The rivalry between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC North is rather fierce. While there’s respect between the Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens, there’s a lot of hatred and bad blood between the Steelers and Bengals.
There’s the Kimo von Oelhoffen hit on Carson Palmer in the 2005 playoffs that helped the Steelers win that game on the way to Super Bowl XL, and there’s the heated 2016 playoff game, too. Within that playoff game, which saw the Bengals have a full-on meltdown late and blow the game, former Steelers’ linebacker Ryan Shazier ignited the ugly ending to the game with a huge hit on Bengals’ running back Giovani Bernard.
For Shazier, that hit on Bernard was one in which he wasn’t even being dirty on. He was just running fast and caught Bernard in a bad spot. Appearing on “The Arthur Moats Experience” podcast earlier in the week, Shazier defended himself for the hit, which Bengals fans still get on him about.
“Bro, people was like, ‘man, that was a dirty hit.’ I’m like, bro, I was just running as fast as I can and I ended up hitting him,” Shazier said regarding the hit on Bernard in that 2016 playoff game, according to video via Moats’ YouTube page. “I wasn’t even trying [to hurt him], bro. I just went up there to hit him like a regular hit, bro.
“I wasn’t even trying to hit him [like that]. Yeah, I was just running so fast.”
The hit itself was ugly. Even Steelers’ head coach Mike Tomlin said a few months later in 2016 at the NFL Owners meetings that it was an ugly hit, and that nobody in the league wants that type of hit in the game.
It was a violent hit, and it all happened in the blink of an eye.
The hit from Shazier on Bernard came with 1:43 remaining in the third quarter of the 2016 Divisional Round matchup in Cincinnati. The Bengals, trailing 15-0, were in the middle of a nine-play, 57-yard drive when Bernard caught a third-down pass in the flat from quarterback AJ McCarron.
Just as Bernard caught the ball and turned around, Shazier drilled him, leading with his helmet. The play wasn’t flagged, but it was a brutal hit. Shortly after the hit and the fumble recovery from the Steelers, a scuffle ensured near midfield as Bengals’ running back Jeremy Hill took exception to the hit.
Here’s a look at the play, and ultimately the dustup that ensued.
What made matters worse, ultimately, was two months after the hit on Shazier to Bernard, the NFL made those types of blindside hits illegal.
After the game, Shazier was seen praying with Bengals’ QB Andy Dalton, presumably for Bernard, who was carted off with the concussion. He even sent out a tweet after the game stating he wasn’t trying to injure him.
But that didn’t settle things for Bengals fans, and one year later when Shazier was injured in Cincinnati in a Monday Night Football game where he ducked his head on a hit across the middle and suffered a serious spine injury ending his career, Bengals fans let him have it.
Even to this day, the Bernard hit is talked about. It’s an illegal play now, but it played a big factor in that 2016 playoff win for the Steelers on the road. And it came about because Shazier was still learning how to play the position, and was just too fast for his own good at times in the violent game.
