Bengals vs. Steelers rivalry goes back aways

[Mario-Rijo]

Four seasons in the Bengals-Steelers rivalry stick out in my mind.

In 1976, Pittsburgh got off to an uncustomary 1-4 start, but then won their last nine games of the season to finish 10-4. Meanwhile the Bengals had jumped out to a 9-2 record but lost two of their last three to also finish 10-4. Pittsburgh won the tiebreaker and the division and the Bengals did not make the playoffs. Two of the Bengals' four losses came to Pittsburgh, so they were 10-2 against the rest of the league.

This came on the heels of the painful 1975 season that woy alluded to, when the Bengals went 11-1 against the rest of the league but 0-2 against Pittsburgh. So in that two-year span, the Bengals went 0-4 against the Steelers and 21-3 against the rest of the NFL! They had one playoff game, a loss, to show for it.

On a more positive note, the two teams met in Week 3 of the 1980 season, and Pittsburgh was 2-0 while the Bengals were 0-2. Cincinnati won the game in an upset.

The Steelers then won their next two games to go to 4-1, while the Bengals lost their next two games to slip to 1-4. The teams met again at this point, in Week 6. Guess who won? Yep, the Bengals upset them again.

At that point the Bengals were 2-0 against the defending Super Bowl champs and 0-4 against the rest of the league. The defending champs, on the other hand, were 4-0 against the rest of the league but 0-2 against a Bengals team that was coming off consecutive 4-12 seasons and was destined to finish 6-10 that same year.

And then how about the 1998 Bengals, who finished 3-13, but swept Pittsburgh? That's right, 1-13 against the rest of the league but 2-0 against the Steelers.

The one thing I have come to realize in my 35 years of watching this rivalry is that you can pretty much throw the records out the window when the teams tee it up. The best Bengals teams couldn't beat Pittsburgh but two of the weakest were able to sweep them. To be fair, though, the Steelers of 1980 were not the Steelers of the 70s, and the 1998 Steelers finished only 7-9.

Thanks for the 411 macro. I did remember the '98 sweep I think Carl Pickens had alot to do with it IIRC. Wasn't the game in Cincy the one where he caught the game winner as time expired on a fake spike long toss down the left sideline from O'Donnell?

[Hoosier Red]

Worst Steelers game experience was the final game of the 2006 season. The Bengals still had hope after finishing the season awfully. They beat the Steelers, get a little help, and they still make the playoffs. They Steelers were having a down year and the Bengals got them at home. I still remember Graham missing a very makeable FG to win the game in regulation only to see Santonio Holmes streaking down the sideline for a TD very early in OT.

.

What hurt was later that day San Fran beat Denver which was the help the Bengals would have needed.

One thing I'm curious about is Graham's had some big misses, but how many of those were caused at least in part by bad snaps. I mean St. Louis hadn't really stood out for anything bad other than the XP in the Denver game in 2006, but if he had a run like he had earlier this year, I wonder if he would have been blamed for some other bad kicks.

[macro]

Macro i agree that 1976 ...that was their year. They were in fact picked by several publications to derail the Steelers that year.

Their first lost to Baltimore ...28-27.... when Ken Anderson went out injured and Chris Bahr missed an extra point...was also a key loss. They win that game and they have the division even with the 2 Steeler losses.

I think besides the obvious fact that not hiring Bill Walsh as head coach had....was losing him as OC. They had Carroll Dale as OC and they tried to run more. They did okay there but the passing game was lacking.
Trading Charlie Joiner hurt.....even with the addition of Coy Bacon.
I felt they should have traded one of their draft choices. They had about 12 choices in the first 5 rounds from the trades with Philadelphia for Bill Bergey. With all the picks they had......Not one of them even smelled the Pro Bowl. Even though I loved Reggie Williams...they could have picked Harry Carson as well...with all the picks they got in the first several rounds.

That defense was top notch. Led the NFL in Int. They scored points.
Burely and Bacon had 32 sacks combined. They had their most Pro Bowlers ever up to that time. Really disappointing year after all was said and done.

The amazing thing about draft picks was that the Bengals had nine first-round picks in the four years 1976-79! And while the '76 class was truly a disappointment, the 77-79 classes produced some of the key cogs in the 1981 Super Bowl team.

