The Cincinnati Bengals are currently turning over all stones to make sure their ready to play the Pittsburgh Steelers Sunday at Heinz Field. In fact, one of those stones includes the playing of a certain song from a certain band that is often associated with the Steelers during their practice.
According to Katherine Terrell of ESPN.com, the Bengals were playing the song ‘Renegade’ by Styx at practice on Thursday. In case you are a new fan of the Steelers, that song is often played at Heinz Field during big moments of games and it’s usually used to get the crowd fired up for the defense.
As the story goes, the birth of ‘Renegade’ being played at Steelers games started during a playoff game against the Cleveland Browns on January 5, 2002. The Steelers were behind 24-7 on the scoreboard well into the third quarter and during a commercial break, a crew member at Heinz Field decided to play the famous Styx song in an effort to get the fans pumped up. It worked and the Steelers went on to win that game 36-33. The song is now usually played late during Steelers games and when a big defensive stand is needed. It is now accompanied by a video compilation of big defensive plays.
The Steelers have won three of their last four games against the Bengals that were played at Heinz Field with their only loss coming in Week 8 of the 2015 regular season. That game included running back Le’Veon Bell suffering a knee injury that would ultimately put him out for the remainder of the year.
I their last 10 games played at Heinz Field, the Bengals have only score more than 18 points in a single contest just once and they still wound up losing that 2013 meeting 30-20.
