It’s time to stop calling the Steelers vs. Bengals a “rivalry.” If playing twice a season makes it one, then so be it. The results short term and long do not.
The Steelers did Sunday at Heinz Field what they usually do when they play Cincinnati. They won. They beat the Bengals for the fifth consecutive time, 29-14. That makes it 8 of 9 games and 13 of 16 in their favor against their cousins from down the Ohio River.
This AFC North Division is looking like a runaway for the Steelers, who improved to 5-2 while the Bengals slipped to 2-4 and the Baltimore Ravens dropped to 3-4 by losing Sunday at Minnesota. The Steelers beat both of them and now can turn their attention to pulling away from them.
“That helps,’’ defensive captain Cam Heyward said of all three other division teams losing, including winless Cleveland. “Now we just have to go out and take care of our business.”
Business, as Antonio Brown might say, is booming again for the Steelers, tied for the best record in the AFC. They have rediscovered their formula on offense after losing their way (or minds) a few times there against the Chicago Bears and Jakcksonville Jaguars.
The formula is a familiar one — a physical offense in which they run the ball and let Ben Roethlisberger throw efficiently.
For the third time in the past four games, Bell carried more than 30 times. The Steelers won all three. He had 134 rushing yards Sunday on 35 carries and another 58 on three pass receptions.
Roethlisberger threw touchdown passes of 7 yards to Brown and 31 to JuJu Smith-Schuster in the first half when he compiled a near-perfect passer rating of 154.4 by completing 12 of 16 for 193 yards. He let Bell do all the heavy lifting in the second half when Roethlisberger completed just 2 of 8, but he was not sacked nor intercepted.
Quarterback Andy Dalton could not say the same for Cincinnati. He was sacked four times and intercepted twice, by Joe Haden and William Gay, both off tipped balls. The Bengals had 179 total yards to 420 for the home team.
The Steelers defense keeps playing better every week.
“When you stop the run and you score points on offense,” linebacker T.J. Watt said,
“it’s going to pay defends for us defensively because we are going to be able to pin our ears back, go get them and know our guys in the back end are going to cover.”
That’s what happened in the second half. The Steelers had another frustrating game inside the 20, scoring touchdowns on just one of five trips. That’s why Chris Boswell kicked five field goals. But they kept extending their halftime lead of 20-14.
That became 23-14 on their first drive of the second half and, two plays later, Haden came up with his first interception as a Steelers cornerback to set up yet another field goal.
The Bengals tried to catch up after falling behind, 26-14, but Dalton and his passing game were not up to it. All four sacks and both interceptions came in the second half when Dalton’s 34 yards passing were fewer than safety Robert Golden’s 44 on a pass to Darrius Heyward-Bey out of a punt formation.
“I thought we really came out in the second half and played our best ball,’’ Heyward said. “We became opportunistic, we got sacks, we got turnovers. That’s what we have to accomplish.
“It was very fun, especially when you get off the field fast. We want to see our offense on the field. I was very happy to see them out there.”
Roethlisberger passed for 224 yards. He has topped 300 just once and that was their loss at home to Jacksonville, when Bell ran just 15 times against what was at the time the worst run defense in the league.
That loss may prove to be the one that stunned them enough to return to the formula they used in winning the past two games, in winning nine in a row a year ago that put them in the AFC title contest.
“I feel great,’’ Bell said of his physical well-being after so many carries. “Next week, if they want to do it again, I’ll be ready.”
Bell gave more punishment than he received Sunday. On way to a beauty of a 42-yard run in the second quarter in which he made three tacklers miss, his right-handed stiff-arm knocked cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick straight to the turf.
“That was one of my better stiff-arms of my life,’’ Bell said.
The rust that showed early on after his long holdout is gone. What has returned is not just the old Bell, but the coaches’ faith in him.
“For me, it is getting the coaches putting a lot of trust in me, making sure I take care of my body and being in shape to carry the ball as many times,” Bell said.
How often can he carry 35 times a game, though, and survive?
“How many more games do we have,’’ Bell answered. “No, for real, how many more games do we have? Nine? At least nine.”
They used fullback Rosie Nix a lot in the I-formation, although why they take him off the field on third-and-1 situations is another matter. They have not just had trouble in the red zone, for all the moving up and down the field they do, they cannot convert a third down, short or medium or long. They made just 2 of 11 Sunday, plus 1 of 3 on fourth down (Golden’s pass was the one). They now are 6 of 22 over the past two games on third down, although both were victories.
That’s something they obviously need to address, but coach Mike Tomlin was in no mood to do so Sunday after the game.
“We won and won definitively. I’m not combing through it that way, I’m really not. We did what was necessary to win.”
As they often do when they play the Bengals.
Ed Bouchette: ebouchette@post-gazette.com and Twitter @EdBouchette.
First Published: October 23, 2017, 4:00 a.m.
