Steelers vs. Bengals, Week 11: 1st quarter in-game update

The Pittsburgh Steelers entered their Week 11 game vs. the Cincinnati Bengals coming off their third win of the season by beating the New Orleans Saints. At home for the second week in a row, the Bengals and Steelers would wrap up their regular season series, with the Steelers looking to sweep the AFC representative in the Super Bowl last year.

The Steelers won the opening coin toss, and elected to defer to the second half. Joe Burrow and company took over for the opening possession of the game, and a false start penalty doomed the drive which resulted in a three-and-out.

Following a three-and-out themselves, Pressley Harvin III was called onto early duty before giving Burrow his second possession of the game. Starting with good field position, a 21-yard pass to Hayden Hurts moved the Bengals into field goal range. From there, it equated in a 3-0 lead with 8:54 left in the opening quarter.

The Steelers started their second possession with great field position after Steven Sims gave the offense the ball at the 35-yard line. From there, it was Kenny Pickett orchestrating a nice drive with strikes to George Pickens and Jaylen Warren to get the offense on the cusp of field goal range. The drive stalled and resulted in a Matthew Wright 42-yard kick to tie the game 3-3 with 4:37 left in the opening frame.

On Cincinnati’s next possession, they started to use the Steelers’ defensive aggressiveness against them. Several draws and screen gashed the Pittsburgh defense, and the biggest play was the last play of the drive, a screen to Samaje Perine which went 29-yards for the first touchdown of the game. The McPherson extra point was good, making the score 10-3 with 59 seconds left in the first quarter.

The score would hold heading into the second quarter...