Ben Roethlisberger OK after temporarily leaving Steelers’ win over Cowboys with a knee injury, per Mike Tomlin

Ben Roethlisberger walked gingerly into the locker room after sustaining a hit to his left knee during the first half of the Steelers’ road come-from-behind victory over the Cowboys. Roethlisberger, who was briefly replaced by Mason Rudolph before re-entering the game in the third quarter, threw two fourth-quarter touchdown passes to lead Pittsburgh to a 24-19 victory.

“No real health issues to report of,” Tomlin said when assessing injuries the Steelers sustained during his postgame press conference. “Ben was able to go back into the game and finish the game. I’m sure there’ll be bumps and bruises associated with play.”

Roethlisberger said “I’ll be fine” when asked about his left knee during his postgame press conference. 

With his team trailing 13-0 in the first half, Roethlisberger threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to James Washington before he sustained the injury. Here’s a look at the play where Roethlisberger may have sustained the injury. Roethlisberger went 14 of 19 for 111 yards before leaving the game. The Steelers trailed at halftime, 13-9. 

“There were no issues with his availability,” Tomlin said when asked if not having Roethlisberger for the second half was ever a concern. “We were just getting him looked at. We wanted to get a jump on halftime. We got a turnover, we allowed Mason to finish the half, and then leave [Roethlisberger] inside getting evaluated where he was.” 

After spending the end of the first half in the locker room, Roethlisberger returned to the sideline before the start of the second half. And after a scoreless third quarter, Roethlisberger engineered three fourth-quarter scoring drives that included a 31-yard touchdown pass to JuJu Smith-Schuster and his eight-yard touchdown pass to Eric Ebron with 2:14 left. The Steelers’ defense then came up with two defensive stops to extend Pittsburgh’s undefeated start to the season to 8-0. 

After missing 14 games last season after undergoing elbow surgery, Roethlisberger, who went 29 of 42 for 306 yards on Sunday, is off to the best start of his career. Through eight games, Roethlisberger has thrown 18 touchdown passes against just four interceptions. With Sunday’s win, the Steelers have won at least eight games in each of Roethlisberger’s 17 seasons, an NFL record. The Steelers also extended their streak of non-losing seasons to 18, the second-longest streak in the NFL.