Cincinnati Bengals' Win Over Steelers Sunday Shows a Different Team from 2005

It wasn’t that long ago. The Cincinnati Bengals invaded Heinz Field tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers. They left victorious with a lock on the division.

Sound familiar? It is a little. A 94-yard kick return by Tab Perry set up a Rudi Johnson touchdown that effectively sealed the game. A gritty performance by the Bengals kept them in it, even when it looked like the Steelers were rallying.

But something was very different in that 2005 game than Sunday’s most recent win in Pittsburgh.

Before leaving the field, TJ Houshmandzadeh wiped his cleats with a Terrible Towel. The Bengals strutted around the field declaring the balance of power in the AFC North had shifted. Cincinnati had arrived, and everyone should bow down.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t true. The Bengals lost their final three games of the year—one to a weak Buffalo team; one to the Chiefs when they rested their starters for the playoffs; and the final one in the playoffs to those very same Steelers they had vanquished only a few weeks before.

Things didn’t get any better. They beat the Steelers again at Heinz in Week Three of the following season, but then didn’t do it again until 2009. Cincinnati didn’t win more than eight games in any season after the balance of power in the AFC North allegedly shifted.

The Steelers have won two Super Bowls since then. The Ravens have finished above the Bengals every year. So much for things being different.

But this year, there’s reason to think they might be. No one got out a Terrible Towel after Sunday’s 18-12 win that put the Bengals alone atop the division. In the interviews, the Bengals were mostly humble.

“It’s scary because everybody’s going to be patting us on the back and telling us how good we are,” quarterback Carson Palmer said after the game. “We’re not good enough to win the Super Bowl now; we have a long way to go. We’re not good enough to make a dominant playoff run....”

Is he talking about the team that’s ranked second in the AFC? The team that dominated the Bears, Ravens, and Steelers in its last three contests? That team isn’t good enough for a deep playoffs run?

Maybe Palmer is exaggerating, but the attitude is right. You don’t get the sense the Bengals feel they’ve accomplished much. They don’t act like they’ve “arrived.”

And he’s not the only one carrying that new attitude around.

“It’s a great win for us,” DT Domata Peko said, “but we have to look forward to the next week.”

OLB Brandon Johnson sounded a little happier, saying “I’ve never experienced anything like this,” but he was quick to point out the season wasn’t over: “On to the next one. Bring on the Raiders.”

MLB Dhani Jones perhaps put it best: “You can’t rest on the laurels of just a win. There’s a lot of season left to go. Yeah, it’s a big win, but at the same time we have more games to play. That will affect the outcome of the season.”

The 2005 Bengals were a good team, but they didn’t have this attitude, and it showed when Palmer got hurt in the playoffs loss to the Steelers. When things went wrong, they completely unraveled.

Things are different now. If the current attitude stays, Carson Palmer will be wrong—this team will be poised for a deep playoffs run.

And the balance of power in the AFC North may well have actually shifted this time.