Big Ben - 9 | Ohio - 0

"That's why they're 5-2 and we're 2-5. Good teams put it in the end zone. Teams like us kick field goals."
- TJ Houshmanzadeh

Whine all you want, Cincinnati. Had you gone for it on 4th down instead of kicking a field goal, A- there's a good chance you would've gotten ZERO points off that drive and B- the 2nd guessing would be even worse than it is already. So I'd just take your loss like men, and deal with the fact that you've fallen way behind in the division and probably won't even make the playoffs. That ought to occupy you for a while...Oh yeah, and Anthony Smith slept with all your mothers...

But Steeler fans - Guess what? - we needed a win and we got a win! We took an embarrassing loss on the chin and shrugged it off this week to put down our not-so-worthy division rivals, the Bengals, and reaffirm our position atop the AFC North...for now. The bad news, if there is any at all, is the Browns (!) beat the Rams this afternoon 27-20, which means they're still just a game back, moving into 2nd place ahead of the Ravens. So the division is quite unsettled right now. But let's not go there. We won today. Let's just revel in that. Bask in the glory of beating a team whose city wanted a win so bad that elephants in their zoo were crushing pumpkins with Big Ben's picture on them. What a bunch of assholes.

The final score was 24-13, but it might as well have been 42-13 the way we controlled that game. Big Ben, FWP, Hines Ward and company took care of the ball today, mixed it up, and played the balance game we needed to stand victorious, while Farrior, Ike Taylor and Anthony Smith kept a lid on the Bengals so-called "electrifying" offense, holding their big three - Carson Palmer, Chad Johnson and TJ Houshmanzadeh to a respectable 205 yards through the air and only 1 TD. Pretty, pretty, pretty good, I'd say.

Now that we've won, let's take a look back at my thoughts from Friday and how the Steelers followed or did not follow what I thought we should do:

• Run the god damn ball: Check! Run it, then run it some more, we sure did. FWP carried exactly 22 times (whoa...prophetic...) for 126 yards and 1 score and Najeh added 8 carries for 23 yards. I'd say that's pretty successful indeed.


• Deploy a balanced offensive attack: Check! In addition to the 30 rushes by FWP and Deuce Davenport, the Steelers threw the ball 26 times, with Ben completing 19 passes for 230 yards and 2 TDs. Sure, he threw a pick...in the red zone...and that's pretty bush league. But I'm going to let it slide since he played a pretty decent game otherwise. I will say this though - Ben needs to get his passes down. There were too many balls above Hines and Santonio's heads that could have gotten them hit hard had the Bengals played any defense today. Watch out for those guys Ben, they're your lifeblood right now. Still, as I mentioned we needed to do on Friday, the Steelers mixed it up well, and were able to control the game with sustained, efficient drives. In fact, 3 out of 8 Steeler drives lasted 6 minutes or longer and 2 of those 3 were scoring drives (the 3rd would've been another score had Ben not thrown that pick). Can you say efficiency?


• Stop the Bengals passing machine: Check! Carson "I like wieners" Palmer - 23 for 31, 205 yards and only 1 TD. Chad "I just gotta be me" Johnson - 5 catches, 51 yards, 0 TDs. TJ "I'd like some cheese with my whine" Houshmanzadeh - 7 catches, 81 yards, 1 TD. Ok, that last stat wasn't exactly ideal. But neither of the twin towers broke 100 yards or had more than 1 score. So I consider that a success. Although, at the risk of being a wet blanket - we did not register a single sack, and I really didn't see us in the backfield often enough to make Carson Palmer sweat. That was unfortunate. Plus, the other thing I would have liked to have seen that I didn't see from a defensive scheme POV was pressing the receivers a little more. We kept giving them the 8-10 yard cushion we gave the Denver receivers and for at least the beginning of the game, they took it. We just can't continue to allow this. What more can I say? Good receivers will take that cushion and exploit it. We need to move up to the line and knock them off their routes. Get on their case a bit. Don't make it easy on them. Sort it out.


• More facetime for Woodley: Fail! I hardly saw Woodley at all. I guess when you're winning it's the ol' "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mantra. And I can respect that. Nonetheless, I'm not sure Woodley saw the field at all today, and he certainly didn't make any tackles. So just another thing to think about in the future. One man we did see a lot of today though, was Anthony Smith. And thank god for that. I don't think I have to say much more about him than his hit on Houshmanzadeh said for itself. The team's leading tackler this week - Smith made 10 tackles, 9 solo - Fear the wrath of Anthony Smith. Maybe Ryan Clark should get injured more often? (kidding...sort of)


• No stupid penalties: Check! 3 penalties for 30 yards but none at crucial moments in the game. Though just about anything (and everything) Kendall Simmons does right now is stupid. Thanks for the false start asshole. Way to make a positive contribution to the game.


• Put some breathing room between us and the Ravens: See above...Check!

Some other moments to cherish, not mentioned above:

• Silverback stripping the ball from Kenny Watson in dramatic fashion. Looked like Harrison brought the friggin' hammer down on that ball. I don't blame Watson for coughing it up. Bravo Silverback!


• Marvin Lewis' post-game quotables - "We are not overmatched. We were outplayed, outexecuted, and I was outcoached." Sounds like a personal problem to me...


• Big Ben hooking up with Santonio for 42 yards on the Steelers 2nd drive. Funny how much easier it is to throw the home run ball when your offense is rolling...


• Remember Hines Ward? He's not dead yet. Ok, he's not that old. But considering how much of a non-factor he has been this season, today was a pleasant surprise. Obviously we should be looking his way more often in the coming weeks. Bonus.


