Tomlin should have made the call to pull Leftwich after first series

[BlitzburghRockCity]

This is from Mike Prisuta this afternoon, but anybody who watched this game could clearly see that Leftwich was in discomfort and lost all velocity on his passes. That ridiculous attempt to fire to ball to Gilreath late in the game could have been a HUGE play.

Then he gets absolutely blind side blasted on a sack and limped off like he was seeing stars; yet another reason that the staff should have pulled him regardless of how much he wanted to fight through. I admire his guts and fully expect him to want to stay in the game but performance was lacking severely.

Mike Tomlin said he was never close to pulling Byron Leftwich due to injury on Sunday night.
And Leftwich wouldn't acknowledge any serious injury afterward.

But beyond all the discomfort Leftwich was clearly in throughout the game against the Ravens there's the physical evidence that screams something was wrong.

On the Steelers' last third down of the game Leftwich got a running start into a deep ball intended for David Gilreath. The pass covered 50 yards before landing short of its target.

On the final day of minicamp in mid-June Leftwich won a "throw off" with then-Steelers quarterback Troy Smith by throwing a football 71 yards in the air.

That he couldn't do it again seemingly betrays his physical condition at the time.
All that's missing now is official confirmation from the Steelers.

[Stone]

There has to be something significant wrong with Batch.....he wasn't going in unless Lefty was dead? WHY?

[papabaier]

Face it, Tomlin sucks as a situational coach. Good talker, bad plans, bad calls, bad time management, doesn't know how to deal with injured players - screwed our playoffs last year with handling of BEn's ankle.

[Goodfrom55]

Heading into Cleveland on the arms of Good ol' Charlie Batch.

Holding strong, high faith, but the special teams better not give away the game like they did yesterday.

[Omicron]

And get an official with glasses so they see those blocks in the back. I am not whining, just saying.

[lancer89074]

How can Tomlin characterize Leftwich's performance as 'great'??? Holy mackerel does he think that we did not see the game and his ineffectiveness? Why can he not replace a quarterback that is hurting? On the Monday night game last year, he let Ben get plowed into the turf though it was obvious to anyone that he could not perform. I am simply at a loss for words to even explain Tomlin's behavior? Can anyone please explain this to me?

[Clevelandsux]

Tomlin has been trying to get rid of Charlie since he got here. And all He has done is win us ball games. Remember two years ago when ben was suspended? Remember last year vs the Rams. He almost beat the Ravens in 2010, but our d blew that one. Batch never has been a longterm solution. But I do think he'll get us a w sunday.

[Clevelandsux]

This is from Mike Prisuta this afternoon, but anybody who watched this game could clearly see that Leftwich was in discomfort and lost all velocity on his passes. That ridiculous attempt to fire to ball to Gilreath late in the game could have been a HUGE play.

Then he gets absolutely blind side blasted on a sack and limped off like he was seeing stars; yet another reason that the staff should have pulled him regardless of how much he wanted to fight through. I admire his guts and fully expect him to want to stay in the game but performance was lacking severely.

ya and 1 + 1 = 2

[Clevelandsux]

How can Tomlin characterize Leftwich's performance as 'great'??? Holy mackerel does he think that we did not see the game and his ineffectiveness? Why can he not replace a quarterback that is hurting? On the Monday night game last year, he let Ben get plowed into the turf though it was obvious to anyone that he could not perform. I am simply at a loss for words to even explain Tomlin's behavior? Can anyone please explain this to me?

Its called not admitting he's wrong.

[Troyisabeast_43]

I agree Tomlin screwed up big time by not pulling Leftwich after seeing how he couldnt make any simple throws especially in the 2nd half. This was the kind of game where Tomlin and his coaching staff especially without Ben pretty much needed to do whatever was possible to try and win this game especially since it was at home too seeing how hard the Ravens are to beat in Baltimore. And Tomlin simply didnt do what he needed to do to win this game and he stuck with Lefty and therefore it cost the Steelers the game. The Ravens were very very beatable the other night and had Batch come in and lead one 2nd half drive for a TD as good as the Steelers defense was playing Sunday night and as bad as Flacco and Ray Rice looked the Steelers most likely would have won. It's a tough pill to swallow going back a few days and analyzing this entire game but at this point you cant do anything about it and we as Steelers fans can bitch about it until we are blue in the face but the bottom line we have to move on and look forward to what we can control and that is these last 6 games of the season.