We'll have a full positional breakdown of the game, but you can pretty much capture the entire game in one word: collapse.
The Steelers ran the football better than Cincinnati, they played better defense than Cincinnati, and they gave Carson Palmer hell all game long.
They also collapsed.
The Coclough fumble was the real turning point, but Big Ben has to shoulder a huge chunk of the blame, too. The red zone turnover in the first half was a 14 point swing, and a huge missed opportunity to put the Bengals down and out.
Of course, credit must be given to Cincinnati for making the plays to stay in the game. You have to admire their gutsy effort.
Still, the Steelers lost this game every bit as much as Cincinnati won it. It's just hard to describe, if you didn't see it, how much we gave away this game.
For now, it's a painful loss that puts the Steelers a full two games behind their divisional rivals. An untimely loss in a game they should have won. The 2006 season is off to a shaky start, to say the least. We'll break down what went wrong in the coming days.
For now, we mourn.
--PB--