In a game that didn’t end until 1 AM/EST, the Pittsburgh Steelers are licking their wounds after allowing a late touchdown in their 20-17 loss to the Dallas Cowboys. They’re also dealing with literal wounds, suffering several injuries in defeat. Addressing reporters following the game, Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin offered an injury update.
“Had some injuries in play,” he said via the Steelers.com team site. “Nick Herbig got a hamstring. DeMarvin Leal got a neck injury of some kind that’s being evaluated. Don’t have a lot of information on that. And that’s where it is.”
Herbig was a critical loss in the third quarter. He had a strong performance with a half-sack and multiple pressures. But he injured his leg on a pass rush that led him limping off to the locker room, struggling to put weight on his injured leg.
Without him, Pittsburgh became thin at outside linebacker and lacked the pressure needed to close out the game. Dallas chipped and largely took away T.J. Watt while DeMarvin Leal was hurt and left a short time later, leaving Jeremiah Moon as the only other healthy outside linebacker. Moon was playing in his first game of the season after spending the first month on injured reserve, no doubt stressing conditioning.
Leal stayed down on the field for several moments before walking off the field. OLB Alex Highsmith missed his second game with a groin injury and is expected to miss the Steelers’ Week 6 outing against the Las Vegas Raiders.
The Steelers came into the game with several injuries. Beyond Highsmith, RB Jaylen Warren (knee), RB/KR Cordarrelle Patterson (ankle), TE MyCole Pruitt (knee), and QB Russell Wilson (calf) were inactive due to injury. As shared on the NBC broadcast, Wilson believes he’ll be healthy by next week. We’ll see who starts at quarterback.
Pittsburgh will play at Las Vegas next Sunday at 4:05 PM/ET. That will be another road game for the Steelers.
