Another twist in QB saga
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Byron Leftwich leaves the field with the medical staff after his left knee was injured in the second quarter Thursday night at Heinz Field. -
Emmanuel Sanders celebrates his first-half touchdown with Mike Wallace.
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The unique situation confronting the Steelers at their quarterback position turned more somber Thursday night when Byron Leftwich departed the final preseason game for good in the second quarter with a sprained left knee.
Coach Mike Tomlin declined to speculate how long Leftwich might be out because he said he did not yet know the results of an MRI test on the quarterback. But others around the team did not think the news was good and that Leftwich would not be ready to play in the opener Sept. 12 against Atlanta or perhaps for several weeks.
"That's what we were getting," said Charlie Batch, who went from possibly not making the team to possibly its starting quarterback for the opener and beyond.
A sprained knee means a torn ligament of some degree and nearly always means a player missing two or three weeks.
Tomlin allowed Dennis Dixon only a brief appearance at quarterback after Leftwich's injury, pulling him in favor of Batch, who played the rest of the way in the Steelers' 19-3 victory.
"I didn't know exactly the extent of what Byron's injury was," Tomlin said. "I am just interested in keeping them all clean from that juncture on."
In order to help avoid injury, Batch threw only four passes in 2 1/2 quarters.
Leftwich was the presumed starter while Ben Roethlisberger serves his suspension to open the season. Roethlisberger will learn this morning when he travels to New York whether NFL commissioner Roger Goodell will reduce his suspension from six games to possibly four to start the season. The Steelers were preparing Leftwich to open the season as the starter and for Dixon to relieve him on occasion.
Now, it's possible that Batch will start and Dixon will still enter games with the special packages the coaches have said they have designed for him.
"I think this is a classic example of being ready because you never know," Batch said.
First Published September 3, 2010 12:13 am
