Welcome to Steelers week.
This one is different. It was always going to be different. The Cincinnati Bengals moved on from Marvin Lewis over the offseason and march into Steelers week with Zac Taylor leading the team.
Unfortunately for Taylor and his new staff, the mark is 0-3 and the outlook going into a road game in Pittsburgh on Monday Night Football of all places isn’t great.
Yet somehow, the vibes are more upbeat than in the past. Lewis’ 8-26 record against the Steelers bordered on depressing, as did the team’s usual performance in primetime games.
It can’t be any worse, right?
Those Steelers limp into the affair too. They’re free of Antonio Brown but 0-3 and now face the rest of the season without Ben Roethlisberger. Even with him, things weren’t exactly competitive — not with a 33-3 loss to New England to start the season.
So there is hope the Bengals could nab their first win of the season and really get the new-era vibes going by taking down a rival that has routinely owned them for the better part of 20 seasons. We could argue about whether it would feel meaningless to beat a winless team missing its quarterback, but any sort of win at this point would be nice for the team and its fans.
Getting there is tricky. The offense hasn’t scored more than 20 points in a game and looks to be in an even worse state when thinking about it without a wildcard like John Ross putting up three touchdowns. The defense was lucky to keep an iffy Buffalo offense close in Week 3, yet the same angle, gap and tackling issues persisted. Taylor, for all that he is doing right, has had some learning pains with challenges, game management and getting his offense going.
Starting a new chapter in the rivalry with the Steelers with a win doesn’t necessarily salvage the season or confirm much of anything given Pittsburgh’s status right now — but it sure couldn’t hurt.
Staring 0-4 in the face and the team’s biggest hurdle for years, Taylor has something to prove under the bright lights of a Monday night game.
