In the third quarter of Saturday Night’s wildcard game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger suffered a shoulder injury. Ben went to the sideline favoring his right throwing shoulder and then was carted to the locker room.

For Broncos fans most significant development is looks like Big Ben can’t raise right arm #9news #9sports

Ben eventually returned to the sideline but he didn’t take any warm-up throws and did not look like he was ready to return to the game.

Things changed after the Bengals took the lead and backup Landry Jones was struggling big time for the Steelers. This forced the Steelers coaches to bring a banged up Big Ben back onto the field.

Ben clearly looked injured when he was out there for that final drive. His throws lacked velocity, his accuracy was off and he couldn’t throw the ball downfield. While he did lead the Steelers to a thrilling comeback, he was clearly favoring his shoulder.

The Steelers nor Big Ben really said what injury he suffered, but Ben said he was in a lot of pain at the end of the game. I’d expect Ben to undergo tests over the next 24 hours to get an official diagnosis on his injury.

With a full week of time off for Ben, I’d be shocked if he missed next Sunday’s game against the Broncos, but will be close to 100%? Ben is as tough as they come when it comes to playing through injuries so it will be interesting to see. The injury was to Ben’s throwing shoulder and the Broncos defense led the league in sacks this year. So things could be rough for Ben.

If Ben is unable to play, backup quarterback Landry Jones to get the start. He played a handful of games earlier in the year when Ben went down, but he didn’t really look all that great. The Steelers even decided to go with a bummed shoulder Roethlisberger over a healthy Jones on the final drive of the game.

When there’s official word on Ben’s injury we’ll have an update for you.

Go Broncos!