Steelers leave Bengals, Green with envy
Steelers’ running back DeAngelo Williams gets past Bengals’ linebacker VIncent Rey during Pittsburgh’s 24-16 win at Heinz Field Sunday afternoon.
Pittsburgh Steelers tight end Xavier Grimble dives into the end zone for a touchdown after taking a pass from quarterback Ben Roethlisberger during the first half against Cincinnati.
PITTSBURGH – With cornerback Ross Cockrell going everywhere but to the locker room at halftime with Cincinnati’s star wide receiver A.J. Green, the Steelers were doing everything they could to make somebody else on the Bengals’ roster beat them.
It turned out to be a good plan.
The Steelers limited Green to only two catches for 38 yards and quarterback Ben Roethlisberger overcame a tough day throwing the football in sloppy weather to record three touchdown passes as Pittsburgh beat the Bengals, 24-16, at Heinz Field in an early-season showdown of AFC North Division rivals.
The win gives the Steelers (2-0) an early leg up on the Bengals (1-1) in the division standings. More importantly, it might also show that Pittsburgh’s secondary is growing into one that is capable of stopping an opponent’s best option.
A week ago, Green torched the Jets’ Darrelle Revis, considered one of the best cornerbacks in football, for 12 receptions, 180 yards and a touchdown.
Green, who at 6-4 is a matchup nightmare for most teams, never got going in this one.
“We threw the bus at them. We played zone, man, blitzed,” said the 6-0 Cockrell. “We put all of that out there to try to limit his touches. The more he touches it, the more chances he has to change the game. That’s all we tried to do.”
It wasn’t exactly Revis Island – as former Jets head coach Rex Ryan dubbed the side of the field Revis played – but had the rain kept falling, it might have turned part of the field into Cockrell Island.
“No, no, no, no, no,” Cockrell said. “We’re the Steelers defense and I’m proud to be a part of it.”
By the time Cincinnati quarterback Andy Dalton figured out the Steelers would allow check-down passes over the middle to the running backs, it was too late. Pittsburgh already led 24-9 on Roethlisberger scoring passes to tight ends Xavier Grimble and Jesse James and running back DeAngelo Williams.
“He did a nice job, but it wasn’t just him on A.J. Green,” said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin of Cockrell. “I don’t want to make it out to be something it’s not. We liked the matchup because of the physical stature, but we still did a lot of things schematically to minimize his impact on the game.”
And on a rainy day, getting the ball to the wide receivers wasn’t necessarily easy to do, either.
The weather made it difficult to pass the ball at times and Cincinnati made life miserable for Pittsburgh’s star receiver, Antonio Brown. Brown caught only four passes for 39 yards as Roethlisberger finished 19 of 37 for 259 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions.
“The weather was a defensive heaven,” said Roethlisberger. “They love the elements like that. It was tough sledding for us on offense. For us, especially going against a tough defense, it wasn’t easy to make plays. … We made the plays when we had to.”
The Bengals did not.
Cincinnati was 4-for-16 on third-down conversions and failed to score on three trips inside the Pittsburgh 20-yard line, settling for field goals each time.
The Bengals’ best opportunity to score came in the third quarter after James caught a 9-yard TD pass from Roethlisberger to make it 17-6.
With Green contained and the running game producing just 46 yards on 18 carries, that put a lot of pressure on Dalton, who completed 31 of 54 passes for 366 yards and a touchdown. Dalton quickly marched the Bengals 74 yards to the Pittsburgh 1 with the help of two pass interference penalties.
But linebacker Ryan Shazier, who led the Steelers with 11 tackles, stuffed running back Jeremy Hill for a 2-yard loss on first down and Dalton was pressured into incompletions on the next two plays as the Bengals settled for a 21-yard Mike Nugent field goal, his third of the game.
“That was huge,” said Steelers linebacker James Harrison. “We didn’t want them to get down there, but when they got down there, we held them to three points. We’re trying to hold them to nothing. But worst-case scenario, we’re trying to hold them to field goals.”
That would prove critical as Roethlisberger connected with Williams, who gained 94 yards rushing and another 38 on four pass receptions, on a 4-yard TD pass midway through the fourth quarter to put the Steelers ahead 24-9.
Dalton connected with running back Giovanni Bernard four times for 53 yards, including a 25-yard touchdown pass, on a 75-yard drive that trimmed Pittsburgh’s lead to 24-16, but that left just 3:34 remaining in the game.
Cincinnati got the ball back after a Pittsburgh punt, but on the first play following the two-minute warning former Pitt star Tyler Boyd, playing in his second game for the Bengals, caught a pass over the middle at the Pittsburgh 33 and was hit by Harrison, knocking the ball loose. It was recovered by safety Robert Golden and returned to the Cincinnati 46.
Replays showed that it was close as to whether Boyd’s knee was down before the fumble, but the officials stuck with the ruling on the field.
“I was told it was down, even by officials on our sideline,” said Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis, a McDonald native. “They didn’t see it that way overall, so that’s all that matters.”
It wasn’t the prettiest of wins, but the Steelers will take it after splitting both games with Cincinnati a year ago and then beating the Bengals, 18-16, in the playoffs.
“(It was) not the perfection that we were looking for, but good enough,” said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. “We weren’t perfect in any phase, in all three phases. But we did enough in all three phases to secure a victory versus a very good football team.”
Grimble’s touchdown was the first catch of his career. … Williams became the 13th active player with at least 10,000 career yards from scrimmage. He has 10,044 yards. … Brown moved past John Stallworth (537) into third place on the Steelers’ all-time receptions list with 538. … The three-touchdown game was the 37th of Roethlisberger’s career. He has 278 TD passes, the 12th most in NFL history. … Punter Jordan Berry landed five of eight punts inside the Cincinnati 20, including four that were downed inside the 10. … The Steelers are 14-2 in home openers at Heinz Field.