The Bengals kicked off the 2022 season at home against their bitter rival, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Both teams came in about as healthy as you could want. For parts of the game, it was a defensive battle, with mistakes taking the centre stage. By the end, it turned out to be a wild one, with the deciding score coming late in OT.
After stopping the Steelers on their first drive, things couldn’t have started worse for the Bengals offence. The first play from scrimmage was a sack. That was followed by a Mincah Fitzpatrick pick 6 on the very next play. However, the Bengals did respond with a 59 yard field goal on their next drive. 7-3 Pittsburgh.
The Steelers would get a field goal of their own after a Burrow fumble. Soon after, they were driving again. This after a second consecutive Bengals turnover. A 32 yard pass from Trubisky to Gentry was the headline play of the drive. Later on, Trubisky found Harris in the endzone for the 1 yard score. A short Bengals field goal would then make the score 17-6, which is how it remained at the half.
The Bengals opened the 2nd half scoring, on their second drive of the half. They had good starting field position, which they were able to take advantage of. After a few shorter plays, Burrow found Chase for 24 yards, setting them up at the 4 yard line. On 3rd & goal, Burrow found Tyler Boyd for the 2 yard TD. Burrow then found Mike Thomas for the 2 point conversion. 17-14 at that point.
The Bengals were able to hold the Steelers to only one more field goal for the remainder of regulation. Down 20-14, the Bengals had multiple chances to tie it and go ahead.
The first of which came on a drive where Burrow seemingly found Chase for a 13 yard TD. Unfortunately, the refs spotted the ball just short of the goalline. Instead of challenging the play, the Bengas puzzlingly decided to play on. They ended up turning the ball over on downs.
Thanks to a Pittsburgh injury and an incompletion, the Bengals defence was able to return the ball to the offence with plenty of time still on the clock. Burrow moved the ball down the field, finding Mixon, Perine, and Chase. After a couple of Steeler penalties, the Bengals had the ball at the 6, but with only 9 seconds left on the clock. On 2nd down, Burrow found Ja’Marr Chase for the game tying TD with only 2 seconds remaining.
Needing an extra point to win, things seemed straightforward enough. However, an injury to long snapper Clark Harris forced 3rd string TE Mitchell Wilcox into action. Unfortunately, the snap lacked velocity, and the kick was blocked, sending the game into OT.
The Bengals had another chance to win, with a chip shot field goal. But the snapping situation negatively impacted things again. This time, the snap was high. The timing between Huber and McPherson was off. As well, Huber did not have a chance to turn the laces out. The kick was shanked.
Steelers K Chris Boswell would then doink his attempt off the upright, but the Bengals were forced to punt on their next drive. A fumbled snap took them out of field goal range. The Trubisky-Freiermuth connection was a good one for the Steelers, as that tandem helped get them into field goal range, late into OT. It was a 53 yard attempt for Boswell. This time, he made no mistake. Steelers win 23-20
The 0-1 Bengals will fly to Dallas next week to face the Cowboys, who will be without Dak Prescott.
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