Ben Roethlisberger reportedly suffered fractured ribs against Raiders

Ben Roethlisberger was held out for much of the second half of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ loss to the Oakland Raiders last week, and the details surrounding the injury he sustained have been somewhat of a mystery. According to a new report, Roethlisberger suffered fractured ribs after taking a hit.

Ian Rapoport of NFL Network said Sunday that Roethlisberger is dealing with “cracked ribs” that were unable to be diagnosed with a faulty X-ray machine in Oakland.

From @gmfb Weekend: Unlike that faulty X-Ray machine, I can actually tell you: #Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger did, in fact, have cracked ribs last week. Mystery solved. pic.twitter.com/iTEJMtsNrc — Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) December 16, 2018

That might help explain why Roethlisberger was on the sidelines for Pittsburgh’s first four offensive possessions of the second half. The team may have not known what the exact injury was, and there are reports that Big Ben received a pain injection and they were waiting for it to take effect.

Other than wrapping the injury, there isn’t a whole lot that can be done for fractured ribs. Roethlisberger was almost certainly in pain, so the Steelers were probably trying to see if they could beat a bad team with backup quarterback Josh Dobbs playing the second half. It ended up backfiring, and Mike Tomlin’s explanation for why Big Ben was held out so long did not sit well with many fans in Pittsburgh.