Game Thread: WK 2 vs Bengals

[Cali Steel]

Good game.
A nail biter at times, but a "W" in the end

 

[MISKO]

We win we win we win

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

Post-game thoughts...

Refs... First things first, I know there are going to be a lot of complainers after this game about the officiating. Mainly Bungal fans blaming the loss on it. FWIW, that last call on Boyd looked down to me and shouldn't have been a fumble. But upon reviewing the entire game you will see a ton of blown calls on both sides of the ball against both teams. Sloppy officiating overall.

QB... Sloppy game in piss-poor conditions. Hats off to Ben for not shying away from the deep throws. Couple of throws that got away from him were obvious grip issues. Oh well! Loved the scramble by Ben for the 15yd gain. That's the Ben we know & love. Loved seeing him get the TEs involved when they were keying on AB.

RBs... D-Will had a helluva game. He struggled to find breathing room early on, but eventually the O-line started opening up the field for him. Great hard-nosed running, and no dancing to try & do too much. He took what the D gave him and grinded out 3-4yd games all day long.

WRs... AB struggled to get much going. Couple rare drops, but don't bet on that ever repeating. He'll be fired up to get back on track next week. Huge game for Sammie Coates. I guess the coaches were right to rave about the kid this offseason. It sure didn't show much during the preseason. But I'm loving it. Coates still struggles a little with the route tree, and does most of his damage on go-routes. He's deceptively fast so DBs aren't giving him much of a cushion which works to his advantage. I'm sure as the game tape develops we will start to see more safety cover on his side of the field. Hopefully that will open things up for AB better.

TEs... Big plays from all the TEs today. Obviously the TDs from Grimble & James, but they did some decent damage in the blocking game. Couple of misses here & there, but the defense had those plays sniffed out before they got a chance to get far. DJ did another decent job with the FB duties. Glad to see Grimble make his mark. Hopefully they can keep getting him involved because he's a great asset.

O-line... Gritty battle in the trenches. It was quite the stalemate through 2 quarters, but eventually gave way in favor of PIT's offense. 2-3yd gains turned into 4-5yd gains in the 3rd qtr. More D-line "tenderizing" if you will. Solid effort by the men up front. I'm sure they'll need a couple days in the ice baths after today.

LBs... Shazier is really stating his case for one of the best ILBs in the game. He & Timmons are a formidable pair in the middle that can cover a lot of ground. Glad to see Moats get the first sack of the season for this group. Would like to see better production in that area, but the pressure was there.

D-Line... Like I said, the pressure was there. Tuitt & Heyward held the line and refused to give up much. Didn't see a whole lot from Hargrave, but I plan to rewatch the game. From the few plays I saw from him he was getting a good push. This group combined with the LBs held the Bengals to a net rushing yards of 46yds total. That's huge.

DBs... Pretty solid showing from the secondary. Had to laugh when both Burns & Davis missed tackles on that Bernard TD late in the game. Rookies are bound to make mistakes, but both the #1 & #2 picks for the Steelers making an error on the same play together lol. Cockrell & Gay kept AJ Green largely in check for under 40yds. They had to mug him a few times but luckily only got caught once. Good game from Golden. He's been a rock solid contributor thus far this season. Need to see some better containment & open field tackling from this group.

Overall... Huge win against another playoff contender. 2 supposed playoff contenders down and they are 2-0 and in GREAT shape. They will have to split the driver's seat of the AFCN for the next month or so until week 6 when they get their next divisional matchup. Offense has looked pretty solid but will be getting a pretty sizable upgrade when Bell & Wheaton finally return. Defense is the biggest surprise here. They are playing great football right now and are only going to get better as the rookies in the secondary get acclimated. Arrow is definitely pointing up for this team.

Outlook... Back on the "road" 300miles east on the 76 to Philly this week... Should be a huge showing from Steelers Nation at this game. Hence why I put road in quotation marks. Philly could possibly be sitting at 2-0 after they play the Bears tomorrow night. That's the weakest 2-0 on the young '16 season considering they will have beaten 2 bottom 3rd teams in Cleveland & Chicago (combined 0-4 if the Bears lose). Wouldn't be surprised to see the Bears win though. Still the Eagles are not a group to be overlooked. Wentz has shown to be a worthy 1st round investment, but he hasn't faced a top end defense yet. Curious to see how he holds up against this defense. On paper the Steelers match up very well with the Eagles. Vegas should have them as 1-2 TD favorites. Sad thing is, these games are the monkey on Tomlin's back. The games they should win have never been the games they in fact do win. Sad truth for this team. Hoping that history does not repeat itself next week.

