Pittsburgh Steelers win a nasty showdown with Cincinnati on MNF 23-20
The Pittsburgh Steelers and Cincinnati Bengals have an extremely rough rivalry as of late. That showed through again in another vicious showing on Monday Night Football.
The Pittsburgh Steelers entered Monday’s game looking to keep pace with the Patriots for the top seed in the AFC. They needed a win to go to 10-2 and they did just that.
The game took a turn for the worst almost immediately as Ryan Shazier lay on the ground not moving his legs the entire time after a nasty tackle. He was strapped to a stretcher and carted off and taken to the hospital.
The Steelers defense held tough on third down to hold the Bengals to three. The offense, however, did not keep the ball very long and the defense was out again.
The defense was on the field for the majority of the first half on the Steelers’ way to a 17-3 halftime deficit. It would turn out though that the Steelers field goal before half time have a big impact on the outcome.
The Steelers defense came out and forced three and out by the Bengals. The Steelers came out firing and moved the ball with ease.
The drive was capped with a 35 yard touchdown reception by Le’Veon Bell. Bell tight roped the sideline as William Jackson let up on the sideline and he scampered in for the score.
Cincinnati answered quick with a touchdown of their own. However, Giovani Bernard was called for holding and the score brought back.
The Bengals drove into field goal range and stalled out to settle for three making it 20-10. Martavis Bryant returned the ensuing kickoff 96 yards for a TD but J.J. Wilcox nullified with a holding penalty.
After a stalled drive by Cincinnati again, the Steelers drove down the field and kicked a field goal to make it 20-13. A Bengals three and out gave the Steelers the ball back with 8:01 to play. The next scary hit came a few plays into the next drive.
On a pass to Bell, JuJu Smith-Schuster laid a crack back block on Vontaze Burfict that was too high drawing a personal foul. He then stood over Burfict and taunted him drawing a second flag on the play.
Burfict did suffer an injury on the play and had to be off the field. JuJu has since apologized for the hit and subsequent taunting.
The Steelers went on to score on a touchdown pass. However, Bengal safety George Iloka laid another vicious helmet to helmet hit on Antonio Brown.
Brown held on and the Steelers tied the game. The Steelers defense held tough and got the ball back with just over two minutes to play.
Pittsburgh drove the ball downfield getting into field goal range. With time expiring, Chris Boswell nailed his third game winner in the last four weeks to send Pittsburgh home victorious 23-20.
Pittsburgh and Cincinnati are big rivals that are getting out of control. There were no fights but the unnecessary hits and personal fouls are astounding.
The staff and teams need to correct this before the next meeting. Retaliation from both teams has turned this into an ongoing matter that needs put to rest.
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The thoughts of Steeler Nation, as well as many others who watched last night, shift to the health of Ryan Shazier. No one ever wants to see injuries happen in the game of football. Get well soon 5-0!