Steelers - Bengals Postgame Blog
HOME SWEET HOME?
The Steelers had their 10-game home winning streak snapped with yesterday's loss. Heinz Field had seen consecutive wins against San Diego, Cincinnati, Dallas, Cleveland, San Diego, Baltimore, Tennessee, San Diego, Cleveland, and Minnesota prior to the Bengals win.
Cincinnati, however, has now knocked off the Steelers at Heinz in 3 of the past 5 seasons.
TIEBREAKER
With the loss, Cincinnati holds a two game lead in the division over the Steelers (including the head-to-head tiebreaker). Steelers safety said he felt like Pittsburgh had to "run the table" now in order to win the division.
To Ryan's point, the Bengals next three opponents (Oakland, Cleveland, and Detroit) had a combined four victories going into yesterday's action. However, Cincy does have two road games with Minnesota and San Diego down the stretch, wrapping up the year in New York playing the Jets on January 3rd.
The Steelers, in addition to their two tough division games with Baltimore, have games with Green Bay and Miami (on the road) which should provide challenges. The Steelers should be favored to win all of their remaining games.
QB RATING
Ben Roethlisberger's quarterback rating of 51.5 yesterday was his lowest mark in a home game (where he's played four quarters) since losing to the New York Giants last year (a 4 INT performance).
Prior to that, it was Ben's lowest home quarterback rating since September of 2006, also a loss to the Bengals (30.7 rating in a 0 TD 3 INT performance).
BEN VS THE BENGALS
Ben has thrown 13 interceptions against Cincinnati in his last 11 games against them (since 2005).
Ben has lost 4 games to Cincinnati since entering the league in 2004, while losing only twice as a starter against Baltimore. Of course, Ben has never lost to Cleveland.
Overall, Ben's record as a starter against the AFC North is 25-6, including playoffs.
NO LONG BALL
Roethlisberger's longest completion yesterday was 21-yards. That's the shortest distance for a long pass play of the game Ben has been held to this year.
Last year, the Eagles held Ben to a long pass gainer of 16 yards, the previous low water mark.
HOLMES SWEET HOLMES?
Santonio Holmes was targeted 14 times yesterday. That's the most he's been looked at by Ben Roethlisberger since the Week 2 loss at Chicago.
Holmes had 7 catches of those 14 attempts (for 88 yards receiving), his most grabs since the opener against Tennessee.
However, for the year Holmes trails Hines Ward by 1 target (74 to 73), with Heath Miller 22 off the pace (56 targets by Ben). Mike Wallace is a distant fourth (with 46 targets).
SACK GAME
Roethlisberger has now been sacked 27 times by opposing defenses in 2009. Ben is on pace to be brought down 48 times this year, which would be consistent with the sacks the Steelers have allowed the last three seasons (49 in 2006, 47 in 2007, and 49 in 2008).
The Steelers D, on the other hand, is on pace for 44 sacks. Last year, the Steelers 51 QB takedowns were the most since 2001.
3RD DOWNS
The Steelers offense was just 3 of 15 on 3rd down conversions yesterday. That 20% "success" rate is the lowest for the team this year. The previous low mark was Week 1's 29 % rate against Tennessee.
Of those 12 non-conversions on 3rd downs, seven of them were a manageable 6-yards or shorter. Three of those seven were balls batted down by Bengals' pass rushers.
The Bengals offense wasn't much better on 3rd downs yesterday, converting at a 4 of 14 (29%) rate. In two victories over Pittsburgh this year, the Bengals have combined to only convert 7 out of 26 3rd downs, a lowly 27 %!
NO TROY, NO TURNOVERS
In the four games Troy Polamalu missed with a knee injury (Weeks 2 - 6), the Steelers came up with just 2 turnovers.
Polamalu's return sparked the team to snag 8 turnovers in the past 3 games.
And, with Polamalu leaving yesterday's game due to a re-aggravation of his knee injury, the Steelers again came up empty in the force turnover department. In the Steelers three losses this year, they have 0 forced turnovers.