Cincinnati was in position to win several games this season before those chances evaporated in the closing minutes. Cincinnati has played well in recent weeks, especially quarterback Andy Dalton, who might have top receiver A.J. Green back this week from a strained hamstring. The Steelers close the regular season by hosting Cleveland.
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In his one appearance for Pittsburgh, Bullock faced the Giants, whom he started the season with, and last week in his Bengals debut he faced the Steelers.
Something’s missing for Cincinnati in the clutch moments.
“I guess he didn’t have any talk”, Shazier said.
The coaching and the roster will come under scrutiny in the off-season.
Marvin Lewis thought his defense kept its cool in the fourth quarter. While the 2015 Wild Card loss isn’t exclusively on Burfict’s shoulders (remember, he got them back into the game before the personal foul), he is still looked at as a reason why the team improbably lost.
If it weren’t for kicker Chris Boswell, the Steelers would be in deep trouble. It would have stood and made it a 14-0 game in the first quarter had Artie Burns not been flagged for defensive holding prior to the pass being thrown.
KICK-6: Gary Anderson (1988 vs. Denver) and Jeff Reed (2002 vs. Jacksonville) also kicked six field goals for the Steelers, who beat the Broncos 39-21 and the Jaguars 25-23 in those contests. Pittsburgh’s only embarrassing losses were on the road. The Bengals, conversely, scored on every possession they had in the first half before being forced to punt on each of their second-half drives. They pulled out of it early enough to win, and to the victors go the postgame passive-aggressive digs.
Steelers fans have taken note of previous instances in which an opposing player’s effrontery in abusing the towel came back to haunt his team. “It’s the first time we haven’t in a long time, and it hurts”. We couldn’t do everything we wanted to on offense early. “So we knew we were going to have to make some big plays down the middle”. All of those things we can look back to as to why we are where we are. We’ll get into those adjustments Wednesday.
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NOTES: The Bengals play at Houston (8-6) on Saturday night, a place where they’ve had some of their worst playoff moments. If they can do it again this season, the AFC North leaders will reach the postseason for the third straight year, something they haven’t yet done during Tomlin’s 10-year tenure. He has eight passing TDs and four interceptions in the past five games. Defensively, we allowed plays in the second half we shouldn’t allow as well. “I believe it’s a greater sense of urgency around the building knowing that this is basically win or go home, so we’re ready to lock in on the game plan this week and put in the work in at practice”. “That’s what we owe to everybody”.
