Dennis Dixon Injures Knee In Steelers’ Win Over Titans

Added on Sep 19, 2010 by Jason Kearney in

NFL

After the Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense sputtered in their opening week OT win against the Atlanta Falcons there was much speculation that starting QB Dennis Dixon could be benched in favor of veteran Byron Leftwich if he didn’t put up good numbers against Tennessee in Week 2. The Steelers’ won in convincing fashion against the Titans, but Dixon likely won’t be back at quarterback next week anyway–he left the game early in the second quarter with a knee injury. Leftwich was ‘released’ on Saturday (and will be brought back tomorrow) so Charlie Batch came in and finished the game.

It was the same knee that suffered an anterior cruciate ligament tear while Dixon was in college at Oregon. He’ll have tests in the next few days after which his status will be re-evaluated. Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin didn’t exactly make the injury sound catastrophic with this statement:

“He potentially could have come back in, handed the ball off to finish the game and so forth if that provides you any type of information.”

Dixon didn’t even sound particularly concerned:

“It was one of my runs that I had. I planted wrong, and it didn’t feel right after that. Better safe than sorry.”

With Dixon injured, Leftwich ‘released’ and Ben Roethlisberger serving his NFL imposed ‘time out’ for fondling Georgia sorority girls, the Steelers were down to their fourth string QB and Hines Ward was pleased they took care of business anyway:

“Our guys stayed together. We had a fourth-string quarterback out there playing. We were interchanging with our offensive line who were cramping up. We still find a way to win ballgames. We know we’ve got to get better offensively, but it’s great to be 2-0.”

The Steelers have a tricky road game at Tampa Bay next week followed by a tough home game against Baltimore, but they’ve got a very good look at doing no worse than 3-1 during ‘Big Ben’s’ absence. The offense has been nonexistant but the Steelers’ defense looks downright fearsome, which makes safety Troy Polamalu a very happy man:

“We’ve been playing pretty good. There are some mistakes we’ve got to learn from. They were in the game still even with all the turnovers they had, so we still have to get better.”

We’ll keep you posted as to the Steelers’ quarterback situation, but look for Byron Leftwich to get the start next weekend at Tampa Bay regardless of how Dixon’s knee injury plays out.