Derrick Harmon sacked Joe Burrow, forced a fumble and Sebastian Joseph-Day recovered it with 44 seconds left to give the Steelers a resounding 30-27 victory Sunday against the Bengals at Acrisure Stadium.
Resolve can play out over the course of a season, or a game, but sometimes in the span of just four plays.
It was a gut punch when a holding call negated an 87-yard run by Jaylen Warren midway through the fourth quarter. But the Steelers had a counter punch. A few of them, actually.
On the next three plays, Aaron Rodgers hit DK Metcalf for 14 yards and a first-down conversion. Then Rodgers found Darnell Washington for a rumbling, stumbling 47-yard gain down the right sideline. Looking for some retribution, Warren took the ensuing handoff 26 yards to the 6 before his feet were moving too fast for his body and he went down.
But it all added up to a 33-yard Chris Boswell field goal to give the Steelers a 30-27 lead with 2:15 left, and Harmon slammed the door shut with a strip-sack of Burrow. It was the first sack of the game for the Steelers and couldn't have come at a better time. Joseph-Day pounced on it to seal a massive win for the Steelers (2-1) in their first AFC North matchup, sending the Bengals (2-1) to their first loss.
Rodgers threw for 292 yards, 3 touchdowns and 1 interception on 19-of-34 passing and Warren added 176 yards of offense. Warren racked up 127 on the ground on 17 carries and added 49 on three receptions. Patrick Queen was flying around on defense to finish with a game-high 13 tackles while Cameron Heyward had two quarterback hits.
A Cameron Johnston punt early in the fourth quarter changed the complexion of the game. Bengals returner Ke'Shawn Williams muffed it. His teammate PJ Jules failed to fall on it.
That made it see-ball, get-ball for Ben Skowronek, and he's a Pro Bowl special teams ace for a reason. Skowronek got down and dirty for the fumble recovery, which set up 1st-and-10 at the Bengals 14. The Steelers went backwards, though, and had to settle for a 36-yard field goal from Chris Boswell to tie it at 27 with 8:45 left.
Midway through the third quarter, Rodgers and the offensive line helped engineer a tone-setting 11-play, 79-yard drive to take back the lead. Rodgers had two completions that moved the chains and Warren picked up a first-down on the ground. That pass protection and run blocking set the stage for a 6-yard touchdown pass on 3rd-and-2 to DK Metcalf, his first of the season, in the back of the end zone to give the Steelers a 24-20 advantage with 2:43 left in the third quarter.
A back-and-forth first half saw the Steelers jump out to a 7-0 lead with a 38-yard touchdown pass from Rodgers to Roman Wilson on the opening drive, just 1:50 into the game. Wilson beat his defender off the line and Rodgers lofted in a perfect toss for the first touchdown catch by a Steelers wide receiver this season.
The offense kept humming from there, answering a methodical Bengals touchdown drive with another Rodgers connection, this one 23 yards to Skowronek to make it 14-7 with 52 seconds left in the first quarter. It was a beautiful play design and call by head coach Mike McCarthy, as Skowronek went into motion and as the ball was snapped ran a route through the right tackle and tight end. The Bengals didn't account for him until it was too late, and Skowronek had his first score since Week 1 of last season.
But Cincinnati managed to tie it at the break, turning a Rodgers interception into a 28-yard touchdown pass from Burrow to Tee Higgins. Higgins did just enough to seal off cornerback Asante Samuel Jr. and made a circus catch in the front right corner of the end zone, evening the score at 17 with 34 seconds to go in the half.
