The San Francisco 49ers have plenty to deal with this weekend against the Arizona Cardinals, but it is worth noting the results from last night's Thursday Night Football contest between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns. The Steelers managed an ugly 14-3 win, but the bigger news was Ben Roethlisberger suffering an ankle injury and playing the entire second half with it.

After the game, Steelers head coach declared that Roethlisberger had a high ankle sprain. If it is indeed a high ankle sprain, he realistically would miss the 49ers game as those sprains often take a minimum of two weeks to heal, if not more. He has eleven days thanks to the time between TNF and MNF, but even still, it would normally seem unlikely.

Roethlisberger did play on the ankle last night, but given how adrenaline can kick in, I can see how that might be possible. If he is good to go next week I might call BS on the high ankle sprain diagnosis, but I suppose we will just have to wait and see. It is worth noting that Peter King spent some time in the Steelers locker room after the game and tweeted that Roethlisberger could barely walk.

It is also worth noting that center Maurkice Pouncey suffered an ankle injury as well. It sounded briefly like Tomlin lumped him in with Roethlisberger in terms of a high ankle sprain, but upon further review, I think it was just a normal ankle sprain based on the way the words were tossed around by Mike Tomlin.

While removing those two from the equation weakens the Steelers, I'll take the wins however the 49ers can get them. There is some talk about people making excuses if the 49ers beat the Steelers without Roethlisberger. As far as I'm concerned, who cares. All that matters is getting that first round bye.