Bengals Face Another Big Test Sunday Vs. Steelers

It just doesn’t get any easier for the Cincinnati Bengals, does it? A week after passing a big test against the Baltimore Ravens, here come the Pittsburgh Steelers.

For the second week in a row, the Denver Broncos, which beat the Bengals on a miracle play, failed to offer any help. After getting crushed by the Ravens a week before Cincinnati faced Baltimore in a rematch, the Broncos gave a similar performance against the Steelers. Pittsburgh matched the Bengals’ 6-2 mark. Cincinnati is going to have to do it on its own.

Maybe it’s better that way. The Bengals have been struggling for respect all season. Half the national experts have the Steelers ranked above Cincinnati in their power rankings despite the fact that the Bengals beat Pittsburgh and smashed the other team to defeat the Steelers this season, the Chicago Bears. Odds haven’t come out for the game yet, but you can bet Cincinnati will not be favored to win.

So the Bengals are going to have to prove it, and that’s better for their season anyway. With both teams at 6-2, a loss leaves the Bengals looking up. Had Denver done them a favor, they’d have had the cushion of Pittsburgh only being able to pull into a tie. Now, they have to win if they don’t want to fall off the pace.

If Cincinnati wants to be regarded as one of the elite teams in the league, this is one of those games it must win. Go into a hostile park. Beat an arch-rival. Wrest control of the division away.

For the past nineteen seasons, the Bengals have folded under pressure. There were a few exceptions—perhaps most memorably the 2005 trip to Heinz Field that essentially secured Cincinnati’s first AFC North title. For the most part, though, this is the time when the Bengals buckled under the pressure. To prove they’re not that team anymore—to make the fans really believe—they have to win.

That’s life in the NFL. That’s playing Big Boy football. You can’t rely on help from anyone else. You have to do it yourself.

And when the moment for greatness arrives, you have to seize it. Sunday, we find out how great the Bengals really are.