 

[cincygrad]

Interesting game. Didn't feel as intense as it normally does. Probably because of all the garbage from last year and it's still early in the year.

Pittsburgh won third down, won field position and made one or two more big plays down the field. It would have been nice if Boyd's catch stood, but there was still a long way to go to force a tie. The Uzomah touchdown was Marvin's fault - He could have challenged it and he didn't. Regardless, I thought Pittsburgh outplayed the Bengals. We'll see where everything stands next time they meet.

 

[Superbelt]

2-0!

My streaming experience:
First of all, that service nflhd.com Not legal at all. Takes you to a site where you use a login for a site called livetvweb.com that gives you a wide array of streams for a bunch of different stations, not just nfl or even sports.

The streaming started out really rough. The links were organized in a table by game, but all the links were wrong. The one for the Steelers took me to Ravens v. Browns. So I had to open them all until I found the one that actually went to the Steelers game. The HD streams were bad in the 1st quarter. Got a few seconds, then a hiccup. Then a few more seconds, then the stream crashed and I had to restart it.

Ended up watching most of the game on the SD stream, and that worked out really well. Got the 2nd through 4th quarters almost completely uninterrupted.

Also tried Face's link. All of the p2p4u links were not working, at least for me.

Thanks for the help, I ended up getting to watch most of the game!

 

[ATL96Steeler]

Post-game thoughts...

Refs... First things first, I know there are going to be a lot of complainers after this game about the officiating. Mainly Bungal fans blaming the loss on it. FWIW, that last call on Boyd looked down to me and shouldn't have been a fumble. But upon reviewing the entire game you will see a ton of blown calls on both sides of the ball against both teams. Sloppy officiating overall.

QB... Sloppy game in piss-poor conditions. Hats off to Ben for not shying away from the deep throws. Couple of throws that got away from him were obvious grip issues. Oh well! Loved the scramble by Ben for the 15yd gain. That's the Ben we know & love. Loved seeing him get the TEs involved when they were keying on AB.

RBs... D-Will had a helluva game. He struggled to find breathing room early on, but eventually the O-line started opening up the field for him. Great hard-nosed running, and no dancing to try & do too much. He took what the D gave him and grinded out 3-4yd games all day long.

WRs... AB struggled to get much going. Couple rare drops, but don't bet on that ever repeating. He'll be fired up to get back on track next week. Huge game for Sammie Coates. I guess the coaches were right to rave about the kid this offseason. It sure didn't show much during the preseason. But I'm loving it. Coates still struggles a little with the route tree, and does most of his damage on go-routes. He's deceptively fast so DBs aren't giving him much of a cushion which works to his advantage. I'm sure as the game tape develops we will start to see more safety cover on his side of the field. Hopefully that will open things up for AB better.

TEs... Big plays from all the TEs today. Obviously the TDs from Grimble & James, but they did some decent damage in the blocking game. Couple of misses here & there, but the defense had those plays sniffed out before they got a chance to get far. DJ did another decent job with the FB duties. Glad to see Grimble make his mark. Hopefully they can keep getting him involved because he's a great asset.

O-line... Gritty battle in the trenches. It was quite the stalemate through 2 quarters, but eventually gave way in favor of PIT's offense. 2-3yd gains turned into 4-5yd gains in the 3rd qtr. More D-line "tenderizing" if you will. Solid effort by the men up front. I'm sure they'll need a couple days in the ice baths after today.

LBs... Shazier is really stating his case for one of the best ILBs in the game. He & Timmons are a formidable pair in the middle that can cover a lot of ground. Glad to see Moats get the first sack of the season for this group. Would like to see better production in that area, but the pressure was there.

D-Line... Like I said, the pressure was there. Tuitt & Heyward held the line and refused to give up much. Didn't see a whole lot from Hargrave, but I plan to rewatch the game. From the few plays I saw from him he was getting a good push. This group combined with the LBs held the Bengals to a net rushing yards of 46yds total. That's huge.

