Cornhuskerkid02
Contributor
WOW! WHAT A GAME. Possibly game of the year, and what a way for new ownership to kick it off. Talk about ups and downs, this game had it all. The Steelers (4-6) escape with a 33-27 win over the Bengals in Overtime. The Steelers jumped out to a 27-10 lead early in the fourth quarter and it seemed like the game was over. The Bengals then went on to score 17 straight points. including 10 in the final 2:10 in which they recovered their own onside kick. It was just simply an incredible game. Andy Dalton threw the ball 49x for 445 yards. The Bengals simply picked apart a patch work defense. Tomlin has said all season that this defense would be predicated on forcing TOs and that yards were not that great of a concern to him. He was hinting at the lack of talent they have, especially in the secondary. Between AJ Green (10-190). Tyler Eifert (6-112), and Travis Benjamin (7-71) you could see this. With that being said, their defense did what was asked of them, forcing 5! turnovers, 3 fumble recovers and 2 interceptions.
With all of the momentum given to Cincinnati, the Steelers still had to feel good. Going into overtime they got the ball first, and felt like they were able to move it all day. However, on the first play of overtime Roosevelt Nix (FB) had a nice 8 yard game, got hit hard and fumbled the ball. When it looked like Kiko Alonso had the chance to walk in for a game winning Fumble 6, he struggled to pick up the ball and fell onto it instead. At the time, it didn't seem like a big issue as Cincinnati would get the ball at Pittsburgh 20 and was already in FG range. With the swirling winds, they wanted to gain some extra yards, and with the way their offense was playing it seemed like the right idea. After getting the ball to Pittsburgh 8, Jeremy Hill had a nice 4 yard run, but got drilled by Shamarko Thomas and fumbled the football right back. After picking up 2 first downs, Pittsburgh finally went deep. Big Ben (finished 19-23 351 2TDs) saw 1 on 1 coverage on Markus Wheaton and attacked it. 67 yards later, through a defensive PI, Wheaton came down with the ball and strolled into the game winner. This marks the second straight week that Pittsburgh has gotten somewhat complacent with their offense after getting a lead, something Ben mentioned to the media afterwards. Ben would say, "It's a great win and a great feeling. But we should have never been in that position, we got conservative and didn't go for the kill. Something we need to work on next week, if we want to make the playoffs the killer instinct will need to be there."
Pittsburgh (4-6) goes to Cleveland next week.
With all of the momentum given to Cincinnati, the Steelers still had to feel good. Going into overtime they got the ball first, and felt like they were able to move it all day. However, on the first play of overtime Roosevelt Nix (FB) had a nice 8 yard game, got hit hard and fumbled the ball. When it looked like Kiko Alonso had the chance to walk in for a game winning Fumble 6, he struggled to pick up the ball and fell onto it instead. At the time, it didn't seem like a big issue as Cincinnati would get the ball at Pittsburgh 20 and was already in FG range. With the swirling winds, they wanted to gain some extra yards, and with the way their offense was playing it seemed like the right idea. After getting the ball to Pittsburgh 8, Jeremy Hill had a nice 4 yard run, but got drilled by Shamarko Thomas and fumbled the football right back. After picking up 2 first downs, Pittsburgh finally went deep. Big Ben (finished 19-23 351 2TDs) saw 1 on 1 coverage on Markus Wheaton and attacked it. 67 yards later, through a defensive PI, Wheaton came down with the ball and strolled into the game winner. This marks the second straight week that Pittsburgh has gotten somewhat complacent with their offense after getting a lead, something Ben mentioned to the media afterwards. Ben would say, "It's a great win and a great feeling. But we should have never been in that position, we got conservative and didn't go for the kill. Something we need to work on next week, if we want to make the playoffs the killer instinct will need to be there."
Pittsburgh (4-6) goes to Cleveland next week.