The Pittsburgh Steelers are back in winner’s row after a solid performance vs. the Atlanta Falcons at Heinz Field in Week 5. With the Cincinnati Bengals looming ahead in Week 6, the Steelers will hope to “stack wins” for the first time this year and improve on their 2-2-1 record.

Something I did last season and I’m going to start again is the Black-and-gold Links article.

This is an article where I take stories from quality news sources across the Internet and add them here for your viewing pleasure. I won’t be posting the entire articles, but I’ll link each story and author so that you can read the full article.

Today we talk about how it was brought up, by Ben Roethlisberger, that his elbow injury from Week 1 has continued to plague his throwing mechanics. This makes people wonder if maybe this is the cause of his inaccuracies as of late. Not buying it? Me neither, but Roethlisberger downplayed the injury in his media session on Wednesday.

Let’s get to the news:

Steelers QB Ben Roethlisberger says elbow issue not a concern

By: Chris Adamski, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

A day after unsolicitedly mentioning that an elbow injury had been adversely affecting his throwing motion, Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger downplayed the elbow would be an issue going forward.

“Ah, it’s fine,” Roethlisberger said from the UPMC Rooney Sports Complex on Wednesday morning. “I don’t even need to talk about it. It’s good.”

During his weekly radio show on 93.7 FM on Tuesday, Roethlisberger said he was “dealing with a little bit of an elbow issue,” referring to when he was strip-sacked by the Browns’ Genard Avery late in overtime during the season opener Sept. 9 at Cleveland.

Roethlisberger missed two days of practice the ensuing week but has not missed any of the four games since.

Just before halftime of this past Sunday’s game against Atlanta, Roethlisberger threw an interception in the end zone to drop his passer rating to 64.6 to that point. He had a perfect rating of 158.3 in the second half (10 for 12, 155 yards, two touchdowns, no interceptions) as the Steelers scored touchdowns on their first three drives.

Roethlisberger said Tuesday that he made an adjustment at halftime to keep his elbow up, resisting the temptation to drop it to avoid pain.

“It’s something I need to mentally get over in terms of my throwing motion,” Roethlisberger said Tuesday. “I’ve got to keep the arm high to keep the ball driving instead of sailing, that’s all.”

Will chippy nature of Steelers-Bengals rivalry be hurt by new rules?

By: Chris Adamski, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review

The NFL might be gradually outlawing big hits and rough play. But when it comes to the rivalry between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals, Ben Roethlisberger said the new rules might not apply.

“Some of the stuff that happens in that game, the rules were made for before that,” Roethlisberger said.

“It’s not about just the physicality of the football game to me,” the Steelers quarterback said about playing the Bengals. “It’s when it gets the extracurricular stuff that you wish would be cut out of it – and hope is cut out this time.”

The Steelers and Bengals have been division opponents for almost a half-century, but perhaps never before has the rivalry simmered as much as it has in recent years.

The most recent meeting between the teams featured 20 accepted penalties for 239 yards. Nine unsportsmanlike conduct/unnecessary roughness penalties were called, three players were fined and one was suspended. Also, three players left the 23-20 Steelers victory on Dec. 4 because of concussions, two were carted off the field and four others left the game injured and did not return.

“It’s one of those games that can get chippy times – you hope it doesn’t,” Roethlisberger said. “You hope it’s just a good, hard-fought football game. But sometimes (it isn’t). So we will do our best to all that in the past behind us and go play it like it’s a normal football game.”

Ron Cook: Steelers linemen deliver perfect gift by keeping Ben Roethlisberger off the turf

By: Ron Cook, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

When he wasn’t ripping NFL officials or dodging annoying questions about constant newsmaker Antonio Brown, coach Mike Tomlin got right to the point when asked to summarize the Steelers’ 41-17 win Sunday against the Atlanta Falcons.

“That’s an easy assessment. We ran the ball, they didn’t. We protected our quarterback, they didn’t.”

That meant a couple of things.

For the Steelers, it meant a season-saving — at least to this point — win. They will take a 2-2-1 record into AFC North Division road action Sunday in Cincinnati.

For Ben Roethlisberger, it meant the loss of significant money. Get this: He is thrilled to lose it.

No, Roethlisberger wasn’t robbed of $80,000 — or a gun — as Brown was, according to TMZ, which earlier Tuesday also reported Brown was the subject of two lawsuits involving his alleged trashing of his pricey Florida luxury condo and throwing objects off his 14th floor balcony, nearly hitting a young child. It’s no wonder Tomlin had a terse “No comment” when asked about the latest headlines involving Brown. Tomlin stepped out of character Sunday when he called the officiating “a joke” and said he was “[ticked] off” about it but didn’t want any part of a Brown discussion. He must be sick and tired of Brown’s antics.

Roethlisberger, on the other hand, was eager to talk about his financial loss. For years, he has had a policy of buying gifts for his offensive linemen when he isn’t sacked in a game. That happened Sunday when the linemen also helped James Conner run for 110 of the team’s 131 rushing yards.