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Byron Leftwich injury: Another Steelers QB hurt, Charlie Batch likely to start

Steelers fans will be unsurprised to learn that Byron Leftwich was playing hurt against the Ravens.

Charles LeClaire-US PRESSWIRE

After losing starter Ben Roethlisberger, the Steelers are now down a backup, as Byron Leftwich broke two of his ribs and hurt his shoulder as the Steelers lost to the Ravens Sunday night. The rib injury apparently occurred during the Steelers' third possession of the game. It's surprising it took the Steelers this long to figure out something wasn't right with Leftwich, who under-threw a number of balls and generally didn't even look like an NFL quarterback throughout much of the later part of the game. Twitter was abuzz with speculation about Leftwich's health throughout much of the evening.

This means that the Steelers will likely turn to third-string quarterback Charlie Batch in their next game against the Browns. A lot of Steelers fans were calling for the team to play Batch during the Ravens matchup, and it's odd that the Steelers didn't -- even if Leftwich had been healthy, his performance didn't warrant the faith in him the Steelers showed. That the Steelers continued to use Leftwich despite his obvious problems does not speak well of their faith in Batch right now, so expect the offense's performance against Cleveland to be rocky. Fortunately, it's just the Browns.

Look for the Steelers to add another quarterback this week.

Photographs by dizfunk used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.