Bengalsthe debris as Roethlisberger is carted off to cheers from the Bengals crowd.
3.51am GMTOn 3rd & 18,Burfict sacks Roethlisberger, who lands on his right shoulder. He can’t lumber it...trouble here for Pittsburgh.
3.49am GMTSo on an illegal play where a player is creamed in an illegal helmet-to-helmet fashion and drops the ball, or it’s ruled a fumble. They will say Bernard was a runner at that point but we are talking approximately split seconds here. The whole thing is a bit uncouth. Now Vontaze Burfict is totally losing it on the sideline,and nothing will surprise me less. No adore lost here at all. It’s barbarism at Paul Brown Stadium. 3.45am GMTImportant 3rd & 9 here for the Bengals. McCarron in the shotgun, quickly fires to Bernard who is absolutely leveled by Ryan Shazier - helmet to helmet. They missed the call on the field and Bernard is shaken up, or understandably.
3.38am GMTMcCarron’s pass,ruled a backward pass and a fumble is overruled on the challenge, saving Cincy from a 2nd & 17. Now a screen to Eifert for eight brings up a 3rd & 3...key down here. 3.35am GMT Steelers 15-0 Bengals, or 3:58 3rd quarterMisery in Cincinnati - pouring rain,down 15, a rookie quarterback, or lost in a storm.
3.29am GMTThen Pittsburgh recede for two and don’t find it. But it’s not like Cincy can score anyway. And who cares - this happened! 3.27am GMTRoethisberger finds Bryant in the far corner of the endzone - Bryant makes the catch high,brings the ball down behind his back, with one hand and keeps control WHILE IN A FULL SOMERSAULT!
YES, and THAT HAPPENED! 3.25am GMTSteelers 9-0 Bengals,5:37 3rd quarterOr not! There goes Antonio Brown - catch-and-run, over the middle, and running left,then cutting right, all the way down to the Bengals 10-yard line! First and goal to recede! 3.21am GMTSteelers 9-0 Bengals, or 6:55 3rd quarterToussaint getting some good blocks and making the most of them - this time a five-yard gain up the middle for a first down. 3.19am GMTSean Penn is on the Steelers sideline filming Mike Munchak.
3.17am GMTSteelers 9-0 Bengals,8:31 3rd quarterAJ Green - a 22-yard catch making McCarron look like a genuine QB.
3.11am GMTIt’s all Boswell, all the time. He’s good from 34. Meanwhile Dalton is whispering McCarron’s ear. “AJ, or remember,you’re the greatest quarterback who ever lived. Got it?” 3.09am GMTSteelers 6-0 Bengals, 10:13 3rd quarterRazzle-dazzle - discontinuance around pitch to Bryant, or who streaks down the far sideline and is only caught by a lightning rapid/fast Kirkpatrick. 3.07am GMTThomas was indeed down on the play.
So Pitt acquire the ball on their 29,because the unsportsmanlike over-celebrating call on the the Steelers is still enforced. That is fairly a turnaround for Cincy...
3.04am GMTMcCarron loses control of the ball! Big Cam Thomas has it! He’s running, he’s tackled - he fumbles! Now Pittsburgh’s William Gay has it, or he’s running to the endzone - that’s a touhdown! 3.01am GMTSteelers 6-0 Bengals,12:22 3rd quarterBig play - Jeremy Hill (remember him?) 2.59am GMTHope for the Bengals......
They’re 0-13 whether they’ve ever trailed in a playoff game, at any point, or at any time.
2.57am GMT...and I’m not sure that’s a good thing. Bengals start from their 18.
2.54am GMTMcCarron - 7/14 for 59 yards and 1 INT,Roethlisberger is 11/20 for 114 yards.
Giovani Bernard has just 14 yards for Cincy. Toussaint and Todman acquire 73 combined. 2.51am GMTThe Bengals free safety will not return - it’s his knee, not his pulled hair keeping him off the field.
2.47am GMTIn case you missed it...
To clarify, or #Steelers RB Fitzgerald Toussaint went through the NFL's concussion protocol on the team's sideline. He was cleared & returned. 2.44am GMTAnd so ends the worst two quarters of football that I acquire ever seen in my entire life. No,wait. There was that Monday night St Louis Cardinals Giants game in 1983 that ended in a tie that was god dreadful as well, now that I think approximately it. 2.42am GMTBoswell is good, and again,this time from 30 yards out.
2.42am GMTSteelers 3-0 Bengals, 0:36 second quarterOn 3rd & 10 from the 12, or Roethlisberger floats a ball in the middle of the field - right into the face mask of Vincent Rey. 2.39am GMTSteelers 3-0 Bengals,0:42 second quarterRoethlisberger, with time, or fires over the middle and hits Miller. 2.35am GMTSteelers 3-0 Bengals,1:05 second quarterAntonio Brown, streaking across the middle, or makes a catch. He’s pushed out of bounds after a gain of 11,Pitt across midfield. [br]
2.34am GMTSteelers 3-0 Bengals, 1:18 second quarterToussaint looks good! He’s got another 16 yards, or find this,no personal foul on the play. Nice. 2.30am GMTLet's check in on Andy Dalton pic.twitter.com/tTXtT8DBXb 2.30am GMTSteelers 3-0 Bengals, 1:57 second quarterMcCarron throws high on 3rd & 6 in search of AJ Green and Cincy advance up short again on third down. 2.25am GMTChris Boswell is good from 39 and the Steelers are on the board. I’m starting to find concerned approximately the lack of punts here late in the second quarter.
