Steelers pound hapless Bengals

The Pittsburgh Steelers improved to 5-1 on the season by beating the hapless 0-7 Cincinnati Bengals 34-10 in the Queen City on Sunday. Backup running back Medwele Moore led the charge for the Steelers, gaining 120 yards on 20 carries with 2 TDs in relief of injured starter. Ohio native Ben Roethlisberger added 216 yards through the air with 2 TD passes as Pittsburgh breezed to victory.

The road team struck first with Roethlisberger hitting running back Moore for a short TD and added a 3 more points to go up 10-0 before the end of the first quarter. Chad Johnson aka “Chad Ocho Cinco” caught a TD pass right before halftime to cut the margin to 3 at the break and give the Bengals faithful at least a few minutes of hope that their team would keep this one competitive.

Pittsburgh had other ideas, as Moore scored the first of his two rushing TDs in the third to put the Steelers up by 10. The Bengals cut that margin to 7 with a late quarter FG, but the Steelers put the game on ice in the final stanza with three unanswered TDs to push the score to the final margin. Even backup QB Byron Leftwich got in on the act, hitting Hines Ward for a TD pass with just under two minutes remaining and the outcome already decided.

While the Steelers demonstrated workmanlike efficiency with the win despite a slew of injuries, Cincinnati was simply a mess. The Bengals offensive line allowed the Steeler pass rush to sack QB Ryan Fitzpatrick 7 times. Fitzpatrick’s performance was remarkably mistake free despite playing the entire game with black and yellow jerseys in his face, but the shoddy showing of his pass protection was not lost on beleaguered Bengals coach Marvin Lewis:

"I'm angry. That's not good. That's not what professional football is all about. We didn't protect the quarterback, and when you do that, you're going to have a hard time getting the ball up and down the field."

The Steelers might want to enjoy this easy victory while they can as their schedule will be getting significantly more difficult in the coming weeks. They’ll host the Superbowl champion NY Giants next Sunday, head to DC for a Monday Night Game against a tough Redskins team and in a quick turnaround game play the Indianapolis Colts at home the following Sunday. Cincinnati travels to Houston for a game against the Texans next Sunday followed by home contests against Jacksonville and Philadelphia.