Week 13 Analysis: Cincinatti @ Pittsburgh
December 3rd, 2007 1:20 am
by Big Dog
It was another wet night at Heinz Field as the Pittsburgh Steelers played host to the Cincinnati Bengals. Even with the rain, the field was in much better condition than last Monday night, and this made for a much more eventful game.
In the early stages Cincinnati QB Carson Palmer and the Bengals looked to be in excellent form, despite the conditions, as they moved down the field smoothly and opened the scoring for both teams with a touchdown. While Palmer looked like he was handling the wet comfortably, Pittsburgh QB Ben Roethlisberger looked anything but comfortable. The ball was coming out of his hand in an awkward fashion with most of his early passes being high and wobbly.
The momentum shifted early in the second quarter as Roethlisberger found his rhythm and got into the flow of the game, leading the Steelers on a 67 yard drive that ended in a six yard dive from Roethlisberger to score Pittsburgh’s first TD. From there on Pittsburgh dominated the scoring, piling on a further 17 points that included two TD passes to FL Hines Ward that saw Ward passing the Steelers’ All Time team record for TD receptions.
In the end, the Steelers held on for the win, although it looked more comfortable than it was. Turnovers were a big part of the story and the only statistic where the Bengals performed better than the Steelers. Officially the Bengals had one turnover to the Steelers’ four. This figure doesn’t include the fumble by Steelers’ HB Willie Parker that was overturned after a challenge by Head Coach Mike Tomlin. It also doesn’t include the fumble by Parker that was ruled down by contact on the field and upheld after the challenge by Bengals Head Coach Marvin Lewis. It also doesn’t count the safety scored by the Bengals that was reversed by an illegal holding penalty and it doesn’t include the turnover on downs that the Bengals would have won late in the game which was also reversed by a penalty call.
For the Bengals the biggest issue is clearly team discipline, but we’ve all known that for years. Either Cincinnati will find a way to deal with this problem, or all their players will retire. It’s just a question of which happens first.
For the Steelers, Parker’s fumbling troubles have got to be a major concern coming into the business end of the season and given the current injury concerns surrounding Parker’s replacement HB Najeh Davenport. The question is, did Parker just have a bad night in bad conditions? Or is there a bigger problem? This is bound to be something that the New England Patriots will test next week.
Posted in Analysis, Ben Roethlisberger, Carson Palmer, Cincinnati Bengals, Game, Hines Ward, Marvin Lewis, Mike Tomlin, NFL, NFL Coaches, NFL Franchises/Teams, NFL Players, NFL on NBC, NFL on television, New England Patriots, Pittsburgh Steelers, Willie Parker | No Comments »