Good News and Bad News: Bengals at Steelers

The best news is that they won and kept pace with the hated Ravens in terms of record (Baltimore holds the tiebreaker since they swept the regular season series).  It's better that they won 35-7 instead of 13-9 or 17-13, but a win is still a win.

Good news first:

1. AJ Green did have six catches for 87 yards and a touchdown, but 43 of those yards came on one play.  He was also targeted 11 times and Ike Taylor picked off one of those targets, so I'm going to declare this one a victory for number 24.  He's continuing a strong season and the Steelers will need him to keep it up if they want to make some noise in January.
2. Special teams contributed a forced fumble, a blocked kick, and a punt return for a touchdown.  The kicking game had been under-performing for the past few seasons and it's nice to see the Steelers play well in all three phases.  When the playoffs start and the games get tighter, having an advantage on special teams gives you a huge edge.  It was also good to see Cameron Heyward contributing in a meaningful way, even if he's not starting.  Curtis Brown had a big day with three special teams tackles and he was all over the place in coverage units.  Kampinos averaged 54.5 yards per punt, showed good hang time, and dropped two punts inside the 20.
3. The Mighty Ginger was held to 5.6 yards per pass attempt and completed 45.8 percent of his passes.  Bruce Gradkowski threw the interception to Taylor, but, for a guy that has been as hot on the road as Dalton, I will take 135 yards passing and 77.6 passer rating.
4. On four trips in the red zone, the Steelers got four touchdowns.  That's huge.  Also huge is that Rashard Mendenhall looked comfortable close to the goal line and Tomlin looked comfortable getting him the ball.
5. Antonio Brown is awesome.  He led the team with 67 receiving yards and kicked in another 65 and a touchdown on three punt returns.  Now that Emmanuel Sanders is healthy, expect him to return kickoffs and Brown to return punts.  That is a winning combination.
6. Hines Ward went over 12,000 yards for his career.  I'd like to congratulate him on a hell of a run.
7. LaMarr Woodley leaving in the second quarter was all part of the plan.  With a Thursday night game coming up and Jason Worilds allegedly rushing the passer well, they didn't feel a need to rush him back and exacerbate his hamstring injury.  Troy played and played well without incident.
8. James Harrison stepped up when the Bengals lost their left tackle.  He had three sacks and three hits on the quarterback.  The Steelers had an aggressive game plan this week after laying off Dalton in the first game.  It sure worked.  If they come after Colt McCoy like that on Thursday night, things could get ugly for the Browns.
9. I still can't believe how well Max Starks is playing.  I guess being forced to take some time off and losing some weight made a big difference.  I just hope he stays healthy the rest of the season.  Jonathan Scott is definitely not an acceptable substitute.  I thought the line played well in general.  I would've liked to have seen fewer sacks and a more efficient running game, but this was really an A-level game for this unit when you factor in the talent Cincinnati has on the front seven.

Not a ton of Bad News, but there is still some out there...

1. New England, Baltimore, and Houston all won, which means the Steelers, at 9-3, would be the #5 seed if the season ended today.  Hated Ravens and Texans hold a tiebreaker, so the only way to improve seeding is to keep winning and hope someone else loses, preferably both Baltimore and Houston, since the Steelers have a head-to-head tiebreaker over the Patriots.
2. Todd Suisham missed a field goal.  Jeff Reed is still available.
3. The Steelers scored 35 points, but were still 2-for-10 on third down.  That's not sustainable.
4. Ben Roethlisberger averaged 7.7 yards per attempt, didn't turn the ball over, and had a 117.3 quarterback rating, but it really seemed to me that this was his second straight ugly game.  He was off on deep throws, his timing on short and intermediate routes wasn't quite right, and his receivers gained a lot of yards for him after the catch.  I'm not sure if it's the thumb or the coverages he's been facing, but he just seems... off.  I know.  Anyone whose quarterback is Tyler Palko or Caleb Hanie or TJ Yates really hates me right about now.  I'll shut up.
5. I am happy for Hines Ward.  I really am.  What bugs me is that they're feeding him the ball when they don't have to.  He needs ten catches to get to 1,000 for his career. Just let it happen.  Let it look like he earned it.  Maybe look for him on third down more often and you'll convert more of those opportunities.  He'll get to 1,000 without trying to fudge it.  If you want to throw a quick screen to a receiver, Sanders, Brown, and Mike Wallace are all considerably better options.
6. Speaking of weird passes, I'm glad that Roethlisberger came out of the game and Charlie Batch went in.  I'm glad that Batch saw the Bengals jump offsides, knew he had a free play, and just chucked it down the field.  I'm not glad that Brown was in the game and got nailed on the play because Batch can only chuck the ball so far.  If you're going to leave players open to injury on those kinds of plays, make sure it's Batch throwing to Cotchery or Battle.

This wasn't a case of Cincinnati finally reverting back to the Bungles we're used to seeing.  The Bengals are a good, young team and they have a bright future.  They're just not good enough to beat the Steelers or hated Ravens yet.  I'm thinking they will be and sooner rather than later.  But, it didn't happen on Sunday, though it hopefully will happen on the last game of the season, when the Bengals host the hated Ravens.

The Steelers made an important announcement to the rest of the AFC yesterday: We're back and the Bengals aren't ready.  We'll see how everything shakes out, but, as of right now, the Steelers are the five seed that no one wants to play.