Cincinnati 20, Pittsburgh 10: The Steelers are 0-2 and the Bengals are 1-1 after tonight's Monday Night Football rivalry from the AFC Hey-We-All-Get-To-Play-The-Browns-Twice. There wasn't a whole lot of offense, but the game, like the Bengals twitter account, had its moments.
Apart from being a fun little bit of shit-talking, it was right on the money—Felix Jones was Pittsburgh's leading rusher with 37 yards and Roethlisberger was second, with six. Still, the game was closer than the score and stats would lead you to believe. Cincinnati was the more balanced, Dalton finished with 281 yards and one touchdown to Roethlisberger's 251 yards and one touchdown and interception. Dalton, though, had a running game too. BenJarvus Green-Ellis had 75 yards and Giovani Bernard added 38.
Despite the banged up OL, Pittsburgh still connected on some big passing plays. Unfortunately, some were negated by either penalties or turnovers.
This pass to tight end David Paulson was a 34-yard gain on second-and-eight down to the Bengals 16, but it was ruled a fumble (after review) and Cincinnati recovered. Three plays later, Dalton connected on a deep pass to his own tight end, Tyler Eifert for 61 yards and the Bengals quickly turned it into seven, giving them a 7-3 first-quarter lead.
On the Steelers first possession of the second half they again lost a big play, this time to a tripping penalty.
This was a 33-yard gain to Antonio Brown, down to the Bengals 30-yard line that came back on a questionable tripping call. Roethlisberger was sacked on the next play for a loss of 11, forcing a fourth-and-31. They never really tested Cincinnati again.
Cincinnati again took the subsequent possession in for a touchdown, this time a 27-yard hook-up between Dalton and Bernard (top image). Mike Nugent would add a field goal in the fourth quarter to get us a final score of 20-10.
This? This, I just enjoy how Troy Polamalu is just basically jumping on people with his head these days. And enjoying even more how well an onomatopoetic bounce sound-effect would work here.