Steelers Escape Cincinnati with 27-21 Win

From the very get go it appeared this would be a Steeler night. The opening kickoff was fumbled by Cincinnati and the black and gold recovered it and promptly scored a TD a few snaps later. They actually scored from the 1 yard line too, to take a 7-0 lead. They took a quick 10-0 lead after William Gay, the man we ridiculed last week, blocked a Bengal punt and the O punched in a FG.  The Steelers absolutely dominated the first half and took a 20-7 lead into the break.  The third quarter was rather boring with nobody scoring and the fourth quarter got way too interesting when the Bengals outscored the Steelers 14-7. The Bengals had a real chance to win this thing as they had the ball on the Steelers 12 yard line with less than a minute to play. Thankfully the defense had a bend don’t break mentality and made enough plays to hold on for the 27-21 win.

There’s your summary, here’s the juice:

Big Ben played like a stud QB. His numbers won’t show that as he was 17 of 27 for a pedestrian 163 yards with one TD and one pick, but he made some stellar throws and some of the plays he made with his feet were unbelievalbe. The annoying crew of Monday night football pointed it out over and over and they were right, he’s very difficult to bring down. Can you imagine if he had a line that gave him time?! 

Rashard Mendenhall was exactly the back we thought he could be. 22 rushes for 99 yards and 48 of those yards came on the Steelers final offensive drive when they were trying to put the game away, up 27-21. He has speed, power and the ability to change fields REAL fast. We love him as the feature back.

Mike Wallace is incredibly fast isn’t he? He had 5 catches for 110 yards. He just gets behind the defense and Ben puts the ball on the money and he’s gone. He has done an excellent job replacing Santonio ‘Cheech’ Holmes, so far. 

Defensively Farrior lead the way with 10 tackles, which was by far his best game of the season. Harrison made some monster plays and Ike Taylor looked like a good cover corner.  We are still very worried about the pass defense as they allowed Terrell Owens 10 catches for 141 yards and 2 TD.  We said it last week and we’ll say it again, William Gay can NOT play defense. Look, we gave him credit on special teams, so maybe he can play there, but he can’t cover a receiver to save his life.  That’s a problem. 

Jeff Reed, it may be time to look for a new job. Seriously, this game wouldn’t have been as nerve racking if the man could make a kick in the clutch. He drilled a 53 yarder in the first half and then he goes out and misses a 46 yarder when the team could have put the nail in the coffin. That can’t happen and if you’re getting paid as a franchise kicker then you better kick like a franchise kicker.  He’s got history on his side but bottom line is what have you done for me lately and that seems to be missing big kicks.  We aren’t saying that he’ll be cut, but we do think the team should try some kickers out to at least scare Reed a little bit. C’mon Reed, pretend the ball is a gas station bathroom towel dispenser that you beat the hell out of drunk. Whatever it takes, just make your damn kicks!

A few notes:

The team got pretty banged up again, especially on the offensive line. When Pouncey went down they really couldn’t move the ball at all on the ground. That really tells you just how valuable this rookie is already.  We do think that in that situation Arians needs to swallow his ego and put a full back in there to gain some extra blocking for Mendenhall. Why is it so hard for him to make a sensible football move? Seriously, how can that HURT your offense in a running situation when your line is already porous and then injured to boot?  Arians is questionable at best as a coordinator.

The Steelers 4th quarter defense needs to improve. They have given up 63 points this year in the last quarter. That’s more than half their season total. That’s not what we need or want to see. It was evident that it COULD be a problem vs. a better team as the Bengals nearly erased a 20 point deficit in the 4th. Playing the Colts, Pats or another big time offense and this game could have turned out differently. 

The best part about tonight, pushing the Bungles to 2-6 and avoiding 3 straight losses to those clowns. We still have to face them again and it will be tough, but they don’t appear to be a factor in the playoff race.

Great win, great way to hold on and keep pace with purple birds in Baltimore.

6-2, up next New England