By Marc Hardin
FOX Sports Ohio | Bengals Insider
Wednesday, November 10th, 2010
The score of Monday night's Bengals loss to Pittsburgh at Terrible Towel-infested Paul Brown Stadium should have been 21-17 in favor of the Bengals, not 27-21 in favor of the Steelers. Add more "points" for the Bengals if Mike Nugent is accurate merely half the time on field goal attempts.
But Cincinnati did not beat the Steelers 21-17 or 24-17 or 27-17 and improve its record to 3-5 and possibly save the season.
Nope. The Bengals were as generous as Chicagoans are with their votes and provided Pittsburgh with points, early and often, 10 of them to be exact, following Bernard Scott's muffed return on the opening kickoff and a blocked Kevin Huber punt, all in the first eight minutes.
Really?
Really.
For the second game in a row, the Bengals made a mistake on the very first play, and the mistakes kept on coming. The week prior, linebacker Roddrick Muckelroy was called for a penalty on the Bengals' opening kickoff against Miami. Monday night, Scott played give-away from the get-go as if he was Monty Hall, when the Bengals needed to be slamming the door shut on the visiting Steelers.
What was behind Pittsburgh's door of opportunity No. 1? An easy four-play, 25-yard drive in a casual 1 minute and 55 seconds, capped by a 1-yard Rashard Mendenhall touchdown run, after the Steelers won the coin toss and deferred the choice to the Bengals.
Cincinnati demonstrated it's not always better to receive, although Terrell Owens, who zoomed past 100 yards receiving for the third game in five outings, might disagree.
Scott returned Jeff Reed's 63-yard kickoff to the Cincinnati 25 and fumbled. Rookie Emmanuel Sanders recovered for Pittsburgh, which did not look the gift horse in the mouth.
What was behind Pittsburgh's door of opportunity No. 2? A six-play, 23-yard scoring drive that was a little bit tougher for the Steelers because the Bengals' defense stiffened for one of many times on the night after Huber's punt on fourth-and-1 was blocked by William Gay. Rey Maualuga recovered, giving the ball to Pittsburgh on a four-and-out. The Steelers' second gift possession was capped by Reed's chip-shot 25-yard field goal.
"It
