For the first time in franchise history, the Cincinnati Bengals will face the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 1 of the NFL season. It’s wild that these two AFC North squads haven’t opened the season against each other and that makes this an even more exciting matchup for Week 1!
The more exciting part is that the Bengals get to open the season at home and considering how good this team ended up being a season ago, Paul Brown Stadium is going to be ROWDY for that home opener.
Typically, Steelers fans travel well and make noise no matter whose stadium they’re in but it might be hard for them to do that this time around.
Now official: #Bengals kickoff the season against the Steelers at home for the first time ever.
— Jeremy Rauch (@FOX19Jeremy) May 12, 2022
1 p.m. kickoff on Sunday, Sep. 11.
Bengals swept the Steelers by 45 combined points last year. @fox19
Bengals Schedule: Storyline to watch vs. Steelers
When the Steelers come to town for the first game of the regular season, the biggest storyline surrounding them will be their quarterback situation.
Pittsburgh signed Mitchell Trubisky to a two-year deal during the start of free agency. Fans can laugh at this move all they want but despite Trubisky’s shortcomings in Chicago after going No. 2 overall when the Bears could have taken Patrick Mahomes, he’s with a well-run organization now and that will be good for him.
Despite all of the Steelers’ problems last year, they still managed to squeak into the playoffs as the final Wild Card team. Trubisky is a better quarterback than the version we saw of Ben Roethlisberger last year.
The other quarterback option for the Steelers is their first-round pick, Kenny Pickett. This was the perfect scenario for Pickett because he played college ball at Pittsburgh and shared the same facilities as the Steelers so he literally just has to walk across the hall to join his new team.
Training camp and preseason will be important for these two quarterbacks as they go head-to-head for the starting job but with the Bengals drawing their first matchup with the Steelers so early, it’s likely they get Trubisky for Week 1.
Since the Bengals don’t have to worry about a quarterback controversy, they can turn their attention to their Week 1 opponent and keep an eye on who will be starting under center for Pittsburgh in that game.