Respect/USAToday/WSJ

[HoosierCat]

emphasis added...

Palmer, Bengals hand reeling Steelers third straight loss

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Finally, after 15 folly-filled years of doing it worse than almost every other team in pro sports, the Cincinnati Bengals proved they belong among the best.

The Bengals went into Pittsburgh in December, stood up to the team they rarely beat and all but secured their first division championship in 18 years, riding Carson Palmer's three touchdown passes and a defense that forced four more turnovers in an all-important 38-31 victory over the Steelers on Sunday.

Rudi Johnson ran for Cincinnati's final two scores, one after a 94-yard Tab Perry kickoff return and the other following Ben Roethlisberger's third and most costly interception, as the Bengals (9-3) seized a two-game lead in the AFC North with four games to play.

The Steelers (7-5) got a gutty effort from Roethlisberger (29-of-41, 386 yards, three touchdowns, three interceptions) despite a possible fractured right thumb, but dropped their third in a row and now are in danger of not making the playoffs a year after going 15-1.

That's how pivotal this game was for both teams -- if the Steelers had won, they would have effectively been in the division lead by virtue of tiebreakers, but now they face an uphill climb to get in as a wild card.

The Bengals came into their biggest game in 15 years with the division lead despite beating no opponent that currently has a winning record, and losing convincingly to Pittsburgh at home 27-13 on Oct. 23. And no team has beaten up on the bad-for-years Bengals like the Steelers, who were 20-7 against them under coach Bill Cowher.

But even on a day the Bengals seemingly had everything going against them -- the crowd, the cold, nasty weather and an inspired game by a badly injured Roethlisberger -- they responded, like good teams are supposed to do. Like Bengals teams almost never do, especially so late in a season.

With Roethlisberger passing better than he has all season despite a black-and-blue thumb that was encased in a splint and covered by a glove, the Bengals came back every time Pittsburgh scored in a game that was unexpectedly high scoring.

The Steelers led 7-0 and 14-7 and also tied it at 24 after trailing 24-17, but the Bengals -- assuring themselves of their first winning season since 1990 -- repeatedly answered, twice scoring touchdowns within four plays of getting the ball back.

Palmer, who said he felt an urgency to beat the Steelers after losing his first three starts against them, threw scoring passes of 43 and 6 yards to T.J. Houshmandzadeh and 1 yard to Reggie Kelly. The 6-yarder to Houshmandzadeh put the Bengals up 21-14 midway through the second quarter and followed linebacker Brian Simmons' interception of a wobbly Roethlisberger pass.

Turnovers, as usual, played a big role for the Bengals, who have a remarkable plus-24 turnover margin, with 37 takeaways and 13 turnovers, none Sunday.

The biggest may have come with the Steelers trying to drive for what would have been a tying score in the fourth quarter. Linebacker Odell Thurman stepped in front of a pass intended for Hines Ward and returned it 5 yards to the Steelers' 49, and Palmer needed six plays to get them into the end zone on a drive ended by Johnson's second touchdown run, a 14-yarder with 6:09 remaining. Johnson ran for 98 yards and now has 1,066 yards for the season.

Roethlisberger, who returned for Monday's 26-7 loss in Indianapolis after missing three games following knee surgery, threw for more than 300 yards for only the second time in his 21-game starting career. His 41 attempts easily surpassed his previous career high of 28.

[BengalszoneBilly]

First I thought it was props from a Pittsburgh Paper, but I knew better, and sure enough it was a Associated Press write up. None the less, reading that is sure easy on the eye's and good for the soul!

[andybren]

That's a good, even-handed write-up.

And really, when we get past all the goofy excuses and belly-aching, the Steelers lost the game because of Roethlisberger. But not because of his injury, but because he had to throw so much.

Just like Curnette said in his Carson vs. Ben piece, the Steelers have never asked Roethlisberger to win games for them. Today, they did. And he couldn't do it.

This doesn't bode well for the Steelers' future. The Ben-to-Hines connection isn't enough and their running game is spinning it's wheels. We may have witnessed a changing of the guards today.

[schweinhart]

I hope that's Joe Kay writing that. It means a little more that way, but still -- no question the respect is here to stay now. 9-3 don't lie, regardless of who played who.

I find it's also a matter of belief, for Bengals fans. We've seen a major force emerge in Carson Palmer who's been getting better and smarter game-by-game over 2 seasons to the point now that it's always within the realm of belief that the Bengals can win every game.

It's a matter of belief that the Bengals can now reach the AFC championship game and not only get to the Super Bowl but win it -- for the first time ever.

