The Cincinnati Bengals kept their playoff hopes alive with a narrow 19-17 victory against the Pittsburgh Steelers, though it was a much more nauseating game to sit through than that final score would let on. The whole game was basically a microcosm of the entire 2024 season for Cincinnati.
Joe Burrow was great once again, as he all but solidified his place at the top of the touchdown pass leaderboard by throwing his 43rd of the season. However, thanks to poor efficiency, turnovers, and more Zac Taylor blunders, the Bengals managed to nearly snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
Zac Taylor, Bengals dodged a bullet late in win over Pittsburgh
With the score sitting at 19-14 late in the game after forcing another Steelers punt, it looked like the Bengals had the game locked up. All special teamer D.J .Ivey had to do was let the ball bounce on the ground so that the Bengals could turn it over to Burrow to run out the clock. Instead, the Bengals found themselves on the wrong side of a catastrophic blunder that could have cost them the game.
The ball bounced off Ivey's foot, which gave Pittsburgh possession in position to score a game-winning touchdown. Luckily, Cincinnati's defense was able to hold Pittsburgh to a field goal. Had the Steelers not been saddled with such a poor performance from Russell Wilson and the rest of the offense, this could have easily been the moment where the Bengals lost this game.
The ball gets touched by a Bengals player on the punt! @Steelers ball!
— NFL (@NFL) January 5, 2025
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The Bengals thoroughly dominated Pittsburgh for most of this game. It took almost three full quarters for Wilson to throw a touchdown pass, and the Steelers' defense let Cincinnati get into field goal range with ease. The game shouldn't even have been as close as it was.
Poor situational awareness may be the theme of this season for Cincinnati. Even with the defense playing much better as a unit in the last few weeks, the Bengals have been unable to execute in key times with the same ruthless efficiency and cleanliness they had in their past postseason runs.
The Bengals may just stumble into the playoffs after all, but they will do so on the back of a wretched set of games they would not have won if they didn't have an MVP candidate like Burrow leading the charge. Taylor isn't exactly having a banner season in 2024.