Steelers rally past Bengals, 24-20
CINCINNATI — Obviously, young Jeremy Hill of the Cincinnati Bengals doesn’t know his history.
If he did, he wouldn’t have picked up a Terrible Towel in the end zone, pretended to rip it before spiking it after scoring a touchdown Sunday against the Steelers.
That was the last touchdown the Bengals would score as the Steelers rallied to a 24-20 win to stretch their win streak to five games and set up an opportunity to clinch the AFC North championship next week at home against the Baltimore Ravens.
The touchdown by Hill and the subsequent extra point gave the Bengals a 17-3 lead early in the second quarter, but five more Chris Boswell field goals and a 24-yard touchdown pass from Ben Roethlisberger to Eli Rogers with 7:29 remaining gave the Steelers their ninth win against five losses.
The Bengals scored only three more points after Hill used as a celebration prop a towel that’s creator, the late Myron Cope, claimed had mystical powers. Bengals WR T.J. Houshmandzadeh once wiped his feet with a Terrible Towel after a 2005 win, and the Steelers gained revenge by beating the Bengals in the first round of the playoffs a month later.
Perhaps there’s magic, or perhaps Hill just couldn’t find any running room after his second-quarter touchdown run gave him 44 yards on 14 carries. He finished with 43 yards on 20 carries and was in and out of the game with leg problems.
How did the Steelers defense turn it around?
“We tackled better,” said Mike Tomlin.
The Steelers didn’t allow a point in the second half and held the Bengals to 38 yards of total offense and only four first downs.
It had to be more than just better tackling.
“It was just want-to,” said linebacker Ryan Shazier. “I don’t think anybody did anything special. We just did exactly what we had to do.”
“It was the attitude,” said linebacker Lawrence Timmons. “Guys like Coach (Keith) Butler and Mike Tomlin do a good job when we come out of a bad half. They’re just like, ‘That’s over. Let’s do something now.’ And that was our mentality. We took it one play at a time and just had the mentality that, ‘No, it’s not happening.’ You saw that out there on the field.”
And so they tackled better.
“It’s real simple,” Timmons said. “You want an equation, but we ain’t got that. We’re just doing addition and subtraction here.”
Timmons made the biggest defensive play of the game, but his interception of Andy Dalton at midfield, which Timmons returned to the Cincinnati 34 late in the third quarter, merely resulted in Boswell’s sixth field goal and cut the Bengals lead to 20-18.
The Steelers forced a three-and-out and then embarked on their only touchdown drive.
“Man, I wanted to get seven points,” center Maurkice Pouncey said of the feeling in the huddle as the Steelers took over at their 31 with 10:51 left. “Those field goals were starting to piss us off a little bit.”
Was anything said in the huddle?
“Ben just said ‘Let’s go finish, let’s lock in, keep going, don’t do anything stupid, don’t get any penalties’ and that’s exactly what we did,” Pouncey said. “We followed his lead and did the job.”
With a little — a lotta — help from the Bengals, who continued their recent history of melting down late against the Steelers.
n On third-and-1, a Bengal jumped offside and Pouncey snapped the ball to an unsuspecting Roethlisberger for a five-yard penalty.
n The Bengals then had back-to-back holding calls on cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick.
n A fourth consecutive Bengals penalty was committed by tackle Pat Sims for throwing Le’Veon Bell to the ground after the whistle.
The 30 penalty yards put the Steelers at the Cincinnati 18. Two plays alter, Roethlisberger found Rogers at the goal line in the middle of the field for the game-winning score with 7:29 remaining.
The touchdown was the third of Rogers career, but he called it his best yet.
“I was patient at the line,” Rogers explained, “and I ran with great speed, and gave (Josh Shaw) a nice head fake. I had won an out earlier, and kind of tried to make it look the same and gave him a head fake, and I beat him.”
Rogers had five catches in the game for a team-high 75 receiving yards.
“I’m so excited for him, grateful for him, glad to see him stepping up in a big way,” said receiver Antonio Brown. “We’re going to need that from him down the stretch.”
Brown explained that the Bengals routinely play two high safeties, “and they rolled to my side a lot,” he said. “So we knew we were going to have to make some big plays down the middle.”
That’s where Roethlisberger found Rogers, and the defense — and perhaps the Towel — did the rest.
Of course, the Bengals bungling down the stretch is always helpful.
“Don’t tell them,” Pouncey said with a laugh. “We might want them to keep doing that.”