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Steelers vs. Rams: Big Ben goes down

By Tim Weaver

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This is the last thing that you ever want to see in an NFL game, especially when it happens to your franchise quarterback – Pittsburgh Steelers star Ben Roethlisberger just went down against the St. Louis Rams with what may be a serious knee injury.

Here’s the clip, courtesy of Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports. It’s not pretty:

That was Rams safety Mark Barron crawling and then diving at Roethlisberger’s knee. No penalty was called on the play. Big Ben seemed really shaken up and he was carted off the field, obviously in a great deal of pain.

It’s difficult to discern exactly what Baron’s intention was but the Rams do have a history of dirty hits on quarterbacks. Jeff Fisher’s teams excel at beating up your backfield and this may be one more case of it in action.

The news is not  definitive yet but it doesn’t sound good.

Field Yates of ESPN is reporting that Roethlisberger will not return the rest of the game:

Meanwhile, Michael Vick has stepped in behind center.

Obviously, Steelers fans are not thrilled right now. Here’s a sample of some of the panic trending on Pittsburgh Twitter right now:

"BENNNNNNN"

Some analysts are speculating that Roethlisberger’s injury may be an ACL tear. He is expected to undergo x-rays and an MRI to reveal the extent of the damage.

Currently the Steelers lead the Rams 9-3 early in the fourth quarter.

We will post an update as soon as we know more, so keep it tuned here.

Update:
There’s no word just yet on Roethlisberger’s condition but there is a consensus emerging about the nature of the hit. Fox’s officiating expert Mike Pereira just weighed in and he believes the play should have been called a foul:

Barron may face disciplinary action from the NFL office, depending how they interpret it.

More as it comes…

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