sneak on 1st and goal at the 1-yard line.  He jumped over the goal line on top of the pile for the game's first touchdown.  Then he went off to the locker room a half-minute early.

When the Steelers got the ball for the second half, we learned that Ben was getting x-rays on his right shoulder in the locker room, and that his return was questionable.  Cue Byron Leftwich.  As the game progressed, we learned Ben said to the trainers "it felt like my shoulder popped."  Uhh, that's not a good sign, Ben.  I know he'd love to play through these injuries, and so far he's done a good job of doing so this year, but this time he was banged up pretty darn good.  Those of us who watched the game saw him cheering on the sidelines when Leftwich threw a bomb to Nate Washington for a huge gain.  He was cheering and raising his left arm.  He did not want to move his right arm at all.  That right arm is of course his throwing arm, and when I saw him standing there with that arm at his side, I knew he wasn't coming back into the game.  So Leftwich got to play 30 minutes against the team he grew up rooting for.

Roethlisberger had an MRI late yesterday, but the Steelers still have yet to release the results and how much time Ben will miss.

Now some people may be thinking the Steelers are in trouble if Ben can't play.  Well, low and behold, all Byron Leftwich did in the second half was lead 2 touchdown drives while the Steelers defense proved why they're the #1 defense in the NFL.  So this begs the question, are they really in trouble without Big Ben?  The answer is no, and it's because they've got Big Byron ready to go if Ben can't play.  For those of you who forgot about Byron Leftwich, he gave everyone a friendly reminder on Monday night.  In that second half, we saw the Byron who used to kick some butt as the starting QB of the Jaguars before he got injured.  He looked like the Byron Leftwich of old, and that's a great thing for this Steelers offense.

The Steelers will be fine if Roethlisberger can't play.  We saw the cannon that is Leftwich's arm against the Redskins.  Don't forget that Willie Parker was also back in the lineup, and looked healthy.  Parker gained 70 yards on 21 carries, not stellar, but not bad either considering he was playing for the first time in a month, and came back against the #5 rush defense in the league.

Many people thought the Steelers would be bad this year considering the injuries they've sustained, and that the offensive line would be the reason for their downfall.  There's no doubt that offensive line has to take part of the blame for the 2 losses to the Eagles and Giants.  The team as a whole has lost a lot of players already this year.  Mitch Berger has done well as a replacement punter after Daniel Sepulveda tore his ACL in training camp.  They've also lost their long snapper Greg Warren, their #1 draft pick Rashard Mendenhall, and guard Kendall Simmons, all out for the season.  They were also without Willie Parker for a month, and TE Heath Miller is not 100% healthy either.  Of course we all know Ben Roethlisberger has been playing hurt all year.  If that's not enough, they've lost Ryan Clark and Bryant McFadden to injury recently, and veteran O-lineman Marvel Smith has been out with back spasms.  They also didn't have Casey Hampton for a couple games, and even sack machine Lamar Woodley is on the injury list as "probable" for his calf.  Even with all of these injuries, the Pittsburgh Steelers are still 6-2.  This says one thing, this team has a tremendous amount of depth.

So don't worry, the Steelers have not been slowed by injuries to this point, and I don't expect them to hit a road block now.  The Steelers will still win the AFC North.  The Ravens will keep pace with them, but if Ben can't play, Byron will make sure the Steelers don't open the door for the other AFC North teams to walk through.

BK over and out