When someone in the AFC North is weak, the Pittsburgh Steelers take full advantage and toy with them for as many games as possible. While the Cleveland Browns are used to this torture, they are not the most recent division team to be on the wrong end of a massive losing streak against the Steelers. Despite the domination over the span of roughly five years, the series with the Cincinnati Bengals was a true rivalry, with every win meaning something to the Steelers, and the eventual loss meaning something to the Bengals.
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Pittsburgh Steelers cornerback Cameron Sutton intercepts a pass intended for Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Tyler Boyd during the second quarter Sept. 11, 2022 in Cincinnati.
Where Did The Steelers' Streak Begin?
The streak started near the end of 2015. Before the game even got started, Vince Williams and Vontaze Burfict got heated at midfield over Le'Veon Bell's injury earlier in the season. Andy Dalton got injured on the first drive of the game after trying to tackle Stephon Tuitt on an interception return. Dalton's backup struggled the rest of the game, but that didn't stop William Gay from having the celebration of the year on a pick six to highlight a 33-20 victory.
The next game just so happens to be the infamous Wild Card game, where Landry Jones and the Steelers nearly choked a 15-0 lead and only won because Burfict tried to decapitate Antonio Brown, which was immediately followed by Adam Jones getting another 15-yard penalty for touching an official. That was the moment when the series meant much more than the results, no matter who won each game.
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Former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver, Antonio Brown (#84) braces for what would be a vicious hit from Cincinnati Bengals linebacker, Vontaze Burfict
After that, the Steelers had a clean sweep in 2016, including a game without Burfict. As it became tradition in the mid-to-late 2010s, Chris Boswell helped kick the Steelers into multiple wins against the Bengals, including Week 15 of 2016, when he had six field goals in a 24-20 win, which he later matched in a playoff win about a month later. In fact, he had five more in the first game of the 2017 season, where the backup safety, Robert Golden, completed a fake punt. The Steelers won that game by 15 points, which matched all of Boswell's field goals that game.
Week 14 of 2017 was a very hard game to watch for both sides. That game started with Ryan Shazier suffering a horrific spinal injury. It didn't help that the Steelers went down every early, with the score being 17-3 at halftime. The Steelers managed to complete the comeback, partially due to a Bengals' defender letting Bell run right past him instead of pushing him out of bounds for an easy touchdown. To add insult to injury, JuJu Smith-Schuster avenged Brown by laying a brutal crack-back block on Burfict, giving him a concussion.
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Steelers Le'Veon Bell stares down Vontaze Burfict
In Week 6 of 2018, it was a classic back-and-forth battle between the rivals, ending in one of the weirder defensive play-calls you will ever see. With 15 seconds to go, Marvin Lewis calls for a Zero Blitz, making it an easy throw, catch and run for the game-winning touchdown. They did not meet again until Week 17, which ended up being the last week that Brown was a Steeler. He was benched in the game for throwing yet another fit as the Steelers barely escaped the game after Matt McCrane kicked three clutch field goals.
In 2019, the Steelers needed to win against the Bengals to get their first win of the season in Week 4. in a testament to how bad that Bengals team was, the Steelers methodically took them down by running constant wildcat plays. Jaylen Samuels, the backup running back at the time, had 31 yards of passing despite the "passes" being jet sweeps with a quick pitch forward to James Conner. The Bengals had no answer for the Steelers at all as they fell 27-3.
The next game was the game that sealed Mason Rudolph's fate. He failed to recover mentally from the incident the week before and was terrible against the Bengals. He was benched for Devlin Hodges, who connected with James Washington for a 79-yard touchdown. Besides that one play, the game was a slow, offense-voided game that ended 16-10.
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Steelers quarterbacks Devlin 'Duck' Hodges and Mason Rudolph held down the fort at quarterback in 2019.
The Steelers gave Joe Burrow his first true test in the NFL in 2020. Pittsburgh had their way with the Bengals all day and won 36-10. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and the Bengals finally struck back with a 27-17 win on Monday Night Football. Many Bengals fans see that as the turning point of the team that has now made it to a Super Bowl. It doesn't help that Smith-Schuster got hammered and lost a fumble on a play that broke the internet.
While the Steelers and Bengals are much less dirty to each other and they play better, tighter games now, there's still all the history that preceded the new era of Steelers vs. Bengals. Burrow vs. Kenny Pickett could turn into a fun rivalry as time goes on.
What do you think about the insane winning streak that the Steelers had over the Bengals? Let us know down in the comments.
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