The Pittsburgh Steelers travel to Cincinnati to play the Bengals Sunday night in their first divisional game of the season. Last week, the Steelers lost a last-second heart-breaker to the Tennessee Titans which moved their record to 2-3 on the season, and all three of those losses have come on the road. The Steelers look to get back on the winning track against the Bengals this week, to earn their first victory on the road this season. Cincinnati is coming off a loss as well and is looking to rebound.
Franchise quarterback Ben Roethlisberger is coming off of a game where he was 24-40 for 363 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Big Ben looks to have another big game against the Bengals and their 17th ranked passing defense. Ben has averages just fewer than 300 yards a game and has a total of nine touchdowns and two interceptions. In his career, he has only lost once in Cincinnati. Since Roethlisberger became the starter in 2004, the Steelers are 13-4 against the Bengals.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Steelers have the 4th best pass defense and the 5th best overall defense. Most of this has been done without the services of Troy Polamalu who has only played a few plays since week 1, and James Harrison who missed the first three games of the season. Both players are former Defensive Players of the Year, and make huge impacts on the defense. For only the second time this season, Steelers’ fans have the opportunity to watch Lamarr Woodley and James Harrison on the field at the same time this season.
The Steelers come into this game a little injury ridden; Polamalu is out again with a calf injury, starting running back Rashard Mendenhall is questionable with knee and Achilles injuries, starting center Maurkice Pouncey is questionable with a MCL injury that occurred in the Titan game, starting right tackle Marcus Gilbert won’t play because of an ankle injury that he hurt in the game last week, and back-up outside linebacker Cris Carter is questionable with a hamstring injury. There is some good news on the injury front for the Steelers though. Woodley is supposed to return from a hamstring injury that sidelined him for a week, backup running back Isaac Redman is probable to play this week and will most likely get the bulk of the carries if Mendenhall can’t go.
Cincinnati is coming off of a divisional loss to the Cleveland Browns. The Bengals gave up 21 points in the fourth quarter, and lost the game 34-24. They come into this game in second place in the AFC North Division with a 3-3 record.
Andy Dalton and A.J. Green are slowly becoming one of the best quarterback/wide receiver duos in the NFL. Both players were rookies in 2011, and were the Bengals first and second round picks. Green comes into the game as the league’s leading receiver with 628 yards, and leads all AFC receivers with 6 touchdowns. Dalton is fifth in the league in both passing yards with 1,726, and touchdowns with 14. In 21 games the two have combined for 1,685 yards and 13 touchdowns. Since these two broke into the NFL they are 0-2 against the Steelers.
Cincinnati boasts the league’s 15th best overall defense and the 21st rush defense in the league. Their defense is lead by middle linebacker Rey Maualuga who has been in on 50 tackles this season. As a unit the defense is looking to create more turnovers since they are minus 7 in that category. They have amassed 20 sacks in 6 games this season and look to build on that number with the possibility of two starters being out on the Steelers’ offensive line.
Second place in the AFC North Division is on the line in this matchup. With a win, the Steelers move to 3-3 and would be a half game ahead of the Bengals who would drop to 3-4. But if the Bengals were to win, it would move them to 4-3 and no worse than two games behind the division leading Baltimore Ravens who are 5-1, and two games ahead of the Steelers who would fall to 2-4. The Steelers have never had this bad of a record this late in the season since Mike Tomlin took over. The game looks to be a typical AFC North battle with a lot on the line for how early it is in the season.
