Last week all the Pittsburgh Steelers heard was how they weren’t as good as their record and with quarterback Ben Roethlisberger on the Reserve/COVID-19 list, this matchup with the Cincinnati Bengals was anything but a gimmie.
The Steelers took all that to heart and despite a less-than-perfect game, dominated Cincinnati 36-10.
The story of the game was Roethlisberger. After sitting at home all week and unable to workout with the team, Roethlisberger took total control of the game. Big Ben finished with 333 yards passing, four passing touchdowns and once again didn’t turn the football over.
Roethlisberger completed passes to seven different players including Diontae Johnson who hauled in six passes for 116 receiving yards and a touchdown. But he wasn’t along as JuJu Smith-Schuster caught nine passes and rookie receiver Chase Claypool caught two more touchdown passes.
On defense, Pittsburgh was once again too much for a rookie quarterback. On the season, Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow was averaging almost 300 yards a game but the Steelers held him to 213 yards and had him under duress almost all of the second half.
In addition, after getting gashed in the run game the past two weeks, the Steelers really asserted themselves there as well. The Bengals were only able to rush for 139 yards total and no back had 50 yards rushing.
Pittsburgh now travels to Jacksonville to take on the 1-8 Jaguars.