• Hope you didn't adjust your TV set. The Bengals did only have 10 players on the field for that last Pittsburgh TD. Sucks for them. I don't know what else to tell you.

One way or another, I'd say I'm very please with the way things went on the field today. We played our game, plain, simple and disciplined (for the most part). But again, coming in, we regarded this as a winnable game. The kind you need to have to gain momentum. This coming week we've got another big division game against the dirty birds of Baltimore, the Ravens. Another big MONDAY NIGHT game at that, in which I hear we'll be celebrating the Steelers 75th anniversary. Yellow helmets, great. Consider me psyched...

With that, it's 11:00PM and I'm beat. So that'll be all for today. Feel free to comment and tell me your thoughts on the game. Good, bad, outlandish. Any and all are encouraged. Let's have 'em!

Post-game coverage:
[DC Steeler Nation]
[Joey Porter's Pitbulls]
[Behind The Steel Curtain]
[Non-Stop Steelers]
[Pittsburgh Sports and Mini Ponies]
[Blitzburgh Report]
[The Steel Tradition]
[Die Hard Steel]
[Fanhouse]

[KDKA]
[Associated Press]
[Post-Gazette]
[SteelCityInsider]
[CBS Sportsline]
[Tribune-Review]
[Steelers.com]

Let This Speak For Itself...

Honestly Cincinnati, what the F...Yes that is an elephant crushing a pumpkin with Big Ben's picture affixed to it with scotch friggin' tape...fine line between getting a fanbase fired up and obsession, no?

I Hear 5-2 Is A Whole Lot Cooler Than 4-3...

Here we are, just a short two days from a showdown at Paul Brown...how poetic. I was thinking this morning - Man, I really should probably do some sort of game preview...or something...beyond what I did on Tuesday. But you know, then I got to thinking - don't we pretty much know what we need to do on Sunday? I mean I could sit here and speculate about it, but it isn't going to be a whole lot different than most of our games so far.

Of course, what would Friday be without a game preview for all yinz Stiller lovers? After all, it is the Bungles. And they do have a better offense than every team we've played thus far. So despite my initial hesitation, I'm going to make a few points below. Maybe you'll agree, maybe you won't. That's the beauty of sports blogging. Either way, I love to hear what other fans think. Hence, if it strikes your fancy, leave a comment and get in the mix.

Here are my "things we probably SHOULD do on Sunday":

OFFENSE

• Run the god damn ball. Ok, now all you fans who think I'm going to say "we should just pound them into submission," give me a minute (or two) to explain. One way or another, we need to get Willie at least 22 carries. Fact is, we can't really "pound" them into submission in the true sense because FWP just ain't that kind of back. But when Willie gets the ball 22+ in a game, we almost always win.


• That said, we need to deploy a balanced offensive attack. It can't be too run heavy, can't be too pass heavy. It's just a general rule. Balanced offense wins games. I think we'd be apt to game plan similar to what we did in the 2nd half against Denver. Some short passes, not necessarily screens but maybe FWP screens, continue to utilize the tight ends, and maybe find Santonio deep once or twice. But the "home run ball" cannot become the be all and end all. Everyone likes heroics, but even more so, everyone likes to WIN. We don't need to go slinging the ball 30 yards on every other play. Plus, a mix of runs and shorter passes controls the clock. Something we ought to do also.

DEFENSE

• Stop the Bengals passing machine. We don't need another Kimo Von Oelhoffen incident to shut these guys down. Just play OUR game. Rush Carson Palmer. Get in his face. Just make sure we're covering those twin pillars Chad Johnson and TJ Houshmanzadeh. Also, don't forget how to stop the run...that'd be nice. Plus, can we please try and improve on our 3rd down defensive efficiency? Please don't allow them to convert consecutive 3rd and longs this week. Please. Thanks.


• Let's see some more LaMarr Woodley. I'm not saying start him, not by any means. But as Mike Tomlin says "it's a game of attrition." So to avoid some of that fatigue, let's rotate Woodley in a little more often. Maybe even see what Timmons can do. Depth is key, and we're blessed to have a lot of it. We should see some more of William Gay with McFadden still nursing his high ankle sprain. So that should be nice also. The more these guys taste regular season action, the better prepared they will be for when they do start.

WHOLE TEAM

• No stupid penalties. Minimize the offsides and holding. No special teams penalties. Play the game like you know it should be played. Be calm, cool and under control and you will be efficient. Or just go out and kick their ass. Your choice, I don't discriminate.


• Put some breathing room between us and the Ravens, who are on a bye. The Ravens are 4-3, with god awful 0-2 division and 1-3 conference records. As opposed to our 4-2 overall, and 1-0 division and 2-1 conference records. It don't gotta be pretty, but one way or another, we need another win, and another division win to start pulling away. You know what, let me put it another way - if we lose to the Bengals and the Browns beat the Rams, the BROWNS(!) would move into 1st in the division. We can NOT let that happen.

But while the match ups may look good on paper, that doesn't mean the Bengals are just going to lie down for us, unfortunately. Right now they are 2-3. That ain't good. We took these guys out of playoff contention in our last meeting, and they may not have forgotten (though Cincy is used to losing so maybe they have). The year before that, we ended their playoff run by striking a deathblow to their offense in the AFC Wild Card game (see image here). And we've generally just owned the Bungles in recent years. So while this is all nice to reminisce about, it means the Bungles have a LOT to play for on Sunday.

The Steelers need to execute. Play disciplined football. Improve on what we've done already this season. And above all, get a freaking win and remind Cincy and everyone else who's boss in the AFC North.

Here we go Stillers!!