Ben Roethlisberger Injury: Twitter Reacts as Big Ben is Carted to Locker Room

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger suffered a left knee injury in the third quarter of Sunday's Week 3 game against the St. Louis Rams. Steelers public relations spokesman Burt Lauten indicated he would not return to the contest.

CBS Sports' Jason La Canfora later reported Roethlisberger had a sprained MCL and will be out for four weeks. Roethlisberger tried to step up into a running lane as Rams safety Mark Barron came in low on a blitz, and the Steelers signal-caller immediately grabbed his leg upon hitting the turf.

NFL.com had the footage of Big Ben's injury:

Plenty of reaction surfaced on Twitter, which was to be expected given Roethlisberger's status as one of the NFL's premier quarterbacks.

NFL.com's Gregg Rosenthal didn't believe Barron had any malicious intent while trying to make a big play for St. Louis:

Barron did appear to stumble into Roethlisberger as he came off a block and had no choice but to grab hold of whatever he could to get the strapping signal-caller to the ground. There doesn't seem to be any grounds for disciplinary action from the league office.

Albert Breer of NFL Network compared the situation to what happened when another marquee QB went down years ago:

Former Kansas City Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard went low and caused New England Patriots QB Tom Brady to suffer a severe knee injury in 2008, which is what Breer is referring to. The two situations are fairly similar, though the hope is Roethlisberger's injury isn't as serious as the torn ACL and MCL Brady had.

To continue the eerily similar theme, NFL Network's Andrew Siciliano made an astute observation about Barron's history:

It seems more bizarre coincidence than anything that Barron has been involved in multiple reminiscent incidents.

As for what the future holds for Roethlisberger, sports physician David J. Chao offered his expert opinion based on what video replay showed:

ESPN's Jeremy Fowler notes how unusual it is for Roethlisberger to be out of the lineup:

Michael Vick will run the Steelers offense while Roethlisberger recovers. ESPN Stats & Info highlighted how tough it will be for him to play to Roethlisberger's standard:

Vick's best football is probably behind him, but he does have reigning NFL receiving leader Antonio Brown and an excellent running back in Le'Veon Bell to help him along. Electric playmaker Martavis Bryant also returns in Week 5 from a four-game suspension.

If Pittsburgh is meant to have any hope of a deep playoff run, Roethlisberger can't be out for long. The veteran Vick is a solid stopgap option, but he has an aggressive style of play that lends itself to turnovers and has resulted in a laundry list of injuries in his career.

The Steelers are bound to lean on Bell and DeAngelo Williams to pound the rock, capitalize on Brown's talents and simplify what Vick has to do until Roethlisberger returns.