ABOUT THE BENGALS (12-4): A.J. Green reeled in a season-high 11 passes for 118 yards and a touchdown in Cincinnati’s 16-10 win over Pittsburgh on November 1 before adding six catches for 132 yards and a score in the latter meeting. He received a 15-yard penalty and was lucky not to be ejected.
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Tomlin said he didn’t think Burfict was trying to deliver a particularly vicious hit to Brown, even referring back to Mitchell’s concussion-inducing hit on Tyler Eifert in Week 14. With Mike Vick inactive, Jones is the only quarterback available for Pittsburgh other than Roethlisberger. Parry, umpire Mark Pellis and field judge Buddy Horton were all in between Porter and Jones.
Cincinnati’s last minute collapse ensured a continuing narrative that the Bengals almost wiped out against the Steelers on Saturday. His fourth down catch on the final drive was a thing of beauty, in which he stopped on the dime, and caught a nice touch pass from Roethlisberger. This Wild Card Round 2016 game is set to be a dramatic and tense affair, but only one team can progress. Burfict’s hit came shortly after a scuffle at midfield over the Bengals’ disapproval of Steelers linebacker Ryan Shazier’s hit on running back Gio Bernard. “And after getting that interception to pretty much seal it. I let down the fans”.
Hill had the ball tucked in his left arm when Shazier somehow clawed it out as Cincinnati tried to bleed the clock and the Steelers recovered at the Pittsburgh 9 with 1:23 left.
He said this week he believes his bad performance against Brown cost him first-team All-Pro status. The Steelers needed a win in Cleveland and a Buffalo upset of the Jets on the final Sunday to make the playoffs for a second straight year.
Roethlisberger left with a right shoulder injury on the final play of the third quarter but returned for Pittsburgh’s last-gasp drive. Ben Roethlisberger returned from a shoulder injury to lead the winning drive, with personal fouls on Burfict and Adam “Pacman” Jones moving them within range.
In the first meeting between the teams, almost $140,000 in fines were handed out, half of which were levied to Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burfict. While the Alabama product certainly gave the Cincinnati Bengals reason for optimism in his four starts in Andy Dalton’s stead to finish out the regular season, he was unable to come close to matching the efficiency he’d shown in his 280-yard, two-touchdown effort versus Pittsburgh in his first career start on December 13.
The contest seemed to be safely in Cincinnati’s hands after they fought back from a 15-0 deficit with 16 fourth-quarter points and seized control of the ball with less than two minutes remaining on a Vontaze Burfict interception. Just enough time for Roethlisberger – with plenty of help from Cincinnati – to send the Steelers to Denver and a rematch with the Broncos, whom Pittsburgh beat 34-27 on December 20.
The Steelers will get a different look this time around from the Broncos, as the team has already announced Peyton Manning will start at quarterback.
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Jones later deleted the Instagram post, but he later posted a second video in which he said: “All right, I’m good now”. That successful three-pointer cut Pittsburgh’s lead to 15-10 with 5:12 left in the game. Cincinnati would kneel out the remainder of the time and settle to get the football after the halftime break.
