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Bengals versus Steelers, part III

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elliemae said:
Well okay,I'll bite but why this weekend only? I have a hunch,but I'll wait till you say so!
:slappy:
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Truthfully, I'm not an avid Steelers hater (as most Browns fans are, and I used to be). I live in Big Ben country (Findlay) and like to see him succeed outside of when they play Cleveland. I just am pulling for them with all my might this week because there are few teams in all of sports that I enjoy watching lose more than the Bungles. :lol:

Most everyone on this thread is well aware of my bias on this topic. It's well documented, so I'll spare them the details.
 
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OilerBuck said:
Truthfully, I'm not an avid Steelers hater (as most Browns fans are, and I used to be). I live in Big Ben country (Findlay) and like to see him succeed outside of when they play Cleveland. I just am pulling for them with all my might this week because there are few teams in all of sports that I enjoy watching lose more than the Bungles. :lol:

Most everyone on this thread is well aware of my bias on this topic. It's well documented, so I'll spare them the details.
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That's kind of what I thought but did not want to jump the gun!
:groove:
 
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1/6/06

Bengals looking for Steelers to run

Friday, January 6, 2006

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>[FONT=Verdana, Times New Roman, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]By JOE KAY AP Sports Writer[/FONT]



NFL playoffs
STEELERS
AT BENGALS
Sunday, 4:30 p.m.
Paul Brown
Stadium,
Cincinnati
TV Channel 19

CINCINNATI - Ben Roethlisberger dropped back and let it fly 41 times. He threw deep, he threw short, he threw everywhere.
This was a side of the Pittsburgh Steelers that no one had seen before.
The last time they played the Cincinnati Bengals, the Steelers tried to beat them in a shootout. Roethlisberger set career highs in every category while going 29-of-41 for 386 yards and three touchdowns.
Bad move. Pittsburgh learned the hard way that it’s tough to beat the Bengals (11-5) in a wide-open game.
As they prepare for their rematch in the first round of the playoffs Sunday, everyone expects the Steelers (11-5) to get back to what they do best — let Roethlisberger hand the ball to someone else.
“I know the Steelers would love to come in and run the football,” Bengals running back Rudi Johnson said.
He gets no argument in Pittsburgh, which is at its best when it stays basic. Forty-one passes?
“Not 40,” Steelers running back Jerome Bettis said. “That’s too many. That’s usually a sign of being behind.”
So, where is the cutoff point for passing?
“Thirty? Well, that’s still a little high,” the Bus said. “I think 25 is about the optimum number. I’m comfortable with that.”
Some other numbers back him up. In the past 31 games, the Steelers are 30-0 with one tie when a running back reaches 100 yards. They came to Cincinnati on Oct. 23 and ran 47 times for a season-high 221 yards, setting up a 27-13 win. The running game was so dominant that day that Roethlisberger threw only 14 times, completing nine passes for 93 yards.
The Bengals were surprised that the Steelers went out of character in the rematch, running only 28 times while throwing it 41 times. The game turned on three interceptions by Roethlisberger, who was playing with an injured thumb.
Roethlisberger then led the Steelers to four straight victories and the final AFC wild card. He wouldn’t mind trying to one-up Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer again on Sunday.
“The last time we played them at home, we threw a lot more,” said Roethlisberger, who hasn’t thrown more than 20 times in any game since. “I think if we don’t turn the ball over, then we probably win that game. So if it comes down to that, I think we can (win).”
So does receiver Hines Ward, who had nine catches for 135 yards and a pair of touchdowns in Pittsburgh. He even tweaked the Bengals by doing the Ickey Shuffle — their celebration dance from the 1988 Super Bowl season — after one score.
“If we don’t turn the ball over, we win that game,” Ward said. “That’s just point-blank.
“We may not be a passing team, but if they keep putting eight or nine (at the line of scrimmage) and we’re not getting anything done, then you have to pass the ball. You pay the quarterback big money, you pay the receivers to make big plays. You have to go out and use them.”
It makes more sense to run. Kansas City’s Larry Johnson ran for 201 yards and a career-high three touchdowns Sunday in a 37-3 win over Cincinnati, which looked disinterested in the final regular-season game.
Coach Marvin Lewis had his players watch film of their win in Pittsburgh this week to remind them of what they need to be as a defense.
“Just to see the kind of passion we played with in that game, even when things didn’t go right,” defensive tackle John Thornton said. “That’s how you’ve got to play. And when you don’t, the result will be what happened (in Kansas City) when you don’t play a game like everything’s on the line.”
Everyone knows what’s on the line. And the Bengals figure the Steelers are going to let Bettis and company take their best shot and running them out of the playoffs. “Guys in this locker room are used to playing Pittsburgh, so it’s not like there’s anything mysterious out there,” linebacker Brian Simmons said. “We know who they are and what they’re about.” At least, they thought they did.
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1/8/06

