In one of the best victories of the season, the Steelers overcame two 14-Point deficits and sent the Bengals home for a second straight year. They battled through, terrible officiating, several injuries and in the end stuck with a solid game plan, that delivered a hard fought victory.
Chris Boswell provided the majority of the offense, booting a Steelers record tying SIX field goals, with five of them being over 40+ yards. It was a great effort and they were all no doubters. He also made a shoestring tackle on a kick return by Alex Erickson, that saved four points, the Steelers margin of victory.
Ben Roethlisberger bounced back from his horrible weekend in Buffalo, he never panicked and never turned the ball over as he drove the Steelers down the field and led the eventual comeback. Roethlisberger passed for 286 yards and led the offense to scores on seven of the first eight possessions. He spread the ball around and kept the Steelers in the game. Ladarius Green and Eli Rogers led the team with five catches, each made big plays including Roger’s game winner.
The game plan was to run the ball and the Steelers never got away from that. Le’Veon Bell rushed for 93 yards and closed out the game in the fourth quarter with precision running. The offensive line grinded out the yardage and provided excellent protection. Watching Dave DeCastro destroy Vontaze Burfict on a pull was outstanding.
The defense started slow, but eventually made the proper adjustments and shutout the Bengals in the second half. The secondary held Andy Dalton to 146 yards total passing and the linebackers harassed him all day. After getting crunched up front in the first half the Defensive line, playing without Stephon Tuitt, made the adjustments in the second half and completely shut down the Bengals running game. The Bengals finished with 76 yards. It was a complete effort and a great comeback.
The officiating was horrible. Hard to describe a worse array of refs, they missed several calls, made several non-calls and were too much a part of the game. It was obvious that they were worried about the nonsense that happens in a Steelers -Bengals game. Once again the Bengals showed a complete lack of discipline.
The Bengals totally lack any poise. Vontaze Burfict makes so many mistakes, it discounts any plays that he actually makes. Mike Tomlin clearly out coached Marvin Lewis…Again!
BTW I don’t think it was a coincidence that the Bengals basically were shutout after Jeremy Hill disrespected the Terrible Towel.
BEER WE GO STEELERS, BEER WE GO!
My “GAME BEER” goes to: “Little Bos” Chris Boswell, who banged out SIX long kicks on a cold day. He was automatic and he tied Gary Anderson and “Skippy” Reed for the Steelers record. The Janick texted that to me after the game. Also Considered: Myron Cope, who somewhere was smiling, about the power of the Terrible Towel! Eli Rogers and Ladarius Green both contributed and Green had to go out on his shield.
Where I watched the game: At the house, the plan was to watch at Buckley’s but when the game was flexed we stayed at the house with the Tailgate Kids, Dante had a Root Beer, he got for his Birthday and KGB did Christmas stuff and cooked fried eggplant during the game. The beer of choice for me was IC Light that we are rationing since we bought it in the Burgh! Everyone was very tense until Hill jumped on the Terrible Towel, at that point you can see the Steelers on the verge of the comeback.
My Stat of the week: Well you already read the Six for Little Bos, so I am going to go with 3 Points as a stat, that is the number of points the Bengals scored after disrespecting the Terrible Towel.
My Thoughts on next week: This IS IT! Win and we are in the playoffs; we could use the Browns game as a bye week. Look for a classic Steelers Ravens Battle with the Steelers winning late.
This week’s Jersey: Went with Joey Porter #55 Away White for “Teams for Troops”, also wore it to church on Saturday. BTW this isn’t a throwback either, this is my actual jersey from when Porter first made the team!