DBs... Pretty solid showing from the secondary. Had to laugh when both Burns & Davis missed tackles on that Bernard TD late in the game. Rookies are bound to make mistakes, but both the #1 & #2 picks for the Steelers making an error on the same play together lol. Cockrell & Gay kept AJ Green largely in check for under 40yds. They had to mug him a few times but luckily only got caught once. Good game from Golden. He's been a rock solid contributor thus far this season. Need to see some better containment & open field tackling from this group.

Overall... Huge win against another playoff contender. 2 supposed playoff contenders down and they are 2-0 and in GREAT shape. They will have to split the driver's seat of the AFCN for the next month or so until week 6 when they get their next divisional matchup. Offense has looked pretty solid but will be getting a pretty sizable upgrade when Bell & Wheaton finally return. Defense is the biggest surprise here. They are playing great football right now and are only going to get better as the rookies in the secondary get acclimated. Arrow is definitely pointing up for this team.

Outlook... Back on the "road" 300miles east on the 76 to Philly this week... Should be a huge showing from Steelers Nation at this game. Hence why I put road in quotation marks. Philly could possibly be sitting at 2-0 after they play the Bears tomorrow night. That's the weakest 2-0 on the young '16 season considering they will have beaten 2 bottom 3rd teams in Cleveland & Chicago (combined 0-4 if the Bears lose). Wouldn't be surprised to see the Bears win though. Still the Eagles are not a group to be overlooked. Wentz has shown to be a worthy 1st round investment, but he hasn't faced a top end defense yet. Curious to see how he holds up against this defense. On paper the Steelers match up very well with the Eagles. Vegas should have them as 1-2 TD favorites. Sad thing is, these games are the monkey on Tomlin's back. The games they should win have never been the games they in fact do win. Sad truth for this team. Hoping that history does not repeat itself next week.

Good recap Face.

My 2 cents....I think I had 24-20 PIT...at least got part of that right. Bragging about my new TV...hell, I spent the st half running back and forth from the sunroom to the kitchen watching on a 32" TV...finally got it hung and looking nice by the half, was able to settle in.

First off....Great to be 2-0! It was good to see a clean football game for a change between these two teams...both teams played hard, but kept it above board.

Controversial calls...from the best angle they had, clearly Boyd's knee was down before the ball came loose...could not see the ball from the other angle they kept showing...the refs missed that one. One the catch in the enzone...knee = 2 feet...I'm not 100% they win a challenge there because I couldn't tell if part of the knee was on the line or not...but they at least should've gotten a red flag on that one., but they chose not to challenge.

OFC...4/5...Haley got a little too conservative with good field position a couple of times. I thought CIN was primed for playaction pass, with the run starting to gain traction. AB had a rough game...not sure if he ran the wrong route on one of Ben's picks, but Ben looking at his hand made me think it was on him...wet ball, etc. Have to commend Foster...Atkins was held in check the entire game pretty much. Overall they did a pretty fair job on a very wet field...DWil is just amazing for his age....breakout game of sorts for Coates. I said James was going to have a pretty good year...so far he's making me look good...blocking was much better yesterday.

DEF...3.5/5...I think they played very well in the RZ, but they caught a break on the fumble and possibly on the TD ruled incomplete. As you mentioned, still a few too many missed tackles for my liking including both rookies, Davis and Burns...They got a little more pressure, I don't recall but only 1 sack. Not many QB hits aside from Tuitt....I thought Dalton had a pocket for a good many of his pass attempts. Need to see more in this area. Cockrell made some boned headed plays, but also had a couple of nice deflections, I noticed the CBs were moving around more...Cockrell lined up on AJ on both sides of the field a lot...needs to make the picks when they are there....speaking of picks, Jarvis has to come away with that one...it wasn't thrown that hard.

ST...4/5...though day for ball handling and they did well with that. Nice FG made...several good punts forced a long field for CIN.

2-0 is 2-0...I will certainly take it.

 

[Superbelt]

I see some Bengal fans are bitching about the Mitchell push out in the EZ of Uzomah, saying his knee came down inside the end zone and should have been a touchdown.

