After coming off of a much needed and deserving bye week, the Pittsburgh Steelers will be meeting the winless Bengals on Sunday afternoon in Cincinnati. Although this may appear to be an easy win for the Steelers, they must be prepared to play their best and not let this become a “trap” game. The Bengals would like nothing better than to get an upset over the first place Steelers. As we learned from Week 6, teams cannot afford to overlook any game, just ask the Giants or Redskins.
The Steelers seem to be getting healthy at just the right time. Defensive End, Brett Keisel, is expected to play Sunday after missing three games with a calf injury. Willie Parker is listed as day-to-day, but the Steelers are still hoping he will be able to start against the Bengals. The bye week may not have been more important to anybody than Ben Roethlisberger. Roethlisberger has been hit early and often since the start of the season. This bye week was essential to Ben’s health this season. Hopefully it gave him ample time to rest up and recover from his strained shoulder.
The keys to success for the Steelers this week will be on the defensive side of the ball. With Ryan Fitzpatrick starting at quarterback for the Bengals, The Steelers should bring pressure upfront to keep Fitzpatrick off balanced and to force hurried throws. Fitzpatrick has shown in the past that when facing pressure, he makes bad decisions. Another key will be shutting down wide receivers, Chad Ocho Cinco and T.J Houshmandzadeh. It will be up to the Steelers’ secondary to not allow these players to have a big day.
The Bengals are winless but should not be taken lightly; this team has a lot of talent. The last thing the Steelers need is to suffer a loss in the division to a team they are clearly better than. These two teams are major rivals, so expect a hard-hitting game played with high emotion.
Keywords: Bengals, Brett Keisel, Chad Ocho Cinco, Fitzpatrick, Houshmandzadeh, Roethlisberger, Steelers, Willie Parker
