24
17The Steelers win the toss and defer to the second half.
The Bengals go 3-and-out after Gay makes a nice deflection on 3rd down.
Ben comes out and works the short-passing game, hitting Heath over the middle and Wallace a few times to move into Bengals territory. Wallace gets the call on a reverse and makes the Bungles defense just look silly and gets us down into the red zone. Three plays later, Ben buys some time by pump-faking TWO blitzing corners out of their shoes, steps up, and zings one to Cotchery for the touchdown.
7-0
The defense forces another 3-and-out and gets the ball right back to 007.
Ben looks deep but nothing is open so he checks it down to Rashard who is wide open on the sideline and rumbles for 26 yards. Arians goes to the well again and Wallace takes another reverse for solid yardage, splitting defenders and running over people.
Anyone who says Wallace is soft should re-watch that run.
Hines moves the sticks again on a WR screen, getting us into the red zone. Ben has Cotch wide open over the middle but Cotch stops his route and Ben throws it where he thought Cotch would be. That would’ve been an easy score if Cotch kept running. Two plays later, Ben hits Heath down the seam who gets nailed by a safety at the goal line.
No flag comes out, even though it looked like the defender led with the crown of his helmet. Raise Some pounds it on on the next play.
14-0
Bernard Scott comes in for the Bengals and starts gashing the Steelers with some cut-back runs, moving into Steelers territory. Dalton decides to chuck one up for AJ Green who makes a leaping catch in the end zone with Clark and Troy around him. Clark was trying to make the pick and was somehow in front of Green.
If Clark gets his hands up and/or jumps, he can knock that ball away. Green came down awkwardly on his leg and limped off the field.
14-7
Ben hits Wallace to get things rolling as the quarter ends.
Second Quarter
With the Steelers now going into the wind, Ben takes a shot deep for Wallace that gets broken up. On the next play, Ben tries a simple check-down to Heath, but the ball bounces off his hands and into the arms of a diving Leon Hall.
Ugh.
The Bengals grind their way down to the 26 on the ground, but Troy makes a leaping break-up of a 3rd down pass to force the field goal.
14-10
After the the turnover, we come back with the motif offense and Ben barely avoids a sack by getting the ball to Redman who gets tackled in the backfield. Punt.
Cincy picks up a first down near midfield but the defense locks it down and forces a punt.
Ben comes back and throws a bad pass for AB that almost gets picked off. Two plays later, Heath redeems himself for the interception earlier and makes a first down grab to get things moving.
Ben gets sacked twice forcing a 3rd and long but finds First Down Brown on a deep in to move the sticks after Brown tips the ball to himself. What a grab.
Ben keeps working it to AB, hitting him two more times for 15 and 17 to move down inside the 25. Brown was just torching Leon Hall on this drive. Ben decides to look elsewhere and steps up away from pressure and lobs one up for Cotchery who catches it in stride and takes it in for the score.
Offensive Pass Interference on Heath.
Weeeeeak call.
Leon Hall was injured on the play, and Ben went right to AB against his replacement to get us down into the red zone again. The offense stalls out and Ben gets sacked again on 3rd down. Suisham extends the lead to 7.
17-10
Cincy gets the ball back with under a minute to play and opts to run out the clock.
Third Quarter
The Steelers get the ball to start the half, but another sack leads to a 3-and-out.
The Bengals come back, mixing in runs and short passes, using some out-routes and relatively simple looks for Dalton. Dalton moves Cincy into the red zone. Keenan Lewis seems to make a tackle to keep a Bengal out of the end zone, but Timmons jumps on late and gets flagged, giving the Bengals first and goal at the 1. Dalton goes play-action and finds Gresham out-running Larry Foote to the pylon.
Tie Game.
17-17
007 comes right back and answers. He gears up the no-huddle and mixes in passes and runs nicely to get us across midfield. Then the running game takes over and we ride Redman and Mendenhall down into the red zone. A quick-hitter to Wallace gets us inside the 10, then Mendenhall takes one off the right side, catches a good block from Kemoeatu, breaks a tackle, keeps his balance, and runs through defenders into the end zone.
RAAAAAISE SOME MEEEEEENDEN-HELLLL
Pretty much the definition of a “RAISE SOME” run right there.
24-17
Some guy no one has ever heard of picks up a first down for Cincy at the end of the quarter.
Fourth Quarter
The defense locks it down to start the fourth and forces a punt.
The Steelers commit some penalty on the kick, so they have to start at the 10. After two runs, Ben steps up in the pocket to get away from a 3rd down blitz and heaves one downfield for Mike Wallace who has two steps on the safety….
