🏈🏈🏈🏈
Cincinnati 27, Pittsburgh 17
It had been more than five years, and 10 meetings, since the Cincinnati Bengals had actually defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers in a football game, despite having two opportunities every season to do that.
But that changed last night, when the up and coming Bengals stunned the suddenly imploding Steelers. For much of the season, Pittsburgh was the envy of the league, racing off to a franchise best 11-0 start. They were the only remaining unbeaten team for the better part of two months, and there was even some talk of a possible perfect season.
However, Washington managed to stun the Steelers in Pittsburgh a couple of weeks ago, and the Steelers tasted defeat for the first time all year. Last week, they were beaten by the Bills up in Buffalo, but that was not a surprise, as the Bills are a very solid team this season, and Buffalo is always a tough place for road teams to have to play. And now, the Bengals managed to pull off a rather shocking upset, handing Pittsburgh a third straight loss following that impressive, perfect 11-0 start to their season.
So, how did the Bengals do it? Well, first of all, they got off to a very solid start, and benefited from a very sluggish start by Pittsburgh. Cincy only got a field goal in the first, but then Giovani Bernard helped lift the Bengals with two touchdowns. The first was a 4-yard run early in the second quarter, but the second was a 14-yard touchdown pass from Ryan Finley late in the first half to give the Bengals a commanding 17-0 halftime lead.
Pittsburgh fought back, and made a game of it, scoring 10 unanswered points in the third quarter. But the Bengals answered with another touchdown when Ryan Finley completed 23-yard touchdown run to make it a two possession game again.
Still, the Steelers fought back with a 12-play, 75 yard drive that culminated with a one-yard touchdown run by Benny Snell, Jr., to pull Pittsburgh within a touchdown. However, the Bengals managed to take a late possession off a Steeler turnover. They did not get a touchdown, but did not need one, notching a field goal with just 12 seconds left to ice the game.
Turnovers were a killer for Pittsburgh in this game. They committed three turnovers, to none for Cincinnati. Otherwise, the two teams were fairly even statistically, with the Bengals holding modest advantages in time of possession and first down, and with the Steelers actually gaining more overall yards than the Bengals. Again, though, those mistakes hurt. It is hard to commit three turnovers, with the other team not committing any, and find a way to win the game. Ultimately, this proved to be too much of an obstacle for Pittsburgh to overcome.
This win snapped a five-game losing streak for the Bengals, who improved to 3-10-1 on the year. It also has to be a satisfying victory, coming as it did against the one team that best symbolized the frustrations that the Bengals have suffered over the years. Cincy’s inability to beat Pittsburgh, and seemingly allowing the Steelers to consistently get the better of them, including in their two playoff meetings back in 2005 and 2015. The Bengals had home field advantage in both of those games as division champions, but were out ultimately outplayed by the Steelers. So this win might have been the strongest symbol of a possible Bengals turnaround.
The Steelers, meanwhile, have quickly dropped from the top seed in the AFC playoff picture, to third. Indeed, at 11-3, they are behind the Kansas City Chiefs, who are 13-1, and now find themselves on the short end of a tiebreaker with the Bills, who also are 11-3, by virtue of Buffalo’s win over the Steelers last week. The first loss for Pittsburgh may have been disappointing, but they were still in a first-place tie with the Chiefs, and held the advantage, having lost to an NFC, and not an AFC, team. But there was not margin for error. The loss up at Buffalo hurt a lot more, because they suddenly fell from that top spot, and did not have much margin for error to stay ahead of Buffalo for the second seed spot in the AFC playoff picture. Now, however, the upset loss to the Bengals places them in third place, and facing a tough Colts team next week that has been playing well. If they were to lose that, the Steelers would suddenly fall to the fourth seed, and would likely have to pull off a win in Cleveland in the season finale just to hang onto a division title that seemed a sure thing just a few weeks ago.
My pick: Inaccurate
No comments:
Post a Comment