Cincinnati Bengals at Pittsburgh Steelers
The divisional rival game I’m most looking forward to Week 2 will be at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh as the Steelers host the Cincinnati Bengals. These two flat out hate each other.
On December 13th last year, these two met in Cincinnati, a game when QB Andy Dalton injured his right thumb making a tackle after throwing an interception. The two bitter rivals met again in the Wild Card round, again in Cincy.
With Andy Dalton still out, A.J. McCarron is behind center to start a game that would get ugly. Big Ben is at his usual post, after getting the shit knocked out of him all year. The Steelers would take a 6-0 lead into halftime, getting it to 15-0 at the end of 3.
The Bengals would stage a comeback in the 4th, scoring unanswered three times to take a one-point 16-15 lead. And all hell breaks loose…
Pittsburgh ball on their own 9…five Roethlisberger completions, couple incompletions, and a 4-yard run and we’re 4th and 3 on the Steelers 41. Complete to Antonio Brown for 12 yards…first down! Timeout Pittsburgh (0:22 left.)
The next play Ben goes deep to Brown when linebacker Vontaze Burfict tries to separate his head from his shoulders; resulting in a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty.
Next play, tempers flare, emotions running high, and Pacman proceeds to tell the ref exactly what he thinks (and he has a way with words if you’ve ever heard Pacman)…resulting in an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, the second 15-yard penalty on back-to-back plays.
So we all know what happens, Boswell makes a 35-yard field goal, Steelers win 18-16 and lose to the Broncos a week later. Bottom line, this is one to circle on your calendar!
The Steelers are 6-3 against the spread (ATS) in their last 10 against the Bengals (1 push), and those same 10 have resulted in the UNDER seven times, including 2 of three last year.
