PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – The Pittsburgh Steelers saw their opportunity to control their own destiny slip through their hands after a loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Monday.

There has been much debate both locally and nationally about the Steelers’ decision to let Ben Roethlisberger play despite being hampered by a high ankle sprain.

Roethlisberger completed 25 of 44 passes for 330 yards in the game. However, he threw three interceptions and also lost a fumble, which led to three scoring drives by the 49ers.

Head coach did not make any excuses and gave all the credit to the 49ers saying they played, “winning football.”

Tomlin admitted the team just didn’t do enough to win.

After the game Tomlin and the players defended decision to let Roethlisberger play.

“He was deemed healthy enough to play. We always like what Ben provides us, not only from his quality of play but his leadership. This guy’s a tremendous competitor. We appreciate his efforts. Obviously, we fell short tonight,” Tomlin said.

“We expect that from Ben. He’s the type of guy that goes out and gives us everything every game. Broken nose, broken thumb, high ankle sprain, doesn’t matter. If he can play, he’s the type of guy that’s going to do it. We knew if he had an opportunity to go out there and play, he would play and he would play hard, and he did. Obviously, he wasn’t the same Ben we know, but that Ben is better than most of the quarterbacks in the NFL,” Ryan Clark said.

During his press conference Tuesday, Tomlin said there were never any plans to not start Roethlisberger. He said he is a competitor and he did not want to deny the team an opportunity to win the game.

He did not consider pulling Roethlisberger throughout the game, though he did say he wished that they would have played better.

Tomlin said he will assess the injuries during their short week as they prepare to face the St. Louis Rams on Saturday.

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