The Pittsburgh Steelers beast the Cleveland Browns ion the road on Sunday but they did have two players suffer injuries worth noting in their Week 8 victory.
After the Steelers win on Sunday, head coach Mike Tomlin quickly recapped the overall health of the team during his opening statement.
“Boz [Chris Boswell] is injured, obviously, in the concussion protocol, Tomlin said of the team’s kicker. [Kalen] Ballage I think has some ribs. Other than that, just natural bumps and bruises associated with play.”
Boswell suffered his injury late in the first half and as a result of him being hit near the head and neck area following him releasing a pass on a fake field goal try. The hit on Boswell was made by Browns defensive tackle Jordan Elliott and while very questionable in nature, it was not flagged.
After the game, referee Shawn Hochuli was asked about the hit on Boswell as part of a pool report.
“Of course he is a passer, he is outside the pocket, so he’s still afforded the protections of a passer,” Hochuli said. “Not two-step protection and not low hit protection, but everything else that applies to a passer. And no, we did not see any contact that rose to the level of a foul. It wasn’t late and, as I said, we didn’t see contact that rose to the level of a foul.”
It will now be interesting to see how long Boswell remains in concussion protocol and if the Steelers ultimately need to sign another kicker.
The Steelers had two players miss the Sunday game due to injuries in outside linebacker Melvin Ingram (groin) and tight end Eric Ebron (hamstring).