Bengals get new experience: Playoffs

Sunday, January 8, 2006

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD>[FONT=Verdana, Times New Roman, arial, helvetica, sans-serif]The Associated Press[/FONT]

<TABLE style="MARGIN: 10px -3px 15px 5px; POSITION: relative" width=300 align=right border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD>
08bengals.jpg

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer​

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CINCINNATI - For nine excruciating years, offensive tackle Willie Anderson went home in January, fired up the grill, watched the NFL playoffs and fantasized about getting there someday.
Turns out, fantasy is nothing like reality.
The Cincinnati Bengals are back in the playoffs for the first time in 15 years, feeling wholly out of place. Not even the weather is following the script — above-average temperatures leading up to the first-round game today against Pittsburgh.
“It’s a new feeling for us,” said Anderson, who has lost 99 games in 10 Cincinnati seasons. “I always thought it would be freezing and zero degrees right now. That’s how I always pictured the week of a playoff game in Cincinnati.”
Their fans did, too. After 15 years without so much as one winning record, they were convinced that someplace would have to freeze over before the Bengals made the playoffs. When they finally made it, they got another surreal surprise.
The one team that dominated the Bengals at Paul Brown Stadium this season is coming back, looking to do it again. The Steelers (11-5) had some of their best moments during a 27-13 victory Oct. 23 — a season-high 221 yards on the ground, an emphatic win over an upstart rival.
The Bengals won a 38-31 shootout in Pittsburgh on Dec. 4 — Ben Roethlisberger’s first game back from injuries — to essentially win the AFC North title. They even crowed a little bit afterward about how the Steelers were as yesterday as black-and-white television.
“They won our division. It’s redemption time,” Steelers receiver Hines Ward said. “We get that opportunity, and we feel good because we won in Cincinnati.”
That’s not all that the Steelers have in their favor. The two cities share a river, but the two teams are in their own worlds when it comes to playing games like this one. The Steelers know what to expect; the Bengals don’t have a clue.
Only 13 Bengals have been to the playoffs, all with other teams. The rest have to learn the hard way.
“We’ve never been in this situation, a lot of guys on the team,” receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh said. “I don’t know how I’m going to react, how I’m going to feel lining up in warmups and stretching.”
Not the Steelers. Been there, won that.
Forty of them have been to the playoffs as Steelers, so they know what it’s all about. No one appreciates the value of playoff experience better than Roethlisberger, who led the Steelers to a 15-1 finish as a rookie last year, then crumbled during a 41-27 loss to New England in the AFC title game.
The playoff pressure got to him.
“I was worn down,” said Roethlisberger, who forced passes and threw three interceptions. “When you get to that point in the season, you have to be on top of your game. I felt like I was falling off the table. The speed was so much faster that the mistakes are magnified.”
Now, Carson Palmer gets to find out. The Bengals quarterback made the Pro Bowl in only his second season as a starter, leading the NFL with 32 touchdown passes and a 67.8 percent completion rate.
“You get the goose bumps going into this week on Monday and Tuesday,” Palmer said. “You realize how big of a game it is and how big it is for this city and this organization.” Palmer slightly strained his groin on his second-to-last play of a loss to Buffalo, then played only two series as a precaution last week in a loss at Kansas City that sent the Bengals (11-5) into the playoffs on a downward spiral — two bad losses after they clinched the division title in Detroit. Coach Marvin Lewis responded by getting tough with his team. He put his team in pads at midweek and limited the media attention — receiver Chad Johnson couldn’t even talk — to get everyone focused.
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tibor75 said:
I don't think Marvin told CJ anything. CJ just realized the best way to get attention was to say that he can't say anything b/c of his coach
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I was listening to Chad Johnson on WLW this week with Furman and he said the reason he's not talking this week is b/c coach Lewis told every member on the team that they need to sacrifice something this week and Chad chose to sacrifice talking to the media so the focus would be on the team and not just him.

BTW, buckeyefool called me around 1:30 today and said Johnson was walking through the tailgate area thanking people for supporting them and asking them to be loud. He said he got to talk to him for just a second. He said Chad was eating a burger that someone gave him and playing some cornhole (the game you pervs) with the fans.

When I hear people comparing him to T.O., I get upset b/c T.O. doesn't do stuff like this.

Good luck Bengals, Who Dey!!
 
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anyone here watching the game?

Huge pass down the field by Palmer... who got rolled up by a lineman... hope he's alright. Wasn't a vicious hit, the lineman took his leg down sideways.
 
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