AFAIK, even if his knee came down in the EZ, it was still ruled correctly as a push out. He needed two feet, since he didn't come down with possession.

 

[cincygrad]

I see some Bengal fans are bitching about the Mitchell push out in the EZ of Uzomah, saying his knee came down inside the end zone and should have been a touchdown.

AFAIK, even if his knee came down in the EZ, it was still ruled correctly as a push out. He needed two feet, since he didn't come down with possession.

There is no force out in the NFL anymore..... You need two feet regardless of whether someone is pushing you.... OR as ATL said, one knee. Bengals fans are bitching because it looked like he did get a knee down in bounds which would have made it a legal catch. That's on Marvin though - He needs to throw the challenge flag in that situation. Not sure it would have been overturned, but there was a decent chance and he had the timeouts.

 

[ATL96Steeler]

There is no force out in the NFL anymore..... You need two feet regardless of whether someone is pushing you.... OR as ATL said, one knee. Bengals fans are bitching because it looked like he did get a knee down in bounds which would have made it a legal catch. That's on Marvin though - He needs to throw the challenge flag in that situation. Not sure it would have been overturned, but there was a decent chance and he had the timeouts.

Not sure why Lewis didn't throw it on the TD called incomplete...7 makes it a one possession game vs 3....I assume he'll be asked in his presser today...would be interested to hear his thoughts.

Overall, it was a good game to watch for a wet field...the rematch hopefully will have both teams at full strength.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

2-0!

My streaming experience:
First of all, that service nflhd.com Not legal at all. Takes you to a site where you use a login for a site called livetvweb.com that gives you a wide array of streams for a bunch of different stations, not just nfl or even sports.

The streaming started out really rough. The links were organized in a table by game, but all the links were wrong. The one for the Steelers took me to Ravens v. Browns. So I had to open them all until I found the one that actually went to the Steelers game. The HD streams were bad in the 1st quarter. Got a few seconds, then a hiccup. Then a few more seconds, then the stream crashed and I had to restart it.

Ended up watching most of the game on the SD stream, and that worked out really well. Got the 2nd through 4th quarters almost completely uninterrupted.

Also tried Face's link. All of the p2p4u links were not working, at least for me.

Thanks for the help, I ended up getting to watch most of the game!

The p2p4u links as well as the HDlinks are best viewed with Adblocker. Also disable your cookies and clear them prior to viewing. Once I did all that I haven't been experiencing any hiccups or lag anymore.

 

[ATL96Steeler]

2-0!

My streaming experience:
First of all, that service nflhd.com Not legal at all. Takes you to a site where you use a login for a site called livetvweb.com that gives you a wide array of streams for a bunch of different stations, not just nfl or even sports.

The streaming started out really rough. The links were organized in a table by game, but all the links were wrong. The one for the Steelers took me to Ravens v. Browns. So I had to open them all until I found the one that actually went to the Steelers game. The HD streams were bad in the 1st quarter. Got a few seconds, then a hiccup. Then a few more seconds, then the stream crashed and I had to restart it.

Ended up watching most of the game on the SD stream, and that worked out really well. Got the 2nd through 4th quarters almost completely uninterrupted.

Also tried Face's link. All of the p2p4u links were not working, at least for me.

Thanks for the help, I ended up getting to watch most of the game!

Thanks for the feedback. I wonder if internet speed was a factor on the HD stream...I'm pretty sure the PHI game is not being sent to ATL so I will be streaming myself this week it looks like.

 

[Superbelt]

Thanks for the feedback. I wonder if internet speed was a factor on the HD stream...I'm pretty sure the PHI game is not being sent to ATL so I will be streaming myself this week it looks like.

Nope. I was able to stream 8 channels at once just as well as I could stream the one. It wasn't my end, it was the host.

The SD stream was much more reliable. Mid through the 2nd quarter, I tried the hd stream again, and that went pretty well.
Ended up having both the SD and HD streams running at the same time, if one went out I quickly switched to the other.

 

[ATL96Steeler]

Nope. I was able to stream 8 channels at once just as well as I could stream the one. It wasn't my end, it was the host.

Noted...the reason I ask...we streamed an HD movie on Netflix a few weeks ago and it was a little choppy down stairs in the master...turned on the same program in the loft (which is close by the modem/router) and it was almost like watching regular TV.

