PITTSBURGH — Cincinnati Bengals coach Zac Taylor popped into the visiting locker room at Acrisure Stadium and quickly made his way over to quarterback Joe Burrow following Saturday night’s 19-17 win against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
They shared a quick embrace, exchanged a few words and continued celebrating what could be a very important victory. For at least one more night, Cincinnati’s season is still alive.
The Bengals did their part to stay in playoff contention entering Sunday’s slate of games. To secure the seventh and final seed in the AFC, they need losses from the Denver Broncos and the Miami Dolphins.
And if they get the help they need, Taylor said he feels there’s no limit to what they can accomplish.
“They’re capable of everything,” Taylor said of the season. “They’re not going to want us in this tournament. I promise you.”
Everything looked easy on Saturday night against Pittsburgh (10-7) until it wasn’t. After controlling the first three quarters of the game, the Bengals (9-8) were forced to cling to a lead that was on the verge of slipping away. However, a late stop by the team’s defense, including one of defensive end Trey Hendrickson’s 3.5 sacks on the night, sealed the win. Hendrickson finished the regular season with 17.5 sacks. Houston’s Danielle Hunter, the only player who could now catch Hendrickson as this season’s sack leader, has 12 entering Sunday.
Cincinnati’s defense turned in a vastly improved performance from the previous meeting between the teams. In the Dec. 1 loss to the Steelers, the Bengals gave up 520 yards in a 44-38 defeat. Pittsburgh finished with 193 total yards and was 4-of-12 on third-down conversions.
“I just feel like we owed them,” cornerback Cam Taylor-Britt said. “Y’all know how we feel about this team. But at the end of the day, we came to their house and basically did what they did to us.”
That defensive effort was necessary on a night in which the offense struggled. Cincinnati sputtered deep in the red zone on three occasions and settled for field goals.
Burrow, who finished the season just shy of 5,000 passing yards, said that was the story of the game. He was 37-of-45 passing for 277 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
There was a brief moment when it looked like Burrow might be knocked out of the game. After a hard sack on a third-down attempt in the red zone, Burrow stayed on the ground for several moments before he was evaluated in the blue medical tent for a potential concussion.
After a few minutes, however, he came out of the tent and back to the bench. He didn’t miss a play.
“It was nothing that was going to keep me out of the game at that point,” Burrow said.
He and the offense did just enough to have a shot at the postseason. Like his coach, Burrow believes the team has the potential to win playoff games if the results fall Cincinnati’s way.
I know that if we get in, we can make some noise with the players and coaches that we have in this building,” Burrow said. “We’ve just got to hope for some help tomorrow and sit back and watch it.”
What happens on the final day of the regular season will dictate how Cincinnati feels about an up-and-down campaign.
The Bengals started the season with three straight losses, the worst start since the Bengals drafted Burrow with the first overall pick in 2020. At one point, Cincinnati had a 4-8 record and pondered the inability to close out several games that could have been victories.
How the results of Sunday’s games between the Broncos and the Kansas City Chiefs, who Burrow hopes will play at least a few starters, and Miami’s game against the New York Jets in what could be quarterback Aaron Rodgers’ final game.
And Burrow knows had the Bengals won games earlier in the year, they wouldn’t be bystanders entering Sunday.
But the win against the Steelers at least kept the playoffs a possibility.
“The odds are long,” Burrow said. “But we’ve got a shot.”
