Quarterback Carson Palmer will miss his fourth game because of an inflamed elbow.

And rookie linebacker Keith Rivers, who had started at weak-side linebacker and played well in all seven games, will be placed on the injured reserve list this week because of a broken jaw.

He sustained the injury early in the Bengals' 38-10 loss to division rival Pittsburgh at Paul Brown Stadium. Steelers wide receiver Hines Ward blocked him hard and high.

At 0-7, the Bengals are not only being beaten, they are being beaten up.

Palmer had his nose bloodied and broken in the preseason against the Saints.

Then there was the hit on Rivers.

"Carson's nose got bloodied when he was in the process of getting tackled," coach Marvin Lewis said Monday.

But is there a sense the Bengals need to get even or take some sort of a stand?

"When you tackle somebody, you can tackle as violently as you can tackle," Lewis said. "That's part of the game. If somebody's hand inadvertently gets inside the helmet, there's not much we can do about it.

"We don't retaliate on the NFL football field, OK? We're not going to condone it. It's not part of the game. It's a personal foul. It's stupid. It hurts your football team. You play within the rules, as hard as you can play."

But was Ward's hit clean?

"There was not a foul. There were no flags thrown," Lewis said.

But the injury to the popular Rivers at the hands of Ward, unpopular with some players around the league because of his physical blocking style, drew the ire of at least one Bengals player, second-year safety Chinedum Ndukwe.

"Too bad he can't hit someone face up," Ndukwe was quoted as saying in the Monday edition of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "It's too bad he has to wait until he's not looking to get him. It's unfortunate that's the type of guy he is."

Ward said the hit was clean.

"I'm not going to wait around until you hit me," Ward said. "It was a clean hit. I didn't get penalized for it."

Rivers is the Bengals' most recent first-round draft pick and a bright spot in an otherwise difficult season. Entering Sunday's game, he had 50 tackles -- second on the team -- a pass defensed, a forced fumble and an interception returned 39 yards.