 

[Superbelt]

Noted...the reason I ask...we streamed an HD movie on Netflix a few weeks ago and it was a little choppy down stairs in the master...turned on the same program in the loft (which is close by the modem/router) and it was almost like watching regular TV.

Well, when I did it yesterday, I ended up using my wired PC to stream it. No wireless variability in play there.
The HD had good picture in the 2nd half.

Football games, especially the Steelers are gonna have a lot more people trying to connect to it than most any other stream you try, which is gonna give it's performance a hit.

 

[ATL96Steeler]

Well, when I did it yesterday, I ended up using my wired PC to stream it. No wireless variability in play there.
The HD had good picture in the 2nd half.

Football games, especially the Steelers are gonna have a lot more people trying to connect to it than most any other stream you try, which is gonna give it's performance a hit.

Noted...I didn't think about server traffic, but that is a factor...good to know you got a better HD picture in the 2nd half.

 

[NorthCoastSteelersFan]

My belated postmortem.....

I think we got the benefit of a bad call on the fumble. However, I understand why it wasn't reversed; the camera angles made it tough to see exactly when the ball started coming loose. In any event, no one can say that the outcome would've been different if the call was reversed. As tough as the Steelers have been in the red zone, there was no guarantee that Cinci would've gotten a TD, let alone a TD with a 2-pt conversion.

I'd give our boys a solid "B" on both sides of the ball.

Offense scored 24 pts against a good defense, with no fumbles, despite the sloppy weather. DeAngelo had another great day, at least on draw plays, and when running to the outside. Not as good on straight handoffs up the middle, but hey, if the holes ain't there, they ain't there.

Ben was a little off. Granted, he threw 3 TDs, but he also threw 2 picks. Maybe I should blame the receivers, but they're new...I don't think Ben should count on them to pull off the same miracle catches in traffic that look easy when AB does it...at least not YET. Ben also floated and overthrew a bunch of passes. Maybe it was the weather, or maybe he just had a sub-par day, but he got the job done.

Speaking of AB...definitely an off day. But I don't see him making a habit of it.

Defense was tough as nails in the red zone. Also very good against the run, and got more pressure on the QB this week. Shazier looked awesome...and though he plays a different position, his energy and mobility remind me of Polamolu in his prime. Concerns: they're not forcing many turnovers, or getting sacks, except for one "default" sack when Dalton was flushed from the pocket, and took a dive just short of the line of scrimmage. Still, they flushed him and hurried him quite a few times, which is an improvement over last week.

My biggest defensive concern is that the secondary is still not doing a great job of covering short-to-medium range passes. Their passing yardage actually exceeded ours. Another concern is that the D softened up with 6 minutes to go...were they in "Prevent?" That so-called defense should be torn out of the playbook.

Bottom line: not a perfect win, but a good one. If they avoid major injuries, this should be a helluva season. On to Philly.

 

[FaCe-LeE-uS]

My belated postmortem.....

I think we got the benefit of a bad call on the fumble. However, I understand why it wasn't reversed; the camera angles made it tough to see exactly when the ball started coming loose. In any event, no one can say that the outcome would've been different if the call was reversed. As tough as the Steelers have been in the red zone, there was no guarantee that Cinci would've gotten a TD, let alone a TD with a 2-pt conversion.

I'd give our boys a solid "B" on both sides of the ball.

Offense scored 24 pts against a good defense, with no fumbles, despite the sloppy weather. DeAngelo had another great day, at least on draw plays, and when running to the outside. Not as good on straight handoffs up the middle, but hey, if the holes ain't there, they ain't there.

Ben was a little off. Granted, he threw 3 TDs, but he also threw 2 picks. Maybe I should blame the receivers, but they're new...I don't think Ben should count on them to pull off the same miracle catches in traffic that look easy when AB does it...at least not YET. Ben also floated and overthrew a bunch of passes. Maybe it was the weather, or maybe he just had a sub-par day, but he got the job done.

Speaking of AB...definitely an off day. But I don't see him making a habit of it.

