NFL Recap (Cincinnati-Pittsburgh)
Posted: Sun December 20, 1998 at 6:53 p.m. EST
CINCINNATI 25, PITTSBURGH 24
PITTSBURGH (Ticker) -- The Pittsburgh Steelers have
been a fixture in the playoffs during the Bill Cowher era, but not this
year.
Doug Pelfrey
kicked four field goals, including a 21-yarder with 5:12 remaining, as the
Cincinnati Bengals
snapped a nine-game losing streak and knocked their hated rivals out of the
playoffs with a 25-24 victory. Ironically, the Bengals' last victory also
came against Pittsburgh, a 25-20 win in Cincinnati in Week Six. It was
Cincinnati's first season sweep of the Steelers since 1990.
"There was no ability to move the ball with any degree of
consistency," said Cowher. "You can not continue to ask a team to hold a
team to 10 points and say that's what we have to do to win football games."
Pittsburgh (7-8), which erased a 13-point first-half deficit to grab a
24-22 lead early in the fourth quarter, will miss the postseason for the
first time in Cowher's seven years as coach.
"It feels great that it's Pittsburgh," said Cincinnati cornerback Artrell Hawkins, a native
of western Pennsylvania who sealed the win with an interception with 17
seconds remaining. "It feels even better since I'm from around here and we
beat them twice."
The last time the Steelers failed to make the playoffs was 1991, Chuck
Noll's last year as coach. Pittsburgh will try to salvage a .500 season
next Monday night at Jacksonville.
"We can't get it done," said Pittsburgh running back Jerome Bettis. "It's sad
that we're not giving our fans anything to cheer about. There's plenty of
blame to go around. Until everyone accepts that, we're not going to get any
better."
The Steelers' last chance faded when Hawkins picked off Mike Tomczak inside the
Bengals 20. Tomczak took over for Pittsburgh in the second half following
another woeful performance by Kordell Stewart, who was
repeatedly booed by the Pittsburgh fans after completing just 5-of-13
passes for 30 yards.
"It was pretty much the same old thing, a lot of breakdowns," said
Stewart. "Cincinnati just came out and played well and they responded.
Things just weren't happening the way we would like it."
Facing a 4th-and-2 with under four minutes remaining, Cowher elected
to punt. After giving up two first downs, Pittsburgh forced a punt, taking
over at its 20 with no timeouts and just 56 seconds remaining.
Tomczak, who was 5-of-11 for 77 yards, completed a 19-yard pass to Will Blackwell, but then
threw two incompletions. His third-down pass was picked off and the Bengals
(3-12) only needed one play to run out the clock.
Relying on their defense and special teams, the Steelers rallied from
a 13-0 deficit to take a 24-22 lead on Norm Johnson's 21-yard
field goal with 10:17 remaining. But Pittsburgh could not overcome another
disappointing effort by Stewart, who started after his heated exchange with
Cowher last week, and suffered its fourth straight loss.
Cowher did not think the events of last week had any bearing on
Stewart's poor performance against the Bengals.
"I don't think it has anything to do with the preparation," said
Cowher. "We just have absolutely no confidence with our football team.
We've had so many opportunities, but we just can't make a play to get a
spark."
The Steelers also could not contain Cincinnati quarterback Jeff Blake, who completed
20-of-36 for 367 yards with a touchdown and interception. Blake engineered
a crucial 12-play, 62-yard drive that consumered over five minutes and put
the Bengals ahead for good.
"Jeff Blake won the game." noted Cincinnati coach Bruce Coslet. "What
else can you say. Our defense played great. I think Pittsburgh had 200
yards total offense (actually, the Steelers amassed 211 yards). Our defense
shut them out the first half."
Blake tossed a 20-yard pass to Darnay Scott, then
connected with Stepfret
Williams for a nine-yard gain that gave Cincinnati a first down at the
Pittsburgh 37.
Blake kept the game-winning drive alive with a critical six-yard run
on fourth-and-1 from the 31, before the Bengals moved inside the 10 on an
interference call against Carnell Lake, who returned
an interception 15 yards for a Pittsburgh TD in the first half.
"We had fun," said Blake. "We went out and moved the ball. We had some
turnovers and made some bad plays, but we also made enough good plays to
overcome it."
Pittsburgh took a 21-16 lead on Bettis' four-yard TD run with 7:05
remaining in the third quarter, the Steelers' first offensive touchdown
since Thanksgiving Day against Detroit.
The lead changed hands four times in the second half as the Bengals
responded quickly, grabbing a 22-21 lead on Blake's 61-yard TD pass to
Scott just 19 seconds later.
Bettis rushed for 104 yards on 21 carries and went over 1,000 yards
for the third straight season.
Stewart's woes reached a new low when linebacker Reinard Wilson knocked the
ball out of the quarterback's hands early in the second quarter. Safety Sam Shade took the fumble
out of midair and rumbled 55 yards to give the Bengals a 10-0 lead with
10:08 left in the first half.
"The ball rolled around for what seemed like forever," said Shade. "I
grabbed it and just ran. You can kind of put Kordell in Blake's situation.
We've seen what he can do and we're sure he'll do it again."
After the Bengals extended their lead to 13-0 on Pelfrey's 37-yard
field goal, Pittsburgh defense provided a spark as Lake's return pulled the
Steelers within 13-7 with 1:42 remaining in the half.
Blake then executed the two-minute offense to near perfection as
Pelfrey booted a 43-yard field goal on the final play of the half.
Pittsburgh scored a special teams touchdown on the opening kickoff of
the second half. David
Dunn fumbled after a 54-yard return but cornerback Chris Oldham scooped it up
and raced 36 yards to cut Cincinnati's lead to 16-14.
Cincinnati's Brandon
Bennett rushed for 63 yards on 25 carries in place of Corey Dillon, who missed
the contest with back spasms and the flu.
© 1998 Sportsticker Enterprises, LP
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