Steelers cash in on Bengals’ late mistakes

“The thing is, if you watch him, he’s actually a talented football player”, Steelers safety Mike Mitchell said. “Ben and I have been together for nine years”.

“You put up with enough (expletive) for enough time, guys think they can continually do it”, one player told Rapoport. The Bengals rallied in the fourth quarter with backup quarterback AJ McCarron when he hit Green with a 25-yard pass with 1:50 left in the game. It was over, but then it wasn’t.

Jeremy Hill got stripped of the ball. “We feel fortune, playing in a hostile environment against a good team”, Steelers coach?Mike Tomlin said.

Linebacker Ryan Shazier did just that, and the ball popped out of Hill’s hand and forward, where cornerback Ross Cockrell recovered at the 9. “I don’t know any other quarterback who can do that”.

The Cincinnati Bengals seemed on their way to a rare playoff win when Burfict and Jones both were called for huge penalties, allowing the Steelers to kick a game-winning field goal. LB Vontaze Burfict, who has shown tendencies of being a very dirty player, laid a legal but brutal hit on the shoulder of QB Ben Roethlisberger to take him out of the game, basically rendering Pittsburgh’s offense useless for the remainder of the quarter. Many in the near-capacity crowd thought that when Burfict masterfully baited Steelers quarterback Landry Jones into attempting a pass that Burfict ended up diving for and intercepting, the Bengals were about to win their first playoff game in 25 years.

It was a remarkable performance by Roethlisberger on Saturday night.

Vontaze Burfict, Pacman Jones commit two personal fouls to give Steelers game-winner – SBNation.com Vontaze Burfict and “Pacman” Jones were goats Saturday.

However, Burfict drilled Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown in the head following an incompletion, drawing a penalty to keep the Steelers’ final drive alive, and the visitors were then put into field-goal range following a subsequent personal foul by Jones.

Several Steelers called it a fitting end. Boswell’s pressure make was overshadowed by the craziness just seconds before, but his score actually came with the Steelers behind one point, and was ultimately the difference between one more game or a long off-season. “Your character comes out in those moments there”. Did his shoulder pop out and get popped back in during his trip to the locker room? “I’ve had my 10 minutes, but I still don’t believe I should’ve got a flag for talking to a coach that’s on the field behind the huddle”.

Dalton reaction: Quarterback Andy Dalton said he would have done everything he could to get back for the AFC divisional round if the Bengals had won Saturday, though he still has an upcoming doctor’s visit to check up on his injured right thumb.

The Steelers defence remained strong until Jeremy Hill’s touchdown brought the Bengals back into the contest a minute into the fourth quarter.

The Steelers were the second visiting team to win on the opening day of the National Football League playoffs following a 30-0 rout by the Kansas City Chiefs over the Houston Texans that set the AFC match-ups for round two next weekend.

Before the final two scoring series, McCarron had been 14 of 27 for 104 yards with an interception.

Roethlisberger completed 18 of 31 passes for 229 yards, one touchdown and an interception.