Defense was tough as nails in the red zone. Also very good against the run, and got more pressure on the QB this week. Shazier looked awesome...and though he plays a different position, his energy and mobility remind me of Polamolu in his prime. Concerns: they're not forcing many turnovers, or getting sacks, except for one "default" sack when Dalton was flushed from the pocket, and took a dive just short of the line of scrimmage. Still, they flushed him and hurried him quite a few times, which is an improvement over last week.

My biggest defensive concern is that the secondary is still not doing a great job of covering short-to-medium range passes. Their passing yardage actually exceeded ours. Another concern is that the D softened up with 6 minutes to go...were they in "Prevent?" That so-called defense should be torn out of the playbook.

Bottom line: not a perfect win, but a good one. If they avoid major injuries, this should be a helluva season. On to Philly.

You are correct on the concern over the secondary. While they play well in the RZ, they are still giving up a ton of yards between the 20's. They are currently ranked as the #31 ranked passing defense. Thank god for the Raiders averaging +50yds more each game lol. On the bright side, they are the #2 ranked rushing defense. Sad to say, but the zone cover schemes that Butler & Lake are deploying are never going to rank very high. Especially with the 10-15yd cushion they are giving the receivers. It worked well on AJ Green & his go/post-routes, but the rest of the Cincy offense chewed up yards. One silver lining to it though was 100+ of those yards were from Bernard's dump-off receptions. That to me tells us that the secondary was covering well. It's baby steps, but I think this secondary is vastly improved from last season even though the stats don't necessarily prove that. I think a lot of it has to do with Davis' development. He is seeing a lot of playing time on nickel packages at both the slot CB & SS. He & Golden have been alternating in the slot. Golden dropping down is more like having another LB in the box, while Davis is more of a cover-guy. Davis is immensely talented but he has issues with tackling. If he can figure that out then this passing defense will become pretty stout.

 

[ATL96Steeler]

My belated postmortem.....

I think we got the benefit of a bad call on the fumble. However, I understand why it wasn't reversed; the camera angles made it tough to see exactly when the ball started coming loose. In any event, no one can say that the outcome would've been different if the call was reversed. As tough as the Steelers have been in the red zone, there was no guarantee that Cinci would've gotten a TD, let alone a TD with a 2-pt conversion.

I'd give our boys a solid "B" on both sides of the ball.

Offense scored 24 pts against a good defense, with no fumbles, despite the sloppy weather. DeAngelo had another great day, at least on draw plays, and when running to the outside. Not as good on straight handoffs up the middle, but hey, if the holes ain't there, they ain't there.

Ben was a little off. Granted, he threw 3 TDs, but he also threw 2 picks. Maybe I should blame the receivers, but they're new...I don't think Ben should count on them to pull off the same miracle catches in traffic that look easy when AB does it...at least not YET. Ben also floated and overthrew a bunch of passes. Maybe it was the weather, or maybe he just had a sub-par day, but he got the job done.

Speaking of AB...definitely an off day. But I don't see him making a habit of it.

Defense was tough as nails in the red zone. Also very good against the run, and got more pressure on the QB this week. Shazier looked awesome...and though he plays a different position, his energy and mobility remind me of Polamolu in his prime. Concerns: they're not forcing many turnovers, or getting sacks, except for one "default" sack when Dalton was flushed from the pocket, and took a dive just short of the line of scrimmage. Still, they flushed him and hurried him quite a few times, which is an improvement over last week.

My biggest defensive concern is that the secondary is still not doing a great job of covering short-to-medium range passes. Their passing yardage actually exceeded ours. Another concern is that the D softened up with 6 minutes to go...were they in "Prevent?" That so-called defense should be torn out of the playbook.

Bottom line: not a perfect win, but a good one. If they avoid major injuries, this should be a helluva season. On to Philly.

Good post.

Secondary is still a work in progress in coverage....but not tackling clean is my biggest concern right now. Scheme wise it looks like Butler is varying the LOS look...some plays they are in off coverage conceding the 5-7 yd reception...other times they are up on the WR almost a bump-in run look...Bengals were 4 of 16 on 3rd down...granted some of those were open drops.

I think they had maybe two or three deep balls completed....I have to say...Golden and Mitchell are looking pretty good, and Cockrell had a tough assignment, covering AJ Green sideline to sideline but aside from the deep ball PI...2 for 8 targets 38 yds....I'll take that in the rematch game right now.