It still kills me that Bill Walsh was not hired as head coach. I firmly believe that, had he been, the Super Bowl trophies that sit in San Francisco today would be on display somewhere in Paul Brown Stadium. The Bengals would have been remembered as the team of the 80s.

Thanks for the 411 macro. I did remember the '98 sweep I think Carl Pickens had alot to do with it IIRC. Wasn't the game in Cincy the one where he caught the game winner as time expired on a fake spike long toss down the left sideline from O'Donnell?

You know, I don't remember the details of that game. I was pretty sour on the franchise at that point and actually stopped watching the games for a while. I just remembered looking back at the season results and noticing that the 3-13 team had gone 2-0 against the Steelers.

[Tony Cloninger]

I was a draft geek going back to 1977.....and the Bengals dafts were always talked up but they seemed to never fulfill the hype. The oss Browner..Eddie Edwards picks were great. Whitley was not that bad but never quite got to those guys level.

I remember during the 1980 draft wanting them to take Center Dwight Stephenson...even though they had Blair Bush, i thought this guy was going to be great. He was there for the taking and they passed on him and ended drafting some other center a few picks later. Munoz/Montoya/Stephenson would have been a killer front line.

[bucksfan2]

What hurt was later that day San Fran beat Denver which was the help the Bengals would have needed.

One thing I'm curious about is Graham's had some big misses, but how many of those were caused at least in part by bad snaps. I mean St. Louis hadn't really stood out for anything bad other than the XP in the Denver game in 2006, but if he had a run like he had earlier this year, I wonder if he would have been blamed for some other bad kicks.

From watching Graham and is reactions, I don't think he kicks very well on a poor snap. I think he is a rhythm kicker and anything that throws off that rhythm will really mess with his success. I was watching the highlights of the Browns game and even on bad snaps, Graham has time, just doesn't get the kick elevated enough.

High snaps, outside snaps, etc. happen from time to time. Good kickers seem to find a way to connect, especially on XP's. This season Graham has struggled to convert a bad snap. I can't really recall how that has been in the past.

[Yachtzee]

From watching Graham and is reactions, I don't think he kicks very well on a poor snap. I think he is a rhythm kicker and anything that throws off that rhythm will really mess with his success. I was watching the highlights of the Browns game and even on bad snaps, Graham has time, just doesn't get the kick elevated enough.

High snaps, outside snaps, etc. happen from time to time. Good kickers seem to find a way to connect, especially on XP's. This season Graham has struggled to convert a bad snap. I can't really recall how that has been in the past.

High snaps are one thing, but St. Louis had some horrible snaps that could have shaken Graham's confidence to the degree that anytime he sees a high snap, he has to think about it and whether the holder is going to be able to get it down. A long snapper doesn't necessarily have to hit the same spot perfectly every time, but he has to be at least consistent enough so that the kicker doesn't have to worry about a snap going right by him or looking like Charlie Brown when Lucy pulls the ball away.

[GIDP]

Over/under on number of fights steeler fans start sunday?

Over/under on how many Bengal fans get kicked out instead of the Steeler fans?

[Mario-Rijo]

You know, I don't remember the details of that game. I was pretty sour on the franchise at that point and actually stopped watching the games for a while. I just remembered looking back at the season results and noticing that the 3-13 team had gone 2-0 against the Steelers.

Well I went back and looked and although it doesn't give me the time at when it happened in the game it does show it was the last score of the 4th quarter and yeah it was pretty sweet. Game score is given at the end of each score description. It was a fun game to watch.

4th
CIN Darnay Scott 30 yard pass from Neil O'Donnell (pass failed) 17 18
PIT Norm Johnson 40 yard field goal 20 18
CIN Carl Pickens 25 yard pass from Neil O'Donnell (Doug Pelfrey kick) 20 25

Pickens was my favorite Bengal at the time so I tend to remember his better games and this one was maybe his best ever. 13 Catches 204 Yds and 1 (GW) TD and another longball of 50 yds on the day. That game winning TD just sticks though because of the fake spike at the 25 with time ticking off. One of the few gambles the Bengals had pay off in the 90's.

