Bengals - Steelers Game

[kingwilly]

The Bengals and Steelers waged an all-out ware last week in Pittsburgh.

The AFC North contains possibly the most physical teams in the NFL, with Baltimore, Pitt and Cincy. Now, with all but one divisional game remaining against Cleveland, Cincy has played, and won, all AFC North games so far. How much of a toll has it taken? How much toll did the game last week take on Cincy and Pitt, who both travelled to face AFC West foes, at Oakland and at Kansas City, respectively?

At KC, Pitt outgained the Chiefs 515 to 282. First downs, 27 to 13. Time of Possession, 44 minutes to 22 (including OT). And lost.

At Oakland, Cincy outgained the Raiders 348 to 275. First downs, 23 to 16. Time of Possession, 38 to 21. And lost.

Now, given the Bengals and Steelers "outplayed" their opponent, how much of what was missing in converting the domination into a victory was a result of the epic battle that took place just 7 days ago?

I feel it had quite a bit to do with it. Something was missing, just a little bit of the sharpness was blunted, the edge was missing.

The Chiefs and Raiders get credit for not folding up like a card table once they fell behind. Good for them.

For the Bengals, next week is the final AFC north game, so expect a rival who will view this game as one of the ost important of their season, coming off a brutal loss to the Lions.

Get that edge back, Bengals. Sharpen it up.

[COB]

True. After last week's game, Marvin said it was the hardest hitting game he had ever been on the sideline for.

I recall about 3 years ago early in the season Jacksonville played Pittsburgh on a Sunday night. It was the most brutal football game I've ever seen. Two smashmouth teams just trying to prove who was tougher. Both those teams suffered for two or three weeks from that game.

[membengal]

Kingwilly, internet high five and golf clap to that post and this thread.

[Pidge]

I'm not sure it can be placed on last week's hard hitting game. This game was fairly reminiscent of earlier fubars by the offense this season. Growing pains.

[kingwilly]

I'm not sure it can be placed on last week's hard hitting game. This game was fairly reminiscent of earlier fubars by the offense this season. Growing pains.

I think the depth to which the teams had to dig last week, which to me was very deep, did sufficiently take just a bit of the sharpness off of the Bengals. By sharpness, I mean that little bit extra. I think JJoe makes that INT on Oakland's 3rd down with :40 or so to go. I think that bit of extra gets Scott down the field on the long run and into the glory land.

I think it impacted the O-line and the way they played. They played OK, but 3 sacks in a game had not been given up since the first game.

I also would be remiss to neglect mentioning that Oakland had a 12th man with them, in playing for the memory of Marquis Cooper. The kind of thing that can get that little bit of extra emotion and adrenaline to flow. It played a role.

There is no denying the Bengals fundamentally were the better team, but as we all have seen it does not always equate with winning. In the NFL, almost every team has serious talent. With the little extra things, and changes going on, the Bengals fell short. They ran out of "extra" this week. The "extra" account was overdrawn from last week.

[Pidge]

I'm not sure it can be placed on last week's hard hitting game. This game was fairly reminiscent of earlier fubars by the offense this season. Growing pains.

I think the depth to which the teams had to dig last week, which to me was very deep, did sufficiently take just a bit of the sharpness off of the Bengals. By sharpness, I mean that little bit extra. I think JJoe makes that INT on Oakland's 3rd down with :40 or so to go. I think that bit of extra gets Scott down the field on the long run and into the glory land.

I think it impacted the O-line and the way they played. They played OK, but 3 sacks in a game had not been given up since the first game.

I also would be remiss to neglect mentioning that Oakland had a 12th man with them, in playing for the memory of Marquis Cooper. The kind of thing that can get that little bit of extra emotion and adrenaline to flow. It played a role.

There is no denying the Bengals fundamentally were the better team, but as we all have seen it does not always equate with winning. In the NFL, almost every team has serious talent. With the little extra things, and changes going on, the Bengals fell short. They ran out of "extra" this week. The "extra" account was overdrawn from last week.

