It's certainly not a situation the Steelers enjoy, but it's the hand that they've been dealt. And it's the one with which they will have to deal.
The Steelers (8-7), who have been undermanned at key positions all season, will be so again when they travel to Baltimore Sunday to face the Ravens (13-2) in a game they need to win to keep their playoff hopes alive.
Mason Rudolph? He's out, having been placed on injured reserve Tuesday with a shoulder injury suffered in Sunday's 16-10 loss at New York against the Jets.
Maurkice Pouncey? He's out with a knee injury.
James Conner? Also likely out of this game with a quad injury.
So, in their biggest game of the season, one the Steelers need to win and have the Titans lose in Houston to secure their easiest path to the postseason, the team will be relying on Devlin Hodges and Paxton Lynch at quarterback. Neither were on the team's roster when the season began.
That Hodges is there is nothing new. He's started the team's past four games. But he also got pulled in favor of Rudolph in the second quarter against the Jets after throwing his sixth interception in his previous six quarters. He later had to return in the fourth quarter when Rudolph suffered his shoulder injury.
Rudolph will finish the season with a passer rating of 82.0, having thrown for 1,765 yards with 13 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
But after a good start, Hodges' play has fallen off considerably. He had a passer rating of 103.2 after his first five appearances -- three starts -- when he became the first undrafted rookie quarterback to lead a team to three wins in a non-strike season in the Super Bowl era.
The past two games have seen him complete 34 of 55 passes for 286 yards with one touchdown and six interceptions. That adds up to a rating of 41.7 and has lowered his season rating to 75.8.
But he'll be the guy the Steelers lean on -- at least to start -- with their season on the line against the Ravens.
"There's nothing wrong with his preparation," Mike Tomlin said Tuesday. "There's nothing wrong with his approach and things of that nature. I can trick myself in terms of seeking comfort and things of that nature, but we're not in that world. We're going to prepare, he's going to prepare and we'll put our best foot forward."
And even that might not be good enough against a Ravens team that will be resting a number of starters having already clinched the No. 1 seed in the AFC playoffs.
Unlike last week, however, when Tomlin was quick to pull Hodges after his second interception to go with Rudolph, his leash might be a bit longer with Lynch as the only other option.
While Lynch is a former first-round pick of the Broncos in 2016, he's done little more than run the scout team since joining the Steelers in September after Ben Roethlisberger was injured. And with just five career games under his belt -- all with the Broncos -- Lynch has less NFL experience than Hodges.
"He's got a lot of pedigree, that's why he was taken in the first round," Tomlin conceded. "As far as our intimate knowledge of it, comfort with it, it's not very high because of the time where we acquired him and the nature you have to work when you're preparing to play games. We acquired him after the season started. We have two young quarterbacks in front of him. We've been very thoughtful about making sure they've gotten significant reps.
"We're going to work Paxton some this week, but what he's done to this point does not provide a great deal of comfort for him or for us because of the variables."
Tomlin's message to Hodges this week will be a simple one. And it's the same as it has been all season since Ben Roethlisberger was lost in Week 2.
"It's very specific how we have to manufacture victories in the state we're in and possession of the football and taking care of the football is a very significant component of that," Tomlin said. "We haven't taken good care of the football the past two weeks and that's the reason we're having the kind of discussions we're having. We understand that. We understand how we need to engineer victories."
Understanding that and taking it to the football field, however, have been two different issues. Despite having a defense that is tied for the league lead with 36 forced turnovers, the Steelers are just seventh in turnover/takeaway ratio because their offense has turned it over 28 times, including seven times in the past two games, both losses.
The Steelers are tied with the Panthers for the second-most interceptions thrown in the league this season with 19. That's a high number considering they're also 22nd in pass attempts.
It's resulted in a passing game that ranks 30th in passer rating overall and 31st in passing yards per game.
The Ravens aren't much better in terms of passing yards per game, ranking 25th in the league, but they lead the NFL in passing touchdowns with 37.
The difference is a running game for the Ravens that leads the NFL at 204.9 yards per game with quarterback Lamar Jackson (1,206 yards) and running back Mark Ingram (1,018) leading the way.
Neither will play this week against the Steelers, but the Ravens will still have the game's leading rusher. Second-string running back Gus Edwards has 581 rushing yards this season, more than 100 more than Conner, who will have played just three quarters in the second half of the season if he sits out this game.
But even when Conner has played, the Steelers haven't necessarily run the ball well. Conner has averaged 4.0 yards per carry, but the Steelers as a team are averaging 3.6 yards per attempt and just over 90 yards per game.
"We've got young quarterbacks and young running backs and people pack the box," Tomlin said. "We could perform better."
That includes everyone, but it starts with the quarterbacks.
LOLLEY'S VIEW
People saying the Steelers should just turn things over to Lynch don't understand how an NFL team works.
Yes, Lynch has been on the roster since September. But he's probably thrown about 15 total passes while running the Steelers offense during that time. The rest of his season has been spent repping the opposing team's offense.
He'll get some chances to run their offense this week, but the majority of the snaps will go to Hodges. They have to.
The Steelers are only concerned with winning this game. And Hodges gives them the best chance to do so. They're not thinking about long-term or even next year.
Lynch will get a shot with the Steelers in the offseason, but right now, he's only playing if there is an emergency.