There are enough standouts on either team’s roster to make any game worth watching. It isn’t a “let them play!” call yelled out by the guy on the next barstool over. In nine of the 12 games Roethlisberger played the majority of the snaps at quarterback, the Steelers rushed 25 times or fewer.
Advertisement
The Steelers and Bengals played three times last season, including once in the playoffs when Shazier played the best game of his professional career.
But that doesn’t mean the Steelers don’t have their fair share of vitriol for the Bengals.
EAGLES: Malcolm Jenkins plans to lead teammates in a protest that he says is “not an anti-police thing” during the national anthem when Philadelphia plays at Chicago on Monday night. And it was so such a Bengals thing to do. As the Steelers are at home on Sunday, they will be the favourite to pick up another win against the Bengals but it will be a close one.
The Steelers offensive line doesn’t get a lot of accolades, but they opened seams for Williams to run through all game versus the Redskins.
Is the “Burfict rule”, going to be enforced in such a way, with such a narrow purview, that it alters the way the Steelers and Bengals approach the game – in ways drastically different than they would any other opponent on the season?
The long time Cincinnati kicker had a rough preseason but did make the game winning field goal with less than a minute left against the Jets.
BENGALS QB Andy Dalton engineered lively passing attack in Week 1, registering a 114.0 QB rating with 23-30-366-1 TD-1 INT, but he was sacked 7 times. However, the Bengals still have A.J.
In particular, H-Back Ryan Hewitt, tight end C.J. Uzomah and with rookie slot receiver Tyler Boyd. Uzomah, and Giovani Bernard as receiving threats. Second-year right tackle Cedric Ogbuehi was able to start despite the toe injury that sidelined him for most of the preseason, but really struggled against the Jets’ excellent defensive line. This does not bode well for a Steelers’ pass defense that ranked 30th in the National Football League in 2015. But, a history of injuries and multiple suspensions for the dynamic running back create questions about his overall reliability. The team looked extremely impressive in the opener against Washington, with Ben Roethlisberger throwing for 300 yards and three scores while DeAngelo Williams looked extremely sharp in the run game, going off for 143 yards and a pair of touchdowns. However, he has never broken 100 yards as a Steeler against the Bengals. Monday night saw a fearless 4th down call early on as Big Ben faked a plunge for DeAngelo Williams and dropped a bomb into the endzone for Antonio Brown – and that was in a non-conference game. Matt Forte had 96 yards on 22 carries. Pittsburgh’s already matched its total of sackless games from 2015, when it finished with 48 sacks in all, a almost 50 percent jump from the 33 the Steelers collected in 2014.
When the Bengals have the ball.
When the veteran running back came to Pittsburgh last season, he said he didn’t know the depth of the team’s rivalry with the Bengals. Throw in three all-purpose touchdowns and you have an absence that clearly favors Cincinnati.
Advertisement
Brown also told the media he doesn’t want to bring attention to himself with his latest twerk-like touchdown dance. Pittsburgh – Out: CB Senquez Golson (foot), RB Roosevelt Nix (back), C Cody Wallace (knee). While this might be the case with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and wide receiver Antonio Brown, the rest of the unit was missing four starters and had backups and spot players step in throughout the lineup. But, the Steelers did well at using new and up-and-coming members of their offense to their advantage in Week 1 and will look to continue that in Week 2. Remember, this was the matchup in an AFC wild-card game the Bengals blew when Vontaze Burfict and Adam Jones flew off the handle in January.
