Steelers Hold Off Bengals

This game started out with a bang and finished with a even bigger one; what happened in the middle was a much different story. The Steelers (7-3) got back back to their winning way by holding off the Bengals (6-3) and keeping pace with the Ravens, who lost to the Seahawks.

Big Ben came out throwing the ball and he did it quite well at the start. Like the typical Bruce Arians offense though, they went to the well too much and the Bengals picked up on it. Ben finished strong throwing for two first downs to hold of the Bengals and seal the victory. Ben finished 21 of 33 with 245 yards with a touchdown and an interception.

The Steelers rarely used the running game, again. They ran two reversals to Mike Wallace in the first quarter resulting in 31 yards but other than that the Steelers waited to use the running game until the passing game sputtered. As a team the Steelers combined for 105 yards; Mendenhall averaged 2.8 yards picking up 44 yards on 16 carries, he also had two touchdowns. Redman was the most impressive, again, as he carried seven times for 25 yards averaging 3.5 per rush.

Antonio Brown continues to impress as he leads the NFL in catches over the last four weeks. Brown came up huge in this game grabbing five passes for 86 yards. He made big plays on third and long and when the Steelers needed them most, he and Mike Wallace are forming one of the best one, two tandems in the league at this point in their short careers. I loved that Jerricho Cotchery had a two big catches for 29 yards and a touchdown. He had another touchdown called back because of a stupid penalty, but none the less it is good to see him playing well.

The defense played well at times and at other times they really seemed like a joke. Statistically they were impressive giving up 279 net yards, 109 on the ground and 170 through the air. But the team struggled at times with Andy Dalton and allowed the Bengals to move up and down the field. The defense did come up with two big interceptions, one by Lawrence Timmons and the huge game sealing William Gay interception.

The Steelers looked good and with the Ravens loss they can still win the division. The Steelers play the woeful Kansas City Chiefs after their bye week but will not see starting quarterback Matt Cassell. Due to an injury Tyler Palko will be the starter when we travel to Missouri in two weeks.