Pittsburgh Steelers: Fast Start, Poor Finish Against Bengals

The return to the field of Ben Roethlisberger last Sunday to face the 6-0 Cincinnati Bengals began fast and ended badly as the Pittsburgh Steelers lost 16-10 behind two ugly Big Ben interceptions.

By defeating the Steelers, the Bengals reached 7-0 for the first time in the history of their team. It also pushed Pittsburgh three full games behind in the AFC North still in second place, but more importantly probably making a repeat of a division title nearly impossible.

Worse news is that Le’Veon Bell suffered a right knee injury forcing hI’m from the game and perhaps much longer. Carted off the field, Bell’s mishap came on a play that had him heading out of bounds but his knee turned in an awful fashion when being brought to the turf.

DeAngelo Williams did a superb job filling in for Bell, but Le’Veon Bell he is not. This game was defensive all the way around and credit to both teams for preventing the opposing offenses for not reaching the end zone more than once. The Bengals defense did a good job playing against the many weapons of Pittsburgh, but it was the Steelers’ defense that shined at Heinz Field.

Led by the efforts of Mike Mitchell, Cameron Heyward, and Antwon Blake, with all three players making huge plays, in the end, when a team makes mistakes, outstanding teams will capitalize. That’s what the Cincinnati Bengals did taking advantage of two badly thrown Ben Roethlisberger interceptions. Cincinnati did just enough to win and to use mistakes to their advantage despite Andy Dalton throwing two picks of his own.

Pittsburgh’s offense could not make big things happen following their two turnovers they grabbed. Kudos to James Harrison for turning back the clock one more time with an outstanding game including a blocked field goal. Had the field goal been made, the Steelers would not have had the opportunity to possibly win the game with a touchdown in the waning moments.

As Ben Roethlisberger shouldered the entire blame for the loss, you can’t hate on Big Ben for the loss simply because as he always does in this situation, he mans up to take accept responsibility. Bad games happen and sometimes at the most inopportune times. Roethlisberger is a competitor and he never allows mistakes to keep him from giving 100% on the next play.

Along with Ben Roethlisberger, Mike Tomlin also needs to take responsibility for terrible clock management at the end of the fourth quarter. With well over two minutes to play and three timeouts in his pocket, Tomlin made the decision to refrain from calling one of those T.O.s before the two minute warning. Then, once the two minute warning passed, the final three timeouts came at what seems to be the wrong time and Roethlisberger and the offense were forced to try to score a winning touchdown from too far away.

As the Steelers have two more games before they finally get their bye, they are staying home for the hot Oakland Raiders and then the competitive Cleveland Brown’s. With a record of 4-4, where Pittsburgh finishes at the end of the season could ride in the outcomes of these next two AFC battles. At this point, it’s one game at a time, try to win each game, and let the chips fall where they may.