Steelers vs. 49ers: Pittsburgh Will Struggle in San Fran with or Without Big Ben

Ben Roethlisberger is active for the Pittsburgh Steelers, bum ankle be damned.

That should come as little surprise, given how significant a bearing the result of Monday night's game against the San Francisco 49ers will have on Pittsburgh's playoff fortunes.

A win over the Niners would put Pittsburgh in the drivers seat in the race for the AFC North and the No. 1 seed in the playoffs. A loss, on the other hand, would drop the Steelers back to the fifth spot in the AFC postseason picture.

With so much riding on this one game, Big Ben had little choice but to give it a go, even if he has to hobble around the field while his throws sail into the Bay.

That is, unless Mike Tomlin would rather put his team's fate in the hands of Charlie Batch or Dennis Dixon.

Yeah, I thought so, too.

Without Big Ben, the Steelers would've been reduced to running the ball with reckless abandon, which wouldn't serve their winning interests much, seeing as how San Francisco sports the NFL's stingiest run defense by a hefty margin.

In fact, the 49ers have yet to allow a single rushing touchdown since Jim Harbaugh came to town.

Good luck then to Rashard Mendenhall, Isaac Redman and the rest of Pittsburgh's backfield, as they go all Indiana Jones in search of daylight.

Not that Roethlisberger will have much more success throwing the ball than they will have running it. The Niners' pass defense ain't too shabby, ranking in the top half of the league in just about every category. To be sure, San Fran can't even hold a candle to Pittsburgh when it comes to defending the pass.

But that's beside the point. Big Ben's mobility will be limited all night, as will his accuracy on account of the extreme discomfort in his ankle. As a result, there's a good chance Roethlisberger will look much more like Tim Tebow than Tom Brady in the passing game.

That's not to say the Steelers can't or won't still win this game. Their defense is still top-notch, even with linebacker James Harrison sitting out on account of an NFL-imposed ban, and will be up against a Niners offense that's anything but a juggernaut in its own right.

Whatever the result is, you can expect that it won't be a pretty one for either side, with these stout defenses playing as big of a role as Roethlisberger's lack of fitness.

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