George Pickens Explodes in Steelers Win Over Bengals
PITTSBURGH -- The Pittsburgh Steelers entered a critical game against the Cincinnati Bengals with their backs against the wall and their playoff hopes on life support.
But in their biggest game of the year to date, the Steelers played their best game of the season. Mason Rudolph, making his first start in 769 days, was excellent, especially when connecting with George Pickens, and electrified the Steelers offense while the defense locked down the Bengals' explosive stars as Pittsburgh walked away with a dominating, 34-11 win.
The Steelers won the toss but elected to defer their option to the second half and play defense first. That under-manned Steelers defense, forced to play Patrick Peterson and Eric Rowe as the safeties - allowed just one first down before forcing a punt from the Bengals.
That brought Mason Rudolph and company out to start their first drive at their own eight-yard line and they wasted no time taking an early 7-0 lead. George Pickens beat rookie corner D.J. Turner on an in-cutting route and ran away from the defense 84 yards for a touchdown.
The Bengals defense had finally gotten moving, with Browning dicing the Steelers with short, but efficient passing until an errant attempt at a throwaway fell to the edge of the endzone. Peterson was waiting in the right spot to pick it off and give the Steelers the ball back at their own 25-yard line, leading by a touchdown with 5:12 remaining in the first quarter.
The Steelers took advantage behind a balanced attack with Rudolph making the right reads for easy yards and the offensive line opening up wide holes for Najee Harris and Jaylen Warren to run through. The Steelers marched 80 yards in 10 plays and capped the march with a seven-yard touchdown run on jet sweep by Calvin Austin, who was able to get in the endzone because Warren leveled a massive block on a Bengals linebacker.
Leading 14-0, the Steelers got the ball back quickly thanks to a T.J. Watt's league-leading 17th sack of the season. Set back to their own 16-yard line, the Bengals punted and the Steelers set up on their one 48-yard line.
But the Pittsburgh offense looked human for the first time in this game, with Rudolph tossing his first incompletion as they lost yards on a blown-up screen to Warren.
But their first imperfect drive of the day didn't have any real consequences because Eric Rowe came up with Jake Browning's second interception of the day just four plays later, giving the Steelers the ball back on the Cincinnati nine-yard line, leading 14-0.
They capitalized on the good field position with a hard run for a first down from Rudolph on third and six and a three-yard touchdown run from Najee Harris to make it an astounding 21-0 lead with 7:13 to go until halftime.
The Bengals continued to piece together encouraging drives that only ended in disaster. After marching all the way up to the Steelers' five-yard line thanks in large part to some long receptions from Pittsburgh native Tyler Boyd, the Bengals turned the ball over on down when Browning's fourth down and inches pass for Tee Higgins fell well short.
The Steelers took the ball back with 2:14 to play until halftime and, after moving methodically to start the drive, Rudolph hit on another deep shot to Pickens for 44 yards. Chris Boswell converted a 50-yard field goal and the Steelers went to the locker room leading 24-0.
But Cincinnati refused to go quietly, earning a stop on the Steelers' first drive and scoring a touchdown on their first play from scrimmage. Browning connected with Tee Higgins for an 80-yard catch and run and added a two-point conversion with a shovel pass to Joe Mixon to make it a two-score game at 24-8 at the 11:11 mark of the third quarter.
It didn't take long for Rudolph to find Pickens again and connect on a 66-yard touchdown pass down the sideline, extending the Steelers lead to 31-8 just 84 seconds later.
The Steelers came up with another fourth-down stop backed into their own territory but went three-and-out with their next possession to maintain the 23-point advantage.
The Bengals drove into the redzone for just the second time on the ensuing possession, thanks in part to a holding penalty on Joey Porter Jr. But facing a fourth and 15 from the 17-yard line to close the third quarter, Cincinnati opted for a 35-yard field goal from Evan McPhearson that made it 31-11.
Rudolph missed a golden opportunity to deliver the knockout punch on the Steelers' next drive. With pressure in his face, he misfired looking for a wide-open Diontae Johnson down the field and the Steelers went three-and-out instead.
But once again, a Steelers miscue didn't cost them, because five plays later, Browning zipped his third interception of the day into Alex Highsmith's numbers at the 43-yard line. Boswell added another field goal off the turnover and the Steelers pushed their lead to 34-11 with 6:57 to play.
The Bengals fell victim to pressure from the Steelers defense and a false start and a sack from Myles Jack halted another promising drive right in its tracks.
With 2:57 left, but backed into their own endzone, the Steelers kept the ball on the ground to kill clock. They were only able to run it down to 1:14 before punting away, but it was all a formality as the rest of garbage time ticked away on the Steelers' desperately-needed 34-11 victory.
With this win, the Steelers pull back ahead of the Bengals in the AFC North standings. They still await the results of the Bills-Chargers game later in the night to see where their playoff odds stand as the rest of the league wraps up Week 15 action over the next two days.
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