By Paul Daugherty
September 17, 2013
Giovanni Bernard scores two touchdowns as the Bengals take down the Steelers 20-10. The Steelers are now 0-2 for the first time under Mike Tomlin.
Domination is illusory in the NFL. UC isn’t playing Northwestern State on Monday night. And yet, the Bengals needed nothing more Monday night than to step on Pittsburgh’s head. The psychological benefit to laying a prime-time beating on big brother could not be overstated.
Why?
Because they could.
Why?
Because they could.
Because maybe never in the history of the franchise had they been better positioned to do just that.
The Bengals beat the Steelers, 20-10, which beat the alternative. It was a ho-hum effort in front of a national TV audience that, possibly, resisted the temptation to switch en masse to Under The Dome.
It was 10-10 at halftime, and it was ugly enough to keep you thinking the seriously outmanned Steelers had a chance. Then, Andy Dalton found a wide open Gio Bernard in the belly of the Pittsburgh secondary.
No Steeler was within five yards of Bernard when he made the catch. Bernard kept it that way, scooting unbothered 27 yards for the score, with six minutes left in the third quarter. The rookie high-stepped it the final five yards, looking like the band-person picked to dot the I before Ohio State football games.
This was the sort of electricity the Bengals lacked last year, and offered a rare highlight-reel moment on a leadfooted evening. The Bengals were the among the chic preseason picks for the Super Bowl. They might justify that hype. Monday night didn’t leave anyone raving.
The Steelers actually seemed ready to break the 10-10 halftime tie, when Roethlisberger threw 33 yards to Antonio Brown early in the third quarter. But a penalty wiped out the play, at which point packs of Steelers fans switched from the game to Real Housewives of Miami.
A cathartic smashing of Pittsburgh would have been preferred. Instead, Dalton perfected his horizontal passing game. He hit lots of singles. The offense that looked promising in the loss at Chicago produced exactly one big play, a 61-yard pass down the middle, from Dalton to Tyler Eifert.
Dalton threw 32 passes in the first half, about half of them horizontal, and completed only three for more than eight yards. The Steelers were equally ragged, but we expected that. They started a center, Fernando Velasco, who was unemployed a week ago. Their running game was already a ghost. Regardless, when Roethlisberger – 10-1 at Paul Brown Stadium – tossed a 1-yard TD pass on a fade to Derek Moye (the one and only), the game was tied at10 with 1:54 left in the half.
So much, it seems, for a therapeutic horse-whipping of the Steelers. That would have been good for the Bengals players, the best of whom are relatively new to this highly one-sided rivalry. And for their fans, who needed a reason to flush the beatdowns of the past couple decades.
Monday night was payback for Kimo vonKneeWrecker and We-Dey Cowher and for Hines Ward, cracking Keith Rivers’ jaw. It was for Steeler Nation, which has no idea how easy it is to be a loyal fan when your team wins every freaking year, or how much character it takes to stay with a loser for a decade or more.
Before Monday night, the Bengals were 7-20 against Pittsburgh since October 2000. Seasons changed, decades flipped and forever, the Steelers smacked the Bengals like they were pounding rivets. They’ve been to the Bengals who the Cardinals are to the Reds, who Louisville is to UC.
You don’t erase a few generations of Ls in one prime-time evening. Banishing demons is not a three-hour job. It might never be done. The process has to start sometime, though.
Two years ago, a certain someone suggested the Steelers and Baltimore Ravens were trending down, and would be surpassed by a young and gifted Bengals team. The Steelers proceeded to finish 12-4 in 2011; the Ravens won the Super Bowl last year. I might have been wr. . wr. . . not entirely correct about that.
Or, more likely, a little premature. Pittsburgh is 0-2 with lots of tunnel ahead, and not much light. The Ravens have split their first two, and looked unimpressive doing it. This is the Bengals time. Monday night would be their national coming-out.
It was. Kind of.
No Steeler was within five yards of Bernard when he made the catch. Bernard kept it that way, scooting unbothered 27 yards for the score, with six minutes left in the third quarter. The rookie high-stepped it the final five yards, looking like the band-person picked to dot the I before Ohio State football games.
This was the sort of electricity the Bengals lacked last year, and offered a rare highlight-reel moment on a leadfooted evening. The Bengals were the among the chic preseason picks for the Super Bowl. They might justify that hype. Monday night didn’t leave anyone raving.
The Steelers actually seemed ready to break the 10-10 halftime tie, when Roethlisberger threw 33 yards to Antonio Brown early in the third quarter. But a penalty wiped out the play, at which point packs of Steelers fans switched from the game to Real Housewives of Miami.
A cathartic smashing of Pittsburgh would have been preferred. Instead, Dalton perfected his horizontal passing game. He hit lots of singles. The offense that looked promising in the loss at Chicago produced exactly one big play, a 61-yard pass down the middle, from Dalton to Tyler Eifert.
Dalton threw 32 passes in the first half, about half of them horizontal, and completed only three for more than eight yards. The Steelers were equally ragged, but we expected that. They started a center, Fernando Velasco, who was unemployed a week ago. Their running game was already a ghost. Regardless, when Roethlisberger – 10-1 at Paul Brown Stadium – tossed a 1-yard TD pass on a fade to Derek Moye (the one and only), the game was tied at10 with 1:54 left in the half.
So much, it seems, for a therapeutic horse-whipping of the Steelers. That would have been good for the Bengals players, the best of whom are relatively new to this highly one-sided rivalry. And for their fans, who needed a reason to flush the beatdowns of the past couple decades.
Monday night was payback for Kimo vonKneeWrecker and We-Dey Cowher and for Hines Ward, cracking Keith Rivers’ jaw. It was for Steeler Nation, which has no idea how easy it is to be a loyal fan when your team wins every freaking year, or how much character it takes to stay with a loser for a decade or more.
Before Monday night, the Bengals were 7-20 against Pittsburgh since October 2000. Seasons changed, decades flipped and forever, the Steelers smacked the Bengals like they were pounding rivets. They’ve been to the Bengals who the Cardinals are to the Reds, who Louisville is to UC.
You don’t erase a few generations of Ls in one prime-time evening. Banishing demons is not a three-hour job. It might never be done. The process has to start sometime, though.
Two years ago, a certain someone suggested the Steelers and Baltimore Ravens were trending down, and would be surpassed by a young and gifted Bengals team. The Steelers proceeded to finish 12-4 in 2011; the Ravens won the Super Bowl last year. I might have been wr. . wr. . . not entirely correct about that.
Or, more likely, a little premature. Pittsburgh is 0-2 with lots of tunnel ahead, and not much light. The Ravens have split their first two, and looked unimpressive doing it. This is the Bengals time. Monday night would be their national coming-out.
It was. Kind of.
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