With a playoff berth on the line Sunday at sun-splashed Heinz Field, the Bengals got the brilliant defensive effort they needed with two hellacious red-zone stands in the third quarter that kept the game tied at 10 and fittingly it was a 21-yard bullet from Andy Dalton to wide receiver A.J. Green that set up Josh Brown’s 43-yard field goal with four seconds left that gave Cincinnati back to postseason berths for the first time in 30 years with a numbing 13-10 victory.
It was set up by safety Reggie Nelson’s interception at the Steelers 46 with 14 seconds left that culminated one of the greatest defensive games in Cincinnati’s franchise history.
“We were saying in the huddle, ‘Just give Andy time and he’ll find somebody,’ ” said center Kyle Cook.
That someone turned out to be the franchise’s best player and Green came through when everyone needed him the most as he finished with a hard-fought 10 catches for 116 yards against the NFL’s top-ranked defense.
Both Green and Nelson taught the lesson of hanging-with-’em. On the second snap of the fourth quarter, Green fumbled at the Steelers 28 after a 12-yard pickup. On the Steelers only touchdown, Nelson was supposed to blitz in an all-out run at Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, but Nelson didn’t go and Antonio Brown was able to get past cornerback Adam Jones for a 60-yard bomb late in the first half, the result of Jones jumping the route because he thought Roethlisberger had to hurry.
But Green and Nelson were able to atone in the last 14 seconds.
Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis had so much faith in his defense that he let Brown try a 56-yard field goal with 3:18 left.
It was far short, giving two-minute maven Roethlisberger a first down at his 45 and when he scrambled for four yards on third down, it was the 12th time out of 14 snaps the Bengals won on third down and it set up Shaun Suisham’s 53-yard field goal that was short with 1:47 left.
But despite their great field position, the Bengals couldn’t convert a third-and-one when they went for it all on third-and-one from midfield and Dalton overthrew Green deep with 44 seconds left.
The Bengals defense could generate Cincinnati’s only touchdown as the Steelers stymied the Bengals running game on seven yards in running back BenJarvus Green-Ellis’s first 10 carries, blanketed Green in the long-ball game, stopped the Bengals on 11 of 15 third-down tries, and picked off Dalton twice while holding him to 24 completions on 41 throws for 278 yards.
Click here to read more of this story.
About Marion Online Sports
