1st Half

After a 1st quarter with driving, but no scoring, the Steelers led a sucessful drive in the 2nd quarter. Running it well with Willie Parker and despite Marvin Smith being out, spreading out passes to multiple receivers. The drive ended in a 6 yard diving catch by Wilson from Roethlisberger to make it 7-0 Steelers.

Just after kickoff however, the Bengals started a drive of their own. Getting several big passes to Houshmenzadeh and Chad Johnson, it lead to a big 42 yard catch by Chris Henry to get the Bengals to the Pittsburgh 6 with 2:51 to go.

With pressure against Palmer, the Bengals had to settle with a FG to make it 7-3 Steelers. After a quick defensive stop, Palmer lead the Bengals back to the red zone and scored a TD on a 7 yd pass to TJ, 10-7 Bengals. The steelers drove back and missed a 53 yd FG to tie it at the half.

2nd Half

The Steelers started it off strong with a near-TD run from Wille Parker and a 38 yd pass to Hines Ward. However after a sack, facing 3rd and 15, Roethlisberger threw an INT to Jonathan Joseph, who returned it 70 yards for a TD to make it 17-7 Bengals.

The Steelers, early in the 4th responded with a drive to make it 17-14 Bengals. On the next drive Rudi Johnson tried to lead the way, stiff-arming and breaking several tackles to get a 29 yard catch and give the Bengals good field position with 4 minutes left in the game.

However the drive did not go much farther and the Bengals were forced to punt it to the Steelers, up 17-14 with 2 minutes to go in the game. Larson punted a near-perfect kick to get the Steelers to start on their own 1 yard line.

Bothered by an arm injury occurring in the game, Roethlisberger threw another INT and the Bengals easily scored shortly afterwards, going up 24-14. The final score was 24-14 with the Bengals going 5-7, Carson Palmer was the game MVP going 12-18 for 193 passing yds and 1 TD.

Tune into 8:15 PM EST on NBC Sunday night to see how the Bengals do in real-life. Go Bengals!