Ben Roethlisberger Injury: Pros and Cons of Steelers Starting Big Ben vs. 49ers

To play or not to play? That is the question for Ben Roethlisberger.

A difficult one to answer, indeed. The star quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers suffered a rather gruesome ankle injury against the Cleveland Browns in Week 14. According to ESPN NFL insider Adam Schefter, Big Ben is a game-time decision for the Steelers' game against the 49ers in San Francisco on Monday night:

In any case, the Steelers are invariably in a tough spot with regard to Big Ben. So should they start him or let him sit for another week?

Pros

Hobbled as Big Ben may be, it's not as though the guy hasn't played through pain before. Heck, he came back into the game against the Browns after it looked like he'd broken his ankle, so what's to stop him from giving it a go with a week-and-a-half of rest under his belt?

The Steelers could certainly use him on the field, too. The Niners are easily the toughest opponent left on Pittsburgh's schedule, one that any combination of Charlie Batch and Dennis Dixon would be hard-pressed to have success against.

More importantly, a win in San Fran would vault Pittsburgh past Baltimore, losers in spectacular fashion to San Diego on Sunday night, into the driver's seat in the AFC North and on the way to a No. 1 seed, by way of a head-to-head tiebreaker with the Patriots.

On the other hand, a loss would drop Pittsburgh back to the fifth seed in the AFC, thereby forcing the Steelers to fight through three road games just to reach the Super Bowl.

In short, Big Ben's presence under center could mean the difference between an extra week of rest before two games at Heinz Field and having to play three weeks away to earn a trip to Indianapolis.

Cons

Above all, though, the Steelers must protect their long-term prospects for playoff success. Sure, Mike Tomlin would love to have Big Ben ready to play on Monday night, but he, like his team as a whole, has his eyes on the big prize—the Vince Lombardi Trophy—and he shouldn't jeopardize Big Ben's well-being just to make the trek to Indy a bit more tolerable.

Pittsburgh has already secured a spot in the AFC playoff picture, so the squad needn't worry about dropping out on account of an "L" against the 49ers.

And it's not as though the Steelers would be at all daunted by the prospect of having to win on the road in the playoffs. In 2006, Big Ben led the sixth-seed Steelers to a Super Bowl victory over the Seattle Seahawks after winning three games away from Heinz Field.

Six years may have come and gone, but the squad as currently constituted still has more than enough experience to, between last year's trip to the Super Bowl and the championship triumph against the Arizona Cardinals in 2009, tough it out on the road.

Certainly, a healthier Big Ben would be just as capable of leading the Steelers to victory on the road as a less-than-healthy one would at home, if not more so.

Verdict?

If Big Ben has only one leg on which to play, he should sit. Winning in San Francisco with linebacker James Harrison banned by the league will be tough enough, whether or not Roethlisberger plays.

At this point, the Steelers' best bet is to hold Big Ben out to rest, run the ball with reckless abandon to keep pace with the Niners and prepare themselves for eminently winnable games against the Rams and the Browns before hitting the road in early January on the way to another AFC championship.

Follow @J0shMart1n