All good points. You might very well be right. As opposed to mental indiscipline causing turnovers and mistakes galore as we saw earlier this yr, they might have been a little worn down. I guess it doesn't matter ultimately, the result is the same.

Still bitter about wasting such a golden opportunity but I can't be angry at them considering the season as a whole. Nobody is perfect and quite honestly, I thought we'd have maybe 3 or 4 wins at this point, tops.

All this with significant injuries to veterans and leaders too. Keep it up guys.

[KRUNKJUICE]

Does anybody else think the fact that Marvin Lewis decided to fly the team out only 1 day prior to the game instead of 2 days like most teams do. I mean the jet lag seemed obvious to me. I flew out to Vegas excited and adrenaline pumping and I was worn out from the flight, and I didn't have to play a football game. The mental mistakes were evident early, and the line play looked lazy on both sides of the ball, which has been the strength of the team this year. And the 2nd half was worse with the turnovers. I had a bad feeling when Marvin Lewis said he hoped it wouldn't effect the team, but they looked really tired to me.

[COB]

What's up KRUNKJUICE? Just wanted to type KRUNKJUICE.

[kingwilly]

Does anybody else think the fact that Marvin Lewis decided to fly the team out only 1 day prior to the game instead of 2 days like most teams do. I mean the jet lag seemed obvious to me. I flew out to Vegas excited and adrenaline pumping and I was worn out from the flight, and I didn't have to play a football game. The mental mistakes were evident early, and the line play looked lazy on both sides of the ball, which has been the strength of the team this year. And the 2nd half was worse with the turnovers. I had a bad feeling when Marvin Lewis said he hoped it wouldn't effect the team, but they looked really tired to me.

I think that fact is very important.

I know the fatigue factor of travelling and being an athlete. There is nothing "wrong" with doing it the way he did it this time but for the change in how they did it. The time for that is not now. Stick with your consistent plans.

One school of though is spend the fewest nights away from home. The other is arrive early and adapt (to time zone, different room, food, etc).

After such a hard fought road game past week, it is understandable that they'd want to use as much "home" time to recover. But it did not work. Stick with what you know and then if you lose, at least it is clearer why (reduction of variables).

The mistakes like penalties, fumbles and such are the bi-product.

[cincy9275]

the biggest plus is that the steelers lost.

[truthteller]

"the biggest plus is that the steelers lost."

For some strange reason that kind of makes the loss hurt even more. What a great opportunity missed to widen the separation in the AFC North. Every team lost in the division. I wonder how long it's been since that happened.

[derekshank]

"the biggest plus is that the steelers lost."

For some strange reason that kind of makes the loss hurt even more. What a great opportunity missed to widen the separation in the AFC North. Every team lost in the division. I wonder how long it's been since that happened.

You don't think this loss would have hurt more if the Steelers would have won? Both teams would be 7-3 and the Bengals would be first in the division by only a tie-breaker. And the Steelers have an easier road ahead than the Bengals do, so the margin for error would have dropped to almost nothing. As it stands, the Bengals still are able to lose one more game than Pittsburgh and still win the division.

The Pittsburgh loss makes this much easier to swallow... not to mention that Steeler fans couldn't talk s**t at work today and the media lumped both the Bengal and Steeler losses in the same category when talking about aberrations in the league instead of talking about the "Bungles" returning.

[HoosierCat]

Now, given the Bengals and Steelers "outplayed" their opponent, how much of what was missing in converting the domination into a victory was a result of the epic battle that took place just 7 days ago?

I feel it had quite a bit to do with it. Something was missing, just a little bit of the sharpness was blunted, the edge was missing.

Eh...maybe. But really, I didn't see anything Sunday I hadn't seen for most of the year -- (mostly) good D, iffy teams and an O that struggles to string together 60 consecutive good minutes. Flip a play or two and we're talking about another "cardiac cats" victory.

These are your '09 Bengals. If you aren't used to it now, you should be.