Ben Roethlisberger exited the Steelers' 28-26 loss to the Seahawks at halftime — and nobody sounds quite sure when he'll return.
"Ben had an elbow injury to his right elbow," Mike Tomlin began in his postgame press conference. "It's being evaluated. He wasn't able to return."
Yeah, we saw all that, coach. Do you know how serious it is or anything more than that?
"I do not, no."
Roethlisberger exited the game with an 8-for-15, 75 yards, zero touchdowns, zero interceptions stat line.
We saw Roethlisberger after the game in the locker room with no sling, wrap, brace or otherwise alarming gear around his arm or elbow. When asking a few Steelers players in the locker room what they'd heard, it was more of the same: No update. Nobody knows.
That said ...
"He's being evaluated," Tomlin added a second time when probed again on the issue.
That's it, then. That's as good as the update gets for now regarding Roethlisberger's status.
Mason Rudolph took over for Roethlisberger in the game, throwing an interception on his first regular-season series as a pro. But don't blame Rudolph for that one. The third-down pass clanged off Donte Moncrief's hands and was picked off by the Seahawks' Bradley McDougald.
Rudolph bounced back and showed some promise, throwing two fourth-quarter touchdowns, both to Vance McDonald.
"He is going to throw the ball and make his reads," McDonald was saying of Rudolph after the game. "I think he is very deliberate about that and that is something we can look forward to on offense. I think he has come a long way since last year."
And if Roethlisberger does have to miss time?
"Obviously, things will change big time, it will be different," McDonald said. "I think [Roethlisberger] and Mason have similar play styles. With the experience we will be missing from Ben, it will be different."
That's still a massive change for the offense. Any time you swap quarterbacks, adjustments will be necessary. And McDonald is prepared to handle them if that's the case.
"If [Rudolph is] our guy, then he is our guy and we have to move forward with him," McDonald added. "He did well today. I think Mason did a really good job today, and he is just going to have to build on that."
Like McDonald, Tomlin believes Rudolph tested well in his first taste of regular-season NFL action.
"We didn't change the offense for him," Tomlin said. "Mason's capable, man. He's been a part of this thing. He's the backup quarterback. We're capable of functioning in a very normal manner when he's in there, and we did."
The Steelers lost though, and that, naturally, outshines the positives displayed by Rudolph throughout that fourth quarter of work.
"I like some of the things he displayed, his communication, his grit," Tomlin said. "But we gotta find a way to win a football game. And we weren't able to do that today."
Roethlisberger wasn't the only Steelers player to exit the game on Sunday:
• Vince Williams (hamstring) left in the first quarter and did not return.
• James Conner (knee) is under evaluation.
• Anthony Chickillo (plantar fasciitis) is under evaluation.
• Sean Davis (shoulder) is being evaluated.
Tomlin wasn't ready to pin the loss on any of that, though.
"We lost a number of guys in this game, but that wasn't the reason why we didn't win this game," he said. "We were fully able with the guys that were on the field. We didn't make enough plays to be quite honest with you ... We gotta make plays. And the guys that represented us on the field are fully capable of that. We didn't make enough of them, and that's why we lost the game."
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Steelers vs. Seahawks, Heinz Field, Sept. 15, 2019 -- MATT SUNDAY / DKPS
