![]() ![]() "That was huge," Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said. Those two drives - one ending with a field goal, the other with a touchdown - defined the difference between the two teams. Parker dived into the end zone, popped up and flexed both arms in a muscleman pose. The Steelers drove to Cincinnati's 1-yard line with 8 seconds to go in the half, then confidently gave the ball to Willie Parker, who had 126 yards overall. Pittsburgh's response? A gutsy touchdown. "In hindsight, we probably should have gone for it," Lewis said. Shayne Graham's 20-yard kick had barely cleared the uprights when the stadium-record crowd of 66,188 started booing, an instant and emphatic second-guess. "It's like telling a kid he can have some candy and then saying, 'Um, not right now,'" Houshmandzadeh said. They needed only about 2 more feet to get the first down, and initially looked like they would flex some muscle and go for it. Trailing 14-3, the Bengals drove to a fourth-and-1 from just inside the 2-yard line with 2:16 left. When they got a chance to do it late in the first half, they backed down. Heading into the game, defensive captain John Thornton said the Bengals had to put on their "big boy pads" and match the Steelers' moxie. "There's a little comfort level here," said Ward, who had eight catches for 88 yards. Pittsburgh ended Cincinnati's 2005 season with a first-round victory in the playoffs, and knocked the Bengals out of contention last season with an overtime victory on New Year's Eve. Whenever the Steelers come to town, bad things seem to happen to the home team. The Bengals are 2-5 for the first time since 2004, Carson Palmer's first season as the starting quarterback. The Steelers solidified their hold on first place in the AFC North and pushed the last-place Bengals to a precipice. They'll be kicking themselves over this one for the rest of the season. "That's why they're 5-2 and we're 2-5," Bengals receiver T.J. Hines Ward caught a pair of touchdown passes, and the Pittsburgh Steelers turned Lewis' conservative call into the pivotal moment of a 24-13 victory Sunday, their seventh straight in Cincinnati.įrom the top down, it was another case of down-the-river domination. Instead of showing faith in his offense and going for a touchdown, Lewis decided to play it safe and kick a field goal that left the Bengals behind. So did the Cincinnati Bengals players, who assumed their coach would try to make a statement. SteelersĬINCINNATI (AP) - The biggest crowd in stadium history wanted Marvin Lewis to go for it. Bengals' conservative play sets tone for defeat vs. ![]()
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