Not at any point this NFL season had Ben Roethlisberger been the “ol’ gunslinger,” as he had proclaimed himself to be last week at Kansas City.
Not until Sunday.
The Steelers rode Le’Veon Bell like the horse that he is to their 29-14 victory over the Bengals at Heinz Field, but it was the revival of Roethlisberger that helped his team survive an offensive onslaught early in the game.
His final stats — 14 of 24 for 224 yards and two touchdowns — won’t exactly move the needle on those who think the two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback might be done. But it was his start that had his teammates feeling they were seeing his vintage best once again. He completed eight of his first 11 throws for 160 yards and two touchdowns, giving the defense a chance to settle in and opening things up for Bell to take over.
“Hall of Fame, man. Hall of Fame,” Maurkice Pouncey said. “That’s what you’re seeing there. It’s Hall of Fame. And it’s no surprise to any of us. It never is.”
It did, however, obviously surprise the Bengals. After watching Bell torture the Chiefs’ defense last week, the Bengals tried early to change things up from their normal plan. Instead of playing their trademark Cover-2 defense with both safeties deep, they sneaked a safety closer to the line of scrimmage. And Roethlisberger made them pay:
“Yeah, I think so,” David DeCastro told me. “Guys seemed pretty wide open early on the first couple of drives. That’s what you should do. You can’t just run the ball into a loaded box. We did a good job of taking what they gave us and taking advantage of it for the most part.”
For his part, Roethlisberger credited those in front of him. The offensive line held the Bengals without a sack after they had gotten to quarterbacks for 34 games in a row.
By the time the Bengals went back to their typical plan, Bell and the defense took over.
The result was a victory that pushed the Steelers’ record to 5-2 and distanced them from the pack in the AFC North. The Ravens fell to 3-4 with a loss Sunday at Minnesota, while the Bengals are now 2-4. The Browns, at 0-7, aren’t mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, but might as well be.
And if Roethlisberger continues to play as he did against the Bengals, the Steelers will be tough to beat.
I asked Bell if it was the best Roethlisberger had played this season.
“I think Ben was just right on putting us in the right plays,” said Bell, who finished with 134 yards on 35 carries and three receptions for another 58 yards. “He was getting guys to jump offsides, using cadence as a weapon. He did all the right things. The guys up front did a nice job protecting him. When he feels he has some time and feels comfortable in the pocket, he’s the best in the world. He’s going to do what he does.”
Roethlisberger’s touchdown passes of 7 yards to Antonio Brown and 31 to JuJu Smith-Schuster helped the Steelers survive some strong early play from Cincinnati’s Andy Dalton. Dalton also started hot, completing 11 of his first 17 passes for 106 yards and touchdowns to receiver Brandon LaFell and tight end Tyler Kroft. The touchdown pass to Kroft tied the game at 14-14 with 7:12 remaining in the second quarter. But the Bengals gained just 20 yards of offense and had one first down on their final eight possessions.
At the time the game was tied 14-14, Pro Bowl receiver A.J. Green had three receptions for 41 yards. He finished with that same total. Rookie running back Joe Mixon had seven carries for 48 yards, including a 25-yard run. He didn’t have another carry in the second half.
“I thought as the game kept progressing, we got a feel for it,” Cam Heyward said. “I thought we delivered. We got into a rhythm. We got off quick in the second half a lot. The pressure picked up. We stopped the run. And they didn’t get any points in the second half.”
The Steelers had two interceptions in the third quarter — by Joe Haden and William Gay — and four sacks, completely shutting down Cincinnati’s offense. Outside linebackers Bud Dupree and T.J. Watt were constantly in the backfield and had one sack each. Heyward and Tyson Alualu also had sacks as the Steelers pressured Dalton into bad throws, including one on which he was chased from the pocket and threw the ball away on fourth-and-2.
“I don’t know if it was blitzes or what,” Dalton said. “They were getting to me a little bit. I tried to move around as much as I could. I’d just say we did not make enough plays.”
Meanwhile, the Steelers kept pounding away with Bell. He had 14 carries for 51 yards in the first half. He also caught three passes for 58 yards in the first two quarters, none bigger than a 42-yard catch-and-run he had after Dalton had thrown his second TD pass. Bell seemingly ran through the entire Cincinnati defense, hammering cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick to the ground with a stiff-arm midway through the play before being forced out of bounds at the Bengals 17:
At the end of that possession, the Steelers settled for what would be the first of five Chris Boswell field goals, but the stiff-arm seemed to signify to the Bengals that they weren’t going to be the more physical team on this day.
“That was one of the better stiff-arms of my life,” Bell said. “I don’t know what happened or what came over me on that play.”
That’s OK. The Bengals didn’t know what hit them after that. Dalton went from being red hot to decidedly not, and the Steelers were methodical in their domination.
Bell carried the ball 20 times in the second half, gaining 83 yards. The Bengals knew what was coming and couldn’t stop it.
“Bell is a very patient running back,” said Cincinnati defensive end Michael Johnson. “He is so patient that he waits until he finds a crease.”
And even when the creases weren’t there, the Steelers pulled out a little trickery to keep the ball in their hands.
In the fourth quarter, with the Steelers holding a 26-14 lead, they were lined up to punt the ball back to Cincinnati with 6:53 remaining in the game — plenty of time for a comeback — when safety and punt protector Robert Golden took a direct snap and lofted a pass to Darrius Heyward-Bey down the sideline in front of Cincinnati’s bench.
All Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis could do was watch as Heyward-Bey, who had been left uncovered, hauled in the pass for a 44-yard gain:
Game. Set. Match.
“We are just not going to allow those guys to be over-aggressive,” Mike Tomlin said. “The look was presented to us. We have a great deal of confidence in Rob Golden. He’s been playing that position for us for a number of years. That’s not the first time he’s executed that play.”
It was a big play in a game loaded with them.
Now, the Steelers find themselves in the enviable position of being the hunted instead of the hunter, having won against the Bengals for the seventh time in the past eight meetings.
“We’ve put ourselves in good position,” DeCastro said. “Now we need to take care of business next week and head into our bye to rest and get ready for the stretch run.”
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Steelers vs Bengals, Heinz Field, Oct. 22, 2017. – MATT SUNDAY / DKPS
