Steelers come back to beat rival Bengals in ugly, violent game

The Pittsburgh Steelers came back from a 14-point deficit to beat the Cincinnati Bengals, 23-20, on a last-second field goal by Chris Boswell. However, the game itself was marred by ugly, violent play with multiple cheap shots, which has become a running theme in this heated AFC North rivalry.

The Bengals controlled the game for most of the first half and took a 17-3 halftime lead, thanks to two touchdowns by A.J. Green. But the Steelers got touchdowns from their two major offensive stars, Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown, to tie it up at 20-20 late in the fourth quarter. The Bengals’ offense stagnated and Ben Roethlisberger was able to set up a 38-yard field goal for Boswell, sealing the victory.

At the end of the day, the Steelers moved to 10-2 and kept pace with the New England Patriots for the No. 1 overall seed. But the ramifications of this night could be felt for a while.

The most important and serious thing about Monday happened within the first minutes of the game. On the Bengals’ opening possession, Ryan Shazier attempted to make a tackle and immediately grabbed at the middle of his back.

He was later strapped to a backboard and taken via ambulance to a local hospital with a back injury.

Updates on the injury were scarce and the concern about the well-being of the linebacker made it hard to be too excited about any of the action on the field. It’s also possible that energy dump that came with Shazier’s exit contributed to the slow start for the Steelers.

The mood only got worse when Bengals running back Joe Mixon suffered a concussion and laid motionless on the turf. Thankfully, Mixon was able to walk off on his own, but he was taken to the locker room and later ruled out for the game.

Cincinnati jumped out to 17-0 lead early in the game, largely because Green was unstoppable. He finished the first half with two touchdowns and probably should’ve finished with a third had it not been for a questionable holding penalty.

It didn’t matter who tried to cover Green — mostly it was Steelers cornerback Coty Sensabaugh — he ate them all up.

Green’s final stat line was seven receptions for 77 yards, topping the production of Antonio Brown, who had five receptions for 52 yards for the Steelers.

ESPN’s Sean McDonough laid into the officials, who were a particularly flag happy crew, after multiple questionable penalties. Among the worst ones were a pair of holding calls that nullified a deep touchdown reception for Green and a kickoff return for a touchdown by Martavis Bryant.

Both penalties were about the same on the ‘ticky tack’ scale and each nullified a big touchdown, so it didn’t feel like either team really got screwed. But it just slowed down a game that was already getting ugly and more chippy as things went on.

In the fourth quarter, Burfict got laid out by a dangerous blindside hit from Smith-Schuster, who speared him in the helmet and stood over him in an obvious act of taunting. Burfict was carted off the field on a backboard and later diagnosed with a concussion, which is almost a relief after this nasty hit.

On the same drive, Antonio Brown caught a touchdown pass and somehow held onto the ball while getting drilled on a helmet-to-helmet shot, which almost seemed like an act of retaliation from the Bengals.

There will surely be plenty of fines to come out of this game, and possibly some suspensions, as well. It was by far the nastiest game of the season.

The AFC Wild Card picture is all sorts of muddled right now, so the Bengals had a shot to move to 6-6 and keep themselves alive in the race. However, blowing a 17-3 lead is almost a death knell for Cincy, which falls to 5-7 and now two games behind the Baltimore Ravens (7-5). The Bengals now almost have to win out and get help, which will be easier said than done if Burfict and Mixon miss significant time.