[andybren]

We've seen a major force emerge in Carson Palmer who's been getting better and smarter game-by-game over 2 seasons to the point now that it's always within the realm of belief that the Bengals can win every game.

Absolutely. The Peyton Manning comparisons are a little annoying, but when you remember that Carson only has 20-something starts, it's pretty amazing how good he is.

[HoosierCat]

I hope that's Joe Kay writing that.

It was actually AP sportswriter Alan Robinson...my bad for omitting the byline.

[dave]

I hope that's Joe Kay writing that.

Does he piss you off too? I can't stand his snarky bulls**t articles, it's a shame they go out to the rest of the country via AP. I wish AP would find a new local stringer, he's terrible.

[Stripes]

A very good read indeed. I am sure many more such articles are to be coming in the near future.

[membengal]

As we all suspected, a quick spin across the national sports talk shows, and the coverage on ESPN indeed confirms that a big win was all that many national analysts were waiting on. The buzz is universally spectacular this morning.

And it should be.

[schweinhart]

I hope that's Joe Kay writing that.

Does he piss you off too? I can't stand his snarky bulls**t articles, it's a shame they go out to the rest of the country via AP. I wish AP would find a new local stringer, he's terrible.

Yeah, there's no way Kay comes up with "folly-filled". It would be "futility", "debacle", or "nightmare"...etc. Besides, I don't think he covers Bengals away games since he's Ohio based. The guy's made a living reminding national readers every chance he gets of the coaching disasters starting with Dave Shula, the draft pick disasters of Klingler and Akili, and the lowlights of season after season of losing....Of course, there might not be a whole lot of interest in papers picking up his stuff if he didn't have some catch since the Bengals were godawful for so long.

But all that's changed for good now.

Heard on Mike and Mike where Bengals did something that hasn't been done against Steelers at Pisttsburgh for last 40 years....A team scored more than 35 pts in a game in December. Maybe add that one to the growing list of milestones.

[jjakq27]

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/s...o-bengals_x.htm

[schweinhart]

I say the Old Man is more than smiling now if that's possible.

I don't get, though, why the USA Today writers got to have their mugs slapped onto their stories. That's one fugly little buzzard and he really ought to shave his beard and glue it to his forehead.

[BengalszoneBilly]

In one sentence the man sum's up what potential this team could have, and what I've been longing for so long!

A changing of the guard not only has taken root, it is growing. If the Bengals can ever become effective at stopping the run, look out Indianapolis.

The Cincinnati offense is undoubtedly awesome. The ONLY thing holding the Bengals back from being a DYNASTY is defense. If by some miracle they could come close to rivaling the offensive unit in league dominance, we'd be a$$hole deep in Lombardi Trophy's within' a decade!

Somehow I get the feeling Marvin is still working on that. Hell, he's brought us this far. Just as he said. He also said we would go to Detroit TWICE this season. I have no reason to start doubting him now!!

[bengalindian]

Great article. I knew it was only a short time before everyone started jumping on the Bengals' bandwagon. Sorry, we're full boys.

[HoosierCat]

As we all suspected, a quick spin across the national sports talk shows, and the coverage on ESPN indeed confirms that a big win was all that many national analysts were waiting on. The buzz is universally spectacular this morning.

And it should be.

There are still a few holdouts, like Peter King. He does move the Bengals up in his "fine 15" group, but could only wait about two paragraphs into his MMQB column to downplay the victory (emphasis added)...

Don't you love this time of the season? It's what's fun about the NFL. Do or die. The stretch run might end up being the most predictable in NFL history this season. Why? No upsets. Over the last couple of weeks barely any underdogs have won. Fifteen games were played this weekend. The favorites won 13. I'd hardly call the other two games upsets. Pittsburgh was favored over Cincinnati, but it's becoming obvious the Steelers really aren't the Steelers right now. And Denver was favored over Kansas City by a whisker, which might be the funniest line of the year since Kansas City has won 16 consecutive home games in December.

Yep. Pitt lost but it's no big deal because they just aren't themselves.

[indybengalsfan72]

http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB113...ys_free_feature

[Columbusbengal]

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/s...o-bengals_x.htm

I'm still amazed how many people harp on how the Bengals can't stop the run. Of course they can stop the run. They stopped both Indy and Pittsburgh. The problem is that they can't stop BOTH the run and the pass. They tried primarily stopping the pass for a while this season - now they're trying to stop the run. It was a mistake to try that against Peyton Manning, but Big Ben isn't as experienced as Peyton.

[jungleman]

http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-re...//s_400773.html

great read from a pittsburgh writer

[The_Next_Big_Thing]

Gotta love Chad's quote "We might score 100 points" talking about a rematch against Indy in the playoffs.