Steelers ‘comfortable’ with Ben Roethlisberger starting vs. Bengals

The Steelers went 2-2 without the presence of their franchise signal-caller.

No matter how Landry Jones fared in his first start for the Pittsburgh Steelers, there was a good chance Ben Roethlisberger would be back soon enough for it to be his last.

“We’ll move forward with Ben as we prepare this week”, Tomlin said.

The Steelers’ offense has been very one-dimensional since Roethlisberger has been out, but running back Le’Veon Bell has made it work.

They are the only return touchdowns against Bengals punter Kevin Huber in his seven National Football League seasons and when Brown knocked off the first one in 2011, it was the first one against the Bengals in 53 games.

— If Cincinnati wins Sunday, the race for the AFC North will be over and the Bengals need only concern themselves about trying to obtain one of the top two playoff seeds in the conference. The Steelers had a first-and-10 at the Chiefs 14-yard line and couldn’t get near the end zone.

“We’ll go back to being the greatest show on turf”, guard Ramon Foster joked. “It has to be consistent and if it’s not, it’s going to be our Achilles heel all year”.

The Bengals will get a close look at a player many fans felt they should have taken in the 2015 draft with the University of Kentucky product. We know they like to extend the vertical plays, ‘ Kirkpatrick said. “It will be physical”. A few things we won’t tolerate: personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes), commercial promotion, impersonations, incoherence, proselytizing and SHOUTING. Then they signed him to their practice squad, where he spent last season running the opponent’s plays. The end of the schedule isn’t so friendly. With that said, to finish with nine wins, the Steelers will have to win five of the final nine.

Tuitt, Allen and Vick did not dress for the Kansas City game and Gay injured his shoulder late in the game. The veteran cornerback’s 125-game playing streak could be in jeopardy. Then in the second game of the next season at Paul Brown Stadium in a Monday night game, Nelson picked off Roethlisberger in the end zone with 4:55 left to preserve a 20-10 lead that turned into a 20-10 victory. I think that was the bottom line, us staying aggressive in all facets of the game.

In the grand scheme of things going 2-2 with Ben Roethlisberger on the sidelines is a pretty good deal.

West and Conley both scored a second-half touchdown for Kansas City. “It’s not that bad”, Tuitt said. “We have to score points, we have to finish drives, we have to make our blocks”.

But Jones threw a pair of interceptions and also lost a fumble when he was sacked, and Pittsburgh found the end zone just once. That was the bottom line.

On the defensive side, Tamba Hall racked up two sacks for Chiefs; Eric Berry and Derrick Johnson each grabbed an interception.

Chiefs take a 16-3 lead. LeVeon Bell rushed 17 times for 121 yards. Terrance Williams added four grabs for 70 yards.

Bryant has played in only two games so far this season, but he has racked up three touchdowns and nearly 200 yards in those games.

The Pittsburgh Steelers struggled against Kansas City in a 23-13 loss. That’s where West and rookie wide receiver Chris Conley got their opportunities. Pittsburgh later added another field goal from Boswell, this one from 36 yards, and the Steelers pulled within three points. Bell is averaging 102.2 yards rushing per game. Dri Archer averaged 29 yards on four kickoff returns, but the punt return team allowed a 25-yard punt return from DeAnthony Thomas, and Thomas and Knile Davis averaged 32 yards per kickoff return.

Steelers not going away quietly in this one though. So if Roethlisberger, who is expected to wear a brace, suffers a setback, Jones would be called upon first.