By Ron Cook / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
CINCINNATI -- The ball didn't just hang in the night air for what seemed like an eternity. The Steelers' season was right there with it. Both landed softly and safely in the big hands of linebacker LaMarr Woodley. The Steelers couldn't have been more thrilled.
Woodley didn't just make the big play in their 24-17 win against the Cincinnati Bengals Sunday night -- they now live to fight another day in the AFC North Division.
It doesn't do any good to wonder how much better the Steelers defense would have been this season if it had a healthy safety Troy Polamalu and linebacker James Harrison in every game. That is a waste of time. What is worth talking about is the return of Woodley, who missed the dreadful loss to the Tennessee Titans Oct. 11 because of a hamstring injury. He is one of the NFL's most significant difference-makers. The team is so much stronger with him on the field.
The Steelers played a miserable first half against the Bengals and appeared to be on their way to a loss that would have left them in critical condition with a 2-4 record, including 0-4 in the AFC. The Bengals led, 14-6, and were driving at the Cincinnati 45-yard line with 1:30 remaining in the second quarter. That's when Woodley ended up the right man in the right place at the right time, which so often happens to great players.
Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton's first-down pass appeared to slip out of his hand and banged off the helmet of his right guard, Kevin Zeitler. The ball deflected in the air to Woodley, who pulled it in gently at the Cincinnati 40 and rumbled 11 yards to give the Steelers the ball at the Bengals 29. Quarterback Ben Roethlisberger quickly turned the opportunity into a 9-yard touchdown pass to tight end Heath Miller and, after Roethlisberger threw to Miller for the 2-point conversion, the score was tied, 14-14.
You could almost see the Paul Brown Stadium crowd squirm. The Steelers had won 10 of the previous 11 games here. The thousands in the stands waving Terrible Towels anticipated the Steelers making it 11 of 12. Bengals fans dreaded it.
An 11-yard touchdown run by Steelers running back Chris Rainey in the first minute of the fourth quarter broke a 17-17 tie and proved to be the winning score. But give the Steelers defense most of the credit for this win.
Much maligned for blowing fourth-quarter leads in four of the first five games, it stopped the Bengals not once, not twice, but three times in the final 14 minutes. It played a superb game after allowing the Bengals to go 80 yards on 15 plays for a touchdown on their opening possession.
I'm thinking Woodley had something to do with that.
Woodley's interception was just the Steelers' third of the season. Who knows how many more they would have if Harrison had been harassing quarterbacks all season and Polamalu had been patrolling the secondary ...
Sorry.
I couldn't help myself.
Time is better spent thinking about what the defense might do in the final 10 games with a healthy Woodley and Harrison rushing the opposing quarterback.
Before Sunday night, they played together for just one quarter this season, against the Philadelphia Eagles Oct. 7. Woodley left that game with his hamstring problem. Harrison missed the first three games with a knee injury.
You can't look at one or the other, Woodley or Harrison. You have to look at both as a tandem. Neither had a sack against the Bengals, who did a nice job containing Harrison. But when Woodley and Harrison are on their game, they can cover for a lot of mistakes by the Steelers secondary, which figures to be without Polamalu for a lot longer.
Woodley's interception was even more valuable than a sack on this gorgeous autumn night. It nullified a series of Steelers' mistakes in the first half. Never has a team been happier to go into halftime tied 14-14.
During a nine-play sequence in the second quarter, wide-open running back Baron Batch dropped what should have been a 29-yard touchdown pass from wide receiver Antonio Brown on a trick play, Roethlisberger threw an interception in the Cincinnati end zone, Brown had a 34-yard punt return wiped out by a holding call on DeMarcus Van Dyke, Roethlisberger was sacked and lost a fumble at the Steelers 8 and Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green beat cornerback Ike Taylor with an inside move for an 8-yard touchdown. Throw in two dropped passes by wide receiver Mike Wallace and two more holding penalties on kick returns by Stevenson Sylvester and Batch and it was obvious, right? The Steelers couldn't play worse.
Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/sports/ron-cook/cook-defense-comes-through-at-last-658640/#ixzz2A16NWCg3
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