…and OVERTHROWS MIKE WALLACE. Take a minute to digest that. Ben, throwing into the gusty wind, overthrew Mike Wallace. Wow. Don’t expect to see that…ever.
A good return gives the Bengals the ball in Steelers territory, but William Gay has other ideas. He swats the ball away from a receiver and it falls into the waiting arms of Lawrence Timmons for the Steelers first pick since Prohibition.
David Johnson actually makes a catch but the offense can’t move the chains and it’s another Fourth Quarter 3-and-out. Kapinos booms one to pin the Bungles back at the 8.
Bernard Scott gets some more yards for Cincy, but a 3rd down penalty nullifies a first down and Ryan Mundy steps up and makes a big tackle on the ensuing play to force a punt. A big punt flips the field and puts us back at the 20.
The Steelers take over with 6 and a half minutes left and go with the motif offense, resulting in another 3-and-out. For those of you keeping score at home, that’s 3 3-and-outs in the 4th quarter when it was a one score game. Offense has to do more with the ball down the stretch.
Cincy takes over near midfield with 4 and a half to play, needing a touchdown to tie. Tense times as the defense marched out onto the field and subsequently got gashed 3 times by Cedric Benson to get down to the 25. After having success on the ground, Cincy tries to go to the air and Dalton stares down his receiver like he’s a hot babe and William Gay jumps the route, making a HUGE interception.
With 2 and a half minutes left and the Bengals with a full slate of timeouts, the Steelers get aggressive. Ben hits Weslye Saunders who makes a big catch then carries defenders across the line for a first down to move the chains. With 2 minutes left, Ben hits Wallace on a curl for another first down.
Victory Formation.
Game.
Steelers are 10-1 at Paul Brown Stadium.
Players of the Game
Offensive Game Ball: Rashard Mendenhall
Defensive Game Ball: William Gay
Honorable Mentions:
Antonio Brown
Ben Roethlisberger
Jerricho Cotchery
Mike Wallace
James Harrison
Brett Keisel
Ike Taylor
Lawrence Timmons
Lawrence Timmons
Mr. Yuck Sticker of the Game
AJ Green’s Touchdown
Let’s face it, sometimes players just make big-time plays against you. That happened last week when Torrey Smith caught the game-winning touchdown. But he was behind Will Gay and somewhat open. Ryan Clark and Troy Polamalu were all over AJ Green but neither made a play on the ball. Green did make a great play to go up and get the ball. But I have more of an issue with neither Ryan or Troy even trying to make a play on the ball. If Ryan gets his hands up or Troy does um…anything, Green doesn’t have the chance to make the play.
Final Thoughts
- For those that have been watching the Steelers over the last 20+ years, this was a very “typical” win for the Steelers. They ran out to an early lead, made a few mistakes that let the other team back in it, scored a big touchdown when it counted, then got a huge turnover at the end of the game to seal the win.
- Huge bounce-back game for William Gay. He played aggressive all game and finished with 4 pass deflections (1 resulting in Timmons’ pick), plus an interception of his own.
- The Bengals looked better than they have in years, but they still have a long way to go.
- No clue why Cedric Benson is the Bengals #1 back. Bernard Scott looked so much better.
- The Steelers were clearly the better team, but made mistakes that let the Bengals hang around.
- The pick wasn’t Ben’s fault.
- First Down Brown is turning into a solid player. He’s getting better every week. He’s going to be scary good.
- Cotchery should’ve had 3 touchdowns today. Good to see him growing into a role player in the offense.
- The Steelers played man coverage almost the whole game, then went to a Cover-3 look on the play when Gay made the pick. If you’re keeping track at home, that’s the same play out of a Cover-3 look that Deshea made 3 years ago against Dallas to jump a route (though Deshea took it to the house for the winning score). Nevertheless, gotta credit LeBeau for making the right calls at the right time to give his defenders the chance to make plays.
- Solid team effort on the ground. Sure, Rashard didn’t break 50, but he had 2 TDs and we ran for over 100 as a team.
- Andy Dalton wasn’t horrendous. There are certainly worse QBs in the league than him right now.
- Solid game for Kapinos, averaged 50.4 yards on 4 kicks. I think only 1 was with the wind at his back.
- Great time to have a bye week. Rest up and get healthy. It’s going to be an intense race to the finish here. Cincy and Baltimore play twice and we have to play Cincy again and Cleveland twice.
- Oh yeah, how could I forget….
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