[Hoosier Red]

High snaps are one thing, but St. Louis had some horrible snaps that could have shaken Graham's confidence to the degree that anytime he sees a high snap, he has to think about it and whether the holder is going to be able to get it down. A long snapper doesn't necessarily have to hit the same spot perfectly every time, but he has to be at least consistent enough so that the kicker doesn't have to worry about a snap going right by him or looking like Charlie Brown when Lucy pulls the ball away.

Well and that's why I was curious(sorry didn't mean to derail the thread) he had a reputation as a good snapper going into the Denver game in 2006, my guess is if he had the 3 games from this fall leading up to that Pittsburgh game, Graham's miss would have been blamed on him as well.

Doesn't change anything, just curious.

[dsmith421]

THAT Pittsburgh game, by the way, is perhaps the nadir of Marvin Lewis's career. Go look up the last drive play-by-play sometime. It's grade-school level clock management.

[RedsBaron]

While I rooted for the Bengals in the 1970s (and now), back in the '70s my favorite NFL team was the Raiders. I can still recall the 1976 season. Even after the Steelers defeated the Bengals 7-3 in week 12 of the 14 game season, the Bengals could still win the division and eliminate the Steelers from the post season if they defeated the Raiders the next week.
There was talk leading up to the Bengals-Raiders game that Oakland might want to lose the game so as to be certain that the Raiders would not have to play Pittsburgh in the playoffs. The Raiders played one of their best games of the season, defeating Cincinnati 35-20.
Oakland would go on to defeat Pittsburgh 24-7 in the AFC title game to advance to the Super Bowl, where the Raiders hammered the Vikings 32-14.
I realize this is a bit off topic, but I don't think it is always appreciated how close the Steelers-Raiders series was back in the 1970s. In the playoffs, the Steelers beat Oakland in the "Immaculate Reception" game in 1972, 13-7; Oakland defeated the Steelers in 1973, 33-14; Pittsburgh upset Oakland 24-13 in 1974; the Steelers again prevailed in 1975 16-10; and Oakland won in 1976 24-7.
The Steelers tried to excuse their 1976 defeat in the playoffs by noting that both Franco Harris and Rocky Bleier were injured and didn't play, but the Raiders had beaten the Steelers in the 1976 regular season, 31-28, and would go on to again defeat the Steelers early in the 1977 season, so the 1976 AFC title game result was hardly a fluke. In the title game the Raiders dominated a Steelers defense that had only allowed 28 points in its final 9 games IIRC.

[bucksfan2]

THAT Pittsburgh game, by the way, is perhaps the nadir of Marvin Lewis's career. Go look up the last drive play-by-play sometime. It's grade-school level clock management.

Huh? I thought the offense and Lewis clock management was pretty good. They got the ball with 6:16 in the 4th. Pittsburgh at the time had 3 TO's and the 2 minute warning. When the Bengals finally gave up the ball they had used up the 2 minute warning, forced the Steelers to use 2 TO's and by the way got 3 points on the board. I for one didn't mind the Scott rush up the gut call. If the Bengals block that properly then he gets a 1st down. If the Bengals don't they have a FG try and force the Steelers to use up either the 2 minute warning or their last TO.

[traderumor]

Huh? I thought the offense and Lewis clock management was pretty good. They got the ball with 6:16 in the 4th. Pittsburgh at the time had 3 TO's and the 2 minute warning. When the Bengals finally gave up the ball they had used up the 2 minute warning, forced the Steelers to use 2 TO's and by the way got 3 points on the board. I for one didn't mind the Scott rush up the gut call. If the Bengals block that properly then he gets a 1st down. If the Bengals don't they have a FG try and force the Steelers to use up either the 2 minute warning or their last TO.

He's referring to a game from years ago. Sort of like Michigan fans still upset because of the Lantry wide left.

[bucksfan2]

He's referring to a game from years ago. Sort of like Michigan fans still upset because of the Lantry wide left.

Oh, gotcha.

[westofyou]

He's referring to a game from years ago. Sort of like Michigan fans still upset because of the Lantry wide left.

Thanks for reminding me