Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall will see his first action Sunday night against the Baltimore Ravens since injuring his Achilles back in week 5 against the Tennessee Titans. Mendenhall, as expected, will start according to head coach Mike Tomlin, but he won\’t be the only running back to tote the rock.
“Rashard Mendenhall is going to start tonight,” Tomlin told Bill Hillgrove. “He’s healthy, and so we’re going to do that, but you’re going to see all of the backs. I’m talking about Isaac Redman and Jonathan Dwyer as well.”
This is not surprising at all and whichever of the three backs gets hot during the game will most likely be ridden by the coaching staff. Both Redman and Dwyer each had 100 plus yard games on the ground while Mendenhall was sidelined, but combined to run for only 77 yards on 27 carries last week against the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Steelers need to be able to run the ball in this game against a Ravens defense that has allowed an average of 132 yards per game in order to take some the pressure off of a quarterback Byron Leftwich, who will be starting in place of the injured Ben Roethlisberger.