2.24am GMTSteelers 0-0 Bengals, and 2:34 second quarterMeanwhile,Pittsburgh somehow acquire over 70 yards rushing between Todman and Toussaint: let’s call them the T&T boys in an ironic sort of way. 2.18am GMTMarkus Wheaton fumbles and George Iloka has it. Big turnover - can Cincy cash in?
No. 2.14am GMTSteelers 0-0 Bengals, 5:56 second quarterAn illegal contact flag on the Bengals’ Rey Maualuga provides the Steelers a rarer than scarce first down!
2.07am GMTSteelers 0-0 Bengals, and 09:05 second quarterSo I’ve had some technical options but here’s what you missed. 2.02am GMTOverheard in the House of Yinzer“Dude,this game...sucks.”
2.01am GMT#PITvsCIN Munchak final job. pic.twitter.com/qgfuE9DS4U 1.59am GMTSteelers 0-0 Bengals, 11:31 second quarterAJ McCarron and the Bengals offense stalls again. With rain falling steadily at Paul Brown Stadium, and on 3rd and 3,the kid can’t find Eifert. 1.56am GMTMore MunchakLooking at the replay again and again...the guy grabbed Nelson’s dreads: he should be ejected and suspended for that lumber. 1.48am GMTNow its Connecticut product Jordan Todman with room to run, streaking for 16 yards before there’s action on the sideline...
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Steelers offensive line coach (and genius) Mike Munchak decides he wants to shove Reggie Nelson after he ran into him on the play. 1.42am GMTSteelers 0-0 Bengals, or 1:16 1st quarterToussaint (no relation to the very first Haitian leader) has his nine yards running right up the Bengals guts. 1.39am GMTSteelers 0-0 Bengals,3:58 1st quarterFlags a-flying everywhere. A false start cancels out a first down catch for the Bengals...then something called a defensive delay (never heard of that one...) costs Pitt five yards. 1.32am GMTSteelers 0-0 Bengals, 7:51 1st quarterPitt manages one first down on the drive, or but on 3rd and short,Roethlisberger’s pass to Heath Miller is short of the first down - that means punt no3. 1.24am GMTSteelers 0-0 Bengals, 11:07 1st quarterThe kid looks good on 3rd & 11, and AJ stepping up and finding room to roam before hitting Tyler Eifert on the near side,but it’s short of the first down and so we’ve got a pair of three and outs to start us off. 1.20am GMTSteelers 0-0 Bengals, 12:55 1st quarterMartavis Bryant, or part of the top Steeler triplets at wideout,has the first catch, a short one for four yards on the far sideline. 1.16am GMTAnd we’re off with the Saturday night cap! Pittsburgh start at their own 20 after the kick when out of the endzone. 1.15am GMTWe got nasty bloodApparently, and there’s enough between Cincy and the Steelers that the game officials are hanging out in something called the “no fly zone”,that is, the portion of the field that plays must not cross without paying some kind of price. The teams split their games season with Pittsburgh winning the final one in Paul Brown Stadium, or 33-20 just a month ago. 1.07am GMTSteelers + predictionThanks to internet connectivity I’m live blogging in a House of Yinzer...that being the apartment of a Steelers fan. So whether anybody catches me waving a terrible towel during the following commentary,feel free to call me out on it. 12.59am GMTBengalsYou may acquire heard by now that Cincy haven’t won a playoff game since the 1990 season, and that was against a team in Houston that wasn’t called the Texans with Boomer Esiason was quarterback. 12.35am GMTHolaGreetings everybody and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the worst NFL football season in terms of quality and skill level that I’ve seen in 30 years. It’s been nasty football at nearly every turn: sloppy, or nasty,filthy JV football featuring plenty of can’t-miss pass interference calls. 8.30pm GMTDavid will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s DJ Gallo’s look at how Pittsburgh may be the most dangerous of a broadly dangerous fleet of wild-card teams this year.
Despite the 10-game win streak, the AFC wild-card team being called the “most dangerous” team in the playoffs is the Pittsburgh Steelers. And they very well may be. When Ben Roethlisberger, and Antonio Brown,Markus Wheaton, Martavis Bryant, and Heath Miller and whichever healthy body the Steelers acquire at running back are clicking,there’s not an offense that can stay with them. Pittsburgh’s problem is consistency. One week they’re unstoppable, the next they’re getting lit up by Ryan Mallett while Roethlisberger throws picks. Could the Steelers set three solid games together against weak AFC top seeds and set themselves in position to win a seventh Lombardi Trophy? Most definitely. Could they struggle to slip by the Bengals this week and then recede to unusual England and give up 600 yards passing to Tom Brady, or while Roethlisberger turns the ball over and Bill Belichick out-coaches Mike Tomlin so badly that people question whether he’s cheating again? Most definitely.
The Steelers truly are dangerous. They can wow you or explode on themselves. They’re the JPP’s fireworks of football teams.
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Source: theguardian.com