For all the good vibes of a great start to the season, there was one cold dish of reality served to the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday: They still can't beat the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Ben Roethlisberger threw a 31-yard touchdown pass to Antonio Brown with 10 seconds remaining for the game-winning score to give the visiting Steelers a 28-21 win over the Bengals. It was the seventh straight time the Steelers beat the Bengals (including playoffs).
Cincinnati (4-2) took a 21-20 lead with 1:18 remaining on a 4-yard touchdown run by Joe Mixon, but as it turned out, the Bengals left too much time on the clock for Pittsburgh (3-2-1).
After a defensive holding penalty on Cincinnati's Dre Kirkpatrick gave the Steelers a first down on third-and-10, Roethlisberger hit JuJu Smith-Schuster for a 23-yard gain to the Cincinnati 31-yard line.
But instead of trying to set up a field goal, the Steelers threw a quick slant over the middle to Brown, who ran up the middle of the field untouched into the end zone. The Steelers were successful on a two-point conversion attempt to go up by seven.
Roethlisberger was 32-of-46 passing for 369 yards to lead Pittsburgh, while Andy Dalton was 26-of-42 for 229 yards and two touchdowns for the Bengals.
The Bengals opened the scoring with 4:36 left in the first quarter, taking a 7-0 lead on a 2-yard touchdown pass from Dalton to Tyler Boyd.
Pittsburgh answered back, going up 14-7 in the second quarter on a pair of 1-yard touchdown runs by James Conner.
Cincinnati tied the game just before halftime, knotting the score at 14-14 with 19 seconds remaining on a 14-yard touchdown pass from Dalton to Boyd.
The Steelers took a 17-14 lead with 6:56 remaining in the third quarter on a 21-yard field goal by Chris Boswell, and then Boswell hit another field goal from 24 yards out with 3:32 left in the game to give Pittsburgh a 20-14 lead.
--Field Level Media
Pittsburgh | Cincinnati | |
James Conner | Player | Joe Mixon |
19 | Attempts | 11 |
111 | Yards | 64 |
5.8 | Avg Yards | 5.8 |
2 | Touchdowns | 1 |
26 | Long | 17 |
Pittsburgh | Cincinnati | |
JuJu Smith-Schuster | Player | A.J. Green |
7 | Receptions | 7 |
111 | Yards | 85 |
15.9 | Avg Yards | 12.1 |
0 | Touchdowns | 0 |
29 | Long | 23 |
Yards | Scoring | Defense | ||||||
Team | Tot | Rus | Pas | TD | FG | INT | Sck | FF |
Pittsburgh | 481 | 112 | 369 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 3.0 | 0 |
Cincinnati | 275 | 62 | 213 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 1 |