By Ben Baby
September 27, 2019
(Getty Images)
CINCINNATI -- Those around Cincinnati have let first-year Bengals coach Zac Taylor know the importance of the annual games against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
“They’re pretty frank about it,” Taylor said this week.
If folks around town are pretty fed up, there’s a good reason. The Bengals are carrying an eight-game losing streak against the Steelers into Monday night’s game at Pittsburgh (8:15 p.m. ET, ESPN/ESPN App). Should Cincinnati lose the contest between two of the NFL’s remaining winless teams and stretch the streak to nine, it will be the longest of its kind in franchise history.
And if there’s ever been a time to break the streak, Monday’s nationally televised game will be as good as any.
“Sometimes it takes one,” Taylor said of a potential victory against the Steelers, who like the Bengals are 0-3. “It just takes that first one to get it rolling. We’re hungry for that one and we desperately want it right now. The important thing is we don’t deviate, and we stay the course, and we know where we’re headed.”
Despite the optimism, the trajectory for the Bengals’ season should be much clearer after Week 4. Over the past 10 seasons, every team that started 0-4 has missed the playoffs. After Cincinnati dropped the first three games of the season, the odds overwhelmingly favor a top-five draft pick in 2020 instead of a potential postseason run.
But if there’s any solace for the Bengals during their slow start, it’s that their rivals have been equally bad. While the sample size is still relatively small, the Steelers are one of two teams that have scored fewer points (49) and allowed more (85) than Cincinnati (54 points scored, 83 points allowed). The other is the Dolphins, who are losing by an average of 39 points per game.
The state of both franchises hasn’t dissipated the distaste for the rivals.
“It’s been a long time since we beat those guys and I want this game so bad,” Bengals defensive end Sam Hubbard said. “I think a lot of guys in this locker room want this game so bad. We’re not focusing on the records.”
The 100th game between the Bengals and the Steelers is unique because of the new cast of players on both sides.
Pittsburgh no longer has running back Le'Veon Bell or wide receiver Antonio Brown on the roster. Second-year quarterback Mason Rudolph will be starting in place of Ben Roethlisberger, who is recovering from elbow surgery.
And in Cincinnati, polarizing linebacker Vontaze Burfict is no longer in the Bengals’ locker room. Burfict had the vicious hit on Brown in a 2015 AFC wild-card game that led to the Steelers’ winning field goal and extended Cincinnati’s postseason victory drought that stretches back to the 1990 season.
Bengals wide receiver Tyler Boyd, who was drafted out of Pitt a few months after that 2015 playoff game, understands why it is such a rivalry.
“Guys trying to go out there and destroy each other,” said Boyd, who played his college games at the Steelers’ Heinz Field. “It was crazy for me to watch it.”
But over the past few seasons, the results have been one-sided. Boyd is among the many starters in Cincinnati who have never beaten Pittsburgh. A victory Monday could be particularly significant for a Bengals team still learning how to win.
“We’ve gotta find that killer instinct inside of us,” Taylor said.
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