The smell of fresh coffee hung in the air in the middle of the afternoon as the Cincinnati Bengals’ offensive coordinator was breaking down the 24-16 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers on Sunday, and he was told that Andy Dalton leads the National Football League in passing yards after two weeks, with 732, and yards per game at an even 366.
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“They have a great defense and they played well up front”, said left guard Clint Boling.
Pittsburgh Steelers running back DeAngelo Williams was addressing the media after the team’s 24-16 win over the Cincinnati Bengals when his phone went off. Nickelback’s 2005 hit “Rockstar” blared from the phone. He was a limited participant in the Steelers’ first preseason game, but has remained out since then, including the team’s first two regular season games.
They also don’t have a loss, a trade-off they can live with while their defensive front four searches for consistency. For the Steelers’ running back, DeAngelo Williams, his favorite pass time is listening to Nickelback. Whatever it was, the expected duel between superstar wide receivers Antonio Brown and A.J. Green never materialized.
“At first when it happened, I didn’t know what happened because it was so quick”, Boyd said. The win wasn’t pretty for the offense but it was lovely watching Williams’ performance. Boom. He drops a bomb on us, goes about 70 yards, and it’s game on.
“We built a lot on what we did past year”, said cornerback Ross Cockrell. They are really sound on the way they play defense.
“Our goal: We didn’t want to see no dancing”, said Bengals cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick.
Fox Sports’ Mike Pereia gives his breakdown of why he thought the play was upheld. “That’s all we wanted to do”. Andy Dalton completed 23 of 30 passes for 366 yards and one touchdown against one interception. The Steelers forced Dalton to make quick decisions, and he chose to play it safe rather than force something to Green.
“Somebody said in the locker room, ‘You’re either old or you are good, which one are you?'” Williams said.
Why not throw the challenge flag, Coach?
A strong start in former Pitt wide receiver Tyler Boyd’s Heinz Field homecoming turned into a nightmare finish for the Cincinnati Bengals rookie.
Boyd’s knee appeared to have already touched the ground when the ball squirted out and was picked up Pittsburgh safety Robert Golden, who returned it to the Cincinnati 46 before he was tackled.
“We converted one or two, but not enough of them that mattered”, Cincinnati coach Marvin Lewis said. After all it’s only Week 2, they have the chance to rebound next week. Green, who only caught two balls for 38 yards. The Bengals converted just 4 of 16 third downs.
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“One of those things got fixed this week”, offensive co-ordinator Ken Zampese said Monday, referring to the sacks. “We were there in a playoff game, and we were up, 13-0, and there were about six minutes left in the first half”. With Brown basically shut down on the day, Roethlisberger threw his three touchdowns to a combination of tight ends and a running back. Green hardly appears ready to return to work and Grimble’s play – he added a hard shoestring catch in the third quarter to help set up James’ touchdown – gives Roethlisberger yet another option. “So, we definitely needed him today”. The Bengals fell 20-17 in overtime at Denver last December with backup quarterback AJ McCarron filling in for Dalton. This allowed the Bengals to put a few decent drives together, but the defense clamped down in the red zone. Next week, they’ll try to keep it going against the Eagles in Philadelphia.
