2010 Steelers’ Season in Review – Week 9

Coming off a tough loss to the Saints on Halloween, the Men of Steel traveled to the home of their division rival, the Cincinnati Bengals, for their second of three straight prime time games. It was like heaven for those of us who do not have the good fortune to live in Pittsburgh and cannot afford NFL Sunday Ticket. (Maybe I can get NPC to spring for NFL Ticket so I can do my weekly research.)

In keeping with their bizarre tradition of having a really good season followed by several terrible ones, the Bengals were in the midst of finishing with a 4-12 record, last in the AFC North, behind even the Browns, after having won the division the previous season.

The visit by the Steelers would be the fifth of 10 consecutive losses for the Bengals after a 2-1 start to the season. Praise all that is good and holy that the Steelers have not put us through that kind of misery in a very, very long time.

No Real Drama to Start

The Steelers won the coin toss and elected to defer to the second half. This gave the Bengals the ball first, but it didn’t take long for the Steelers take possession. Bernard Scott took the opening kickoff for the Bengals, but fumbled. The ball was recovered by the Steelers who only needed four plays to get Rashard Mendenhall in for a TD from the one. A 25-yard “Skippy” Reed field goal extended the lead to 10.

The Bengals came back in the second quarter with a touchdown from Carson Palmer to Terrell Owens (which was set up by a very rare Hines Ward fumble) to close within three points, but Ben Roethlisberger gave Hines a chance to make up for the fumble with an 8-yard touchdown. Reed would hit a 53-yard field goal, which would be his longest of the year.

At the end of the half, the Mighty Black and Gold were comfortably ahead, 20-7.

A Boring Third Quarter

The Steelers’ first possession of the second half lasted four plays before they punted.

The Bengals’ managed to get to the Steelers’ 27-yard line on their first possession of the second half before they missed a 45-yard field goal.

The rest of the quarter was not that much fun to watch unless you are in to incomplete passes and punting. The highlights of the quarter were the three sacks by the Steel Curtain, one each by Farrior, Harrison, and Woodley.

The Steelers “only” got four sacks in the game. To get three sacks in a single quarter is very impressive.

Keep Your Blood Pressure Pills Handy

The first play of the last quarter was the play of the game, but I will get to that in a minute.

After that play, on which the Steelers secured the win, the Bengals mounted a charge when Carson Palmer found Terrell Owens for his second touchdown of the game, and then the Bengals intercepted Big Ben which resulted in a (referee assisted) Cedric Benson 1-yard touchdown run.

Consecutive penalties on Casey Hampton (roughing the passer) and Ike Taylor (PI) gave the Bengals the ball on the Steelers’ 1-yard line. The NFL would later admit that the calls were incorrect. Were I a conspiracy theorist, I would have a field day with this game (in addition to the massive fines levied against James Harrison).

The Steelers got the ball and managed to eat 5:06 of the clock before Reed missed a 46-yard field goal that would have given the Steelers a comfortable nine-point lead with 3:59 left in the game. Yet again, Skippy was proving why he had to go when the end of his time in Pittsburgh finally arrived.

Fortunately, the “Bungles” lived up to their nicknames and couldn’t find a way to drive 64 yards with three timeouts to take the lead with a touchdown, especially since the referees suddenly remembered they were supposed to be impartial.

The Play That Changed the Game

At the time, there would be no way to know the impact of the play, that it would eventually be the game-winning score, but it was an exciting play, none the less.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Steelers ran a fake end-around. ARE pulled up and found Mike Wallace for a 39-yard touchdown, which gave the Steelers a 28-7 lead. The Bengals’ furious comeback meant that had they not scored this touchdown, there is a very good chance that the Steelers could have lost the game.

Had they lost this game, and assuming everything else played out the way it did, the Steelers would have finished in a tie with the Ravens for overall record and division record. The next tiebreaker is conference record. Had it come to that, with a loss in this game, the Steelers would have finished second in the division.

Obviously, that means they wouldn’t have had a first round bye in the playoffs and would have been on the road against the Ravens in the divisional round instead of Heinz Field. And that’s assuming they won against whomever they would have had to play in the wild card round. (That would have been the Chiefs, if everything had played out the same.)

Of course, there is no way to know how the season might played out even if

the refs had given the Bengals this game

, er, I mean if the Bengals had come back to win, but division losses are the worst kind of losses. I believe this is one of the biggest reasons for the Steelers’ success. They win the games against their division rivals more often than not.

Take a look at the play that won the game for the Steelers (courtesy Youtube) at the 2:00 mark of this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yE83fApTDs4