Following a difficult 34-17 loss to the Baltimore Ravens Saturday evening, Mike Tomlin outlined the Pittsburgh Steelers’ injury situation ahead of a short week before facing the Kansas City Chiefs on Christmas Day. Speaking to reporters postgame, Tomlin noted that CB Joey Porter Jr. has a knee injury while WR Ben Skowronek has a hip injury.
“Joey Porter had a knee injury, don’t have a lot of details there,” Tomlin said via the team website .”He wasn’t able to finish and Ben Skowronek had a hip injury. He wasn’t able to finish as well. I’m sure I’ll meet with you guys tomorrow and we’ll have more details about some of that.”
The team announced Porter with a calf injury suffered in the first half. It’s unclear if Tomlin misspoke or if further testing/information showed Porter to have a knee ailment.
UPDATE (8:51 PM): Per ESPN’s Brooke Pryor, it was a knee injury that led to pain in Porter’s calf.
He attempted to return to the game following halftime and played a handful of snaps but quickly exited. He was replaced by second-year CB Cory Trice Jr. playing in his first game since Week 3. With the Steelers down three of four secondary starters — SS DeShon Elliott and CB Donte Jackson were inactive — QB Lamar Jackson had success through the air, tossing three touchdown passes. That’s the most he’s had in a game against the Steelers.
WR Ben Skowronek suffered a hip injury during the first half but later returned to the game. Similar to Porter, he did not finish.
Not playing Saturday due to injury were QB Justin Fields (abdominal), WR George Pickens (hamstring), DL Larry Ogunjobi (groin), CB Donte Jackson (back), and SS DeShon Elliott (hamstring). Pickens’ status has generated conflicting reports between optimistic and only a “glimmer of hope” for him to play. He didn’t officially practice this past week but was aggressively working on the side.
Mike Tomlin will hold a press conference Sunday to provide an update on the Steelers’ injury situation.
With only four days to the Steelers’ next game, it will be tough for injured players to get healthy and come back. Still, the door will be open for those injured today and those hurt coming into the contest to suit up in what will be an important game against the Chiefs, the team with the NFL’s best record.
