The Steelers outdueled the Bengals 44-38.
It was an old-fashioned shootout with one of the best Quarterbacks in the NFL getting outdueled by a legendary gun slinger! The Steelers beat Joe Burrow and the Bengals, 44-38 behind the herculean effort of Russell Wilson.
With his 36th birthday not far in the rearview mirror, Russell Wilson put on a vintage performance from his glory days as a Super Bowl Champ. He absolutely torched the Bengals secondary and put-up monster numbers. Wilson finished with 414 yards, three touchdowns and one non-sensical interception, that the refs completely missed pass interference on. It was the most yards by a Steelers quarterback in four years and the most points since 2018.
Speaking of vintage performances, Cam Heyward had his best game of the season as well, which is saying something. Heyward dominated up front and set the point of attack. He had five tackles, one of which leveled Chase Brown, he sacked Burrow and deflected a pass that was picked off by Donte Jackson. The Bengals had one drive where they did the majority of their running after that it was all over for the running game.
T.J. Watt broke his “dry-spell” he had two sacks and three tackles all for a loss. He added a strip sack that changed the momentum of the game. He was held all game and battled through. Nick Herbig had a strip sack in the fourth quarter and dominated Orlando Brown Jr., the refs again missed several penalties on Brown Jr. who should have been flagged for several false starts, CBS even highlighted the missed calls especially on one of the Bengals scoring drives.
Patrick Queen had a very good game, except for one series, he finished with nine tackles. DeShon Elliot led the team with 11 tackles. Joey Porter Jr. had a touch day and was flagged four times.
The offense had all the answers on Sunday. Wilson’s dominant performance was powered by spreading the ball around. Antonio Brown Jr…. sorry must have been an AI typo, George Pickens had a monster game and continues to do silly and immature things. He dropped a ball on a Bengals player after a first down that cost the Steelers 15 yards and he pretended to shoot off a gun, another 15-yard penalty after another first down that put the Steelers inside the red zone. He was lucky he didn’t get sent out of the game. Pickens finished with three catches and 74 yards with a touchdown. Pat Freiermuth added touchdown and Arthur Smith is starting to find ways to get him more involved in the game. Calvin Austin III torched the Bengals secondary and unfortunately left the game with concussion like symptoms, that was also missed by the refs. How about Ben Skowronek and Darnell Washington making plays and absolutely pushing the Bengals all over the field.
Najee Harris had solid workmanlike performance, rushing for 75 tough yards, and grabbing six catches for 54 yards and a touchdown. The Steelers finished the day with 110 yards including the game clinching seven yard run by Justin Fields.
The special teams’ coverages were lousy again, but the kicking game was solid as always. Chris Boswell had a field goal blocked but hit his three other chances and Corliss Waitman did an excellent job on his only punt opportunity, he pinned the Bengals on the 11.
The refs were horrible and inconsistent all game.
The coaching staff had the right game plan to beat the Bengals and it showed.
BEER WE GO, STEELERS BEER WE GO.
My “GAME BEER” goes to: This is a hard one to pick, going with Russell Wilson who threw for 414 yards and three touchdowns. Also Considered: Nick Herbig for another strip sack, Donte Jackson for the big interception. Cam Heyward who was absolutely a monster all game! His stats do not show it, but Ben Skowronek is going to become a Steelers fan favorite with his physical play.
Beer of the Game: Tried Yuengling Flight, very good beer and low in calories. KGB went with Harpoon Holiday Ale, a very full-bodied winter beer.
“Steel the Snacks”: KGB crushed this one. We went with Skyline Chili a Cincinnati staple over spaghetti. Putting Chili on spaghetti is sacrilegious to me but we went with. It was outstanding and of course the snacks worked their magic.
My stat of the week: There are so many to choose from but one I think is important, last week I hit on Mike Tomlin’s lack of success on Thursday night road divisional games. Let us look at one of Coach Tomlin’s biggest triumphs, he has lost back-to-back road divisional games exactly one time in his entire illustrious career. Let that synch in for a minute. Also considered, the Steelers score 44 points, the most points since 2018! How about zero as in the amount of plays Trey Hendrickson the NFL sack leader made, where he was nearly “stoned” by Dan Moore, recording exactly one tackle. Lastly the Steelers-Bengals scored the most points combined this season in any NFL game. AFC North teams doing that has to surprise everyone. How about Russell Wilson hitting TEN different receivers?
My thoughts on next week: The Steelers will have their fourth straight divisional game, this week the Browns come to Pittsburgh. This is a revenge game, and the Steelers need to finish the Browns off this time after letting them off the hook just about two weeks ago.
Jersey of the Week: Rod Woodson, #26 Home Black, this one has a very special meaning to me. My first Steelers jersey was my Dad’s Terry Bradshaw jersey. Rod was the first Steelers jersey I bought myself. (BTW this began the jersey curse) The pandemic ended our Turkey Bowl for good in 2020, this was always my turkey bowl jersey from 1995-2019.