The Cincinnati Bengals are back in the NFL! In a wild 33:31 thriller, they defeated the previously division-leading Pittsburgh Steelers, giving them their second defeat of the season – and breathing new life into the playoff race.
Man of the evening was Ja’Marr Chase. The wide receiver caught 16 passes for 161 yards and a touchdown. In his 69th NFL game, the 24-year-old broke the 6,000 receiving yards mark – only four players did it faster, including his former LSU teammate Justin Jefferson. Chase won almost every duel against the Steelers’ secondary, which featured Jalen Ramsey, Darius Slay and Joey Porter Jr.
Flacco justifies the trade
With Joe Burrow (turf toe) on the Injured Reserve List, Cincinnati relied on recently traded Joe Flacco – and the 40-year-old immediately repaid the trust. With 342 yards, three touchdowns and no panic in the pocket, Flacco showed why head coach Zac Taylor wanted him. The fact that the Steelers pass rush, which had recently achieved 17 sacks in three games, only brought him down twice played perfectly into the veteran’s hands.
Until now, the Bengals’ running game was considered their Achilles’ heel. However, against Pittsburgh, Chase Brown exploded with 11 carries for 108 yards. Two long runs forced the defense to show more presence in the box – the space for Chase Brown and Tee Higgins became even larger.
Rodgers shines – and fails
On the other side was Aaron Rodgers, who is also over 40 and was hunting for his first title in black and yellow. The quarterback delivered four touchdown passes, three of them outside the pocket. A 68-yard big play to Pat Freiermuth gave the Steelers a brief lead with 2:31 minutes left.
A field goal from Bengals kicker Evan McPherson decided the game for the Bengals eleven seconds before the end.
Rodgers also had two interceptions. The first one was particularly bitter: He forced a deep pass to the double-covered DK Metcalf – Jordan Battle just waited and initiated the Bengals’ next touchdown.
For the third time this season, the Steelers conceded 30 or more points – the last time that happened in the first six games was in 2003. And this time all starters were fit. TJ Watt didn’t appear in the statistics for the first time until the final quarter, when Cincinnati was already leading. Tackling also remains a problem: Bengals rookie linebacker Demetrius Knight Jr. was replaced by veteran Oren Burks after a miss in the fourth quarter.
Cincinnati hosts the New York Jets on October 26th and can finally make up ground with another success. Pittsburgh has to get back on track against the Green Bay Packers at the same time, otherwise the division lead that seemed so comfortable early on could finally shrink.
