Quick Yinzing: Steelers tame Bengals, dominating AFC North
Welcome to “Quick Yinzing”, a fast reaction article where a member of the SCU staff gives their initial post-game impressions without digging into any films, stats, or other analysis. It’s as real as that car ride home or sobering down at the bar following the game!
Heinz Field was rocking as the Pittsburgh Steelers used a perfect mix of hard-nosed football on both sides of the ball in their domination of the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday afternoon. In this ‘Quick Yinzing’, we’ll look at the things that made the game go the Steelers’ way.
The Steelers got the opening kickoff and wasted no time marching down the field; 75 yards in just nine plays capped off by a great pass from Ben Roethlisberger to Antonio Brown. Roethlisberger and Brown would hook up four times in the game.
One of the most exciting plays of the game, offensively, was a 31-yard pass to a wide open JuJu Smith-Schuster to tie the game after the Bengals’ first offensive touchdown. It was another 75-yard drive that included nice contributions by Eli Rogers and Vance McDonald.
Fullback Roosevelt Nix and the Steelers offensive line helped keep Roethlisberger clean in the pocket and set up another Le’Veon Bell show this week. Bell has shown that when he can rumble for 100-plus yards in a game, the Steelers get wins. It wasn’t surprising to see that Bell’s rushing skills opened up the playbook and allowed Roethlisberger to find 12 different targets. James Conner and Terrell Watson also got involved in the run game.
Defensively, the Steelers did not give Bengals Andy Dalton a fun reception. Dalton was sacked four times and threw as many touchdowns as interceptions (2 a piece). Cam Heyward, Bud Dupree, T.J. Watt and Tyson Alualua (in for injured Stephon Tuitt) all logged sacks and Sean Davis forced a fumble while adding some great play in the defensive backfield.
Joe Haden intercepted the ball off of A.J. Green‘s back. On the next Bengals offensive possession, Dalton threw short and Davis jumped the route, tipped the ball and William Gay was able to secure the Steelers’ second interception.
The defense did allow running back Joe Mixon to get some nice gains on the ground, but overall they contained him along with Giovani Bernard and Jeremy Hill. The defense allowed two touchdowns through the air but kept Green out of the end zone.
Chris Boswell was solid in special teams play, setting a Heinz Field record with five-of-five field goals; adding two successful kicks for the point-after on the day. In other special teams play, add on a fake punt that resulted in a pass from Robert Golden – yes, the guy who plays safety – and the Steelers torched the Bengals when Darrius Heyward-Bey grabbed his only pass on the game for a 44-yard gain before being pushed out of bounds. Heinz Field was rocking.
The Bengals may have played ‘Renegade’ by Styx at practice to prepare, but it was to no avail. The Bengals fall to 2-4 on the season while the Steelers move to 5-2 on a two-game win streak, two games ahead in the AFC North race.
