For at least the majority of their shared history, it is hard to conceive of a Cincinnati Bengals team that looks down on the Pittsburgh Steelers as offering an inferior product on the field. After all, the Steelers own an all-time 68-39 record against them, including an 11-game winning streak not so long ago.
The Bengals did come out on top in their last meeting, but the Steelers managed to split the season series with an opening-day overtime victory. Yet many view the Bengals as the class of the AFC—perhaps even themselves, to hear The Athletic beat writer Paul Dehner Jr. tell it.
“The Steelers might be a trap game”, he recently told ESPN Radio host Mo Egger, who agreed, adding that “The Steelers stink and “Kenny Pickett’s bad”. The Bengals have only seen Pickett once so far, and they did beat him, 37-30.
“I agree, and I think that [the Bengals] feel that way”, Dehner responded. “I’m not gonna say that there’s not respect in the building for the Steelers, but I think internally they feel like, ‘Man, we whip the Steelers. We know how to beat them’. I think that that’s the way they feel about them, so I guess if I’m placing a trap chip on the next month, it is the Steelers game”.
Now, the Bengals have never had much difficulty opening their mouths over the years, and those jaws haven’t gotten any tighter since they actually started winning games. QB Joe Burrow might not provide a lot of bulletin board material, but others like WR Ja’Marr Chase do. He already antagonized the Cleveland Browns before they lost to their division rival.
About halfway through the season, the Steelers and Bengals are neck and neck, but they’ve come about it in different ways. With Burrow nursing a calf injury at the start of the season, Cincinnati got off to a 1-3 start before winning its past four games, largely against some stiff competition.
Pittsburgh has been more scattershot, losing bad and then winning close a couple times being the prevailing pattern. The Steelers are due for another win this week against the Green Bay Packers if the pattern holds true, which should put them at 6-3.
Just in time for their two-game divisional road trip, first against the Browns and then the Bengals. They are all 5-3 and looking up at the Baltimore Ravens as the current class of the division at 7-2. The Steelers do have a win over them, even if largely thanks to the Ravens’ own mistakes, including more than half a dozen dropped passes, some in the end zone.
But do the Bengals in the locker room really believe that they have the Steelers’ proverbial number? It’s true that they are a blocked extra point away from riding a current five-game winning streak over Pittsburgh, and most of their wins have come by two-score margins or better. There’s always time to decide who’s right on the playing field, and Round One for 2023 is coming in just a couple weeks.
