The Steelers got that call and held off the Bengals 24-16 at Heinz Field behind three touchdown passes by Ben Roethlisberger and 94 yards rushing plus a touchdown catch by DeAngelo Williams. Last season, the Bengals bungled their way to another loss in the NFL Playoffs, giving the Steelers a win in the Wild Card Round.
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For the most part, the defense has come up with big plays when it needed: Josh Shaw’s interception to seal the game against the Jets; Kirkpatrick’ and Jones interceptions against the Steelers; a late three-and-out to give the offense one more chance on Sunday.
No chaos this time.
That’s why the Steelers’ 24-16 win Sunday over a good Cincinnati Bengals team has me thinking this really is a Super Bowl contender and may be the best team in football.
That preserved the Steelers’ lead and they went into halftime leading 10-6 instead of tied 10-10. And with home-field advantage awarded in the National Football League based on regular season record, the Steelers understood their path to staying home come January involved getting off to a better start in September. The teams combined for just 10 penalties and only one personal foul, a marked departure from that messy night in Cincinnati nine months ago that included more than 220 penalty yards and some nasty hits, including one that cost Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict the first three games of the 2016 season via suspension.
“If I had to bet my bottom dollar, I think he’s down”, Pereira said. “Sometimes you have civil disputes”.
Andy Dalton passed for 366 yards and a touchdown but needed 31 completions to reach that total, working nearly exclusively on dump offs to running backs and tight ends while Pittsburgh clamped down on star wide receiver A.J. Green, who finished with just two receptions for 38 yards. “He’s got the things that excite you: he’s tough, he’s smart and he’s got a good above-the-neck game, he’s a worker”.
Pittsburgh controlled the tempo throughout and after Roethlisberger shook off a so-so first half in which he threw a pair of picks in the rain, the Steelers pulled away.
Marcus Mariota led a fourth-quarter comeback, with touchdown passes to Delanie Walker and Andre Johnson, as the Tennessee Titans beat the Detroit Lions 16-15, while the Houston Texans won 19-12 against the Kansas City Chiefs. 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.
“I’ve got to break more tackles”, Bernard said on Monday. “And I was like, ‘I don’t know, but if the media has anything to say, I am old'”.
Age is nothing but a number for running back DeAngelo Williams as he keeps on providing play after play for Pittsburgh’s offense.
That’s the way it ended, thanks to the big turnover. Maybe it was the relatively conservative game plans or maybe it was just pretty solid defense. Superstar wide receiver A.J. Green was kept under wraps.
Houston’s defense set a franchise record by recovering three fumbles in the first half. On the very next drive, the Bengals’ Mike Nugent hit a 25-yard field goal to make the score 7-3, but the Bengals were never able to catch the Steelers.
Berry averaged 47 yards per punt, had a long one of 58 yards and had five of his eight punts downed inside the Bengals’ 20.
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“I was told it was down even by officials on our sideline”, Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said. With Heath Miller and Matt Spaeth no longer around and the unclear status of Ladarius Green, the tight end position was quite possibility the largest looming question of the offense. “We’ve got to step up when (the defense) is double- and triple-teaming [Brown]”.
