Good News and Bad News: Steelers at Bengals

In the interest of full disclosure, I will say that I was only able to catch the last 35 seconds of this game.  I got on a plane in Chicago at 12 p.m. Central time and landed in Austin at 2:55 p.m. Central time, which means I was in the air from kickoff to Victory Formation.

I read the recaps and all the Monday morning stuff, checked out the box score, and it looks like a missed a pretty good game.  I didn't see any of the bad stuff, but looking at it from the outside, I can only think of good news.

1. The Steelers were 3-for-4 in the red zone.  That's huge.  Rashard Mendenhall was also able to punch it in twice from inside the ten, which is good news for the goal-to-go offense.  That's an area where they struggled all season and the Cincinnati defense is not a bunch of pushovers.  Their front seven is a big test for any team and the Steelers passed.
2. Suisham didn't miss any kicks.  Jeff Reed is still available.
3. Holy crap, two turnovers!  I think the defense might be on pace to record ten or maybe even 12 turnovers this season.  Seriously, though, both picks came when the Bengals were trying to come back, so they were both huge.  Well done, William Gay.
4. Andy Dalton had two touchdown passes, but he also threw two interceptions and needed 30 pass attempts (completed only 15) to get to 170 yards.  The only real issue is that the Steelers didn't record any sacks.  I talked to a couple of people who said that they didn't blitz much, so that makes sense.
5. Oh, here's some bad news: Ben Roethlisberger was sacked five times and hit another 13 times.  That's pretty ridiculous, especially considering how well the line has been pass blocking lately.  Did Cincinnati blitz a lot and the Steelers didn't max protect and/or keep Heath in to block?  Maybe leave something in the comments and let me know.  I was going to DVR the game, but I don't get back from Austin until late Thursday, so I figured I wouldn't have time to watch it.

Now for the really good news.  Since the hated Ravens lost to Seattle (CALLED IT), the Steelers are in first place in the division.  They have a bye in Week 11 and Baltimore and Cincy play each other.  One of those teams is coming out of that game with four losses and the other will have three losses, which means the winner will be tied with the Steelers for the division lead.  I hope the hated Ravens lose, but I don't think that's going to happen.  If Cincy beats Baltimore, then the Steelers are still in first place because Sunday's win gives them the tiebreaker over the Bengals.

We're ten games into the season and the Steelers are 7-3 with a bye week to get healthy.  That late bye is especially big for them, since they're an old team and it's better for them to rest and recover later in the season.  There's another game with the Bengals looming on the schedule, but there's also two games against the Browns, one against the hapless Rams, and one at Kansas City.  It's a very winnable stretch and the Bengals and hated Ravens have to play each other twice before the end of the year, so I'm liking how the division race is shaking out.

Is it weird that the Monday night game against the 49ers is shaping up to be one of the biggest games of the season (for both teams)?  Yeah, I think it's weird.