The Pittsburgh Steelers entered Monday night’s contest against the Cincinnati Bengals in the AFC North driver’s seat but, for most of the first half, the team scuffled on the way to a 17-3 deficit at the halftime break. While that was certainly an unexpected outcome, even on the road, the Bengals seemingly wanted to even the playing field… by simply allowing star running back Le’Veon Bell to score.
With 8:58 on the clock in the third quarter, Bell caught a check-down from Ben Roethlisberger in the left flat and, from there, it was a trio of Cincinnati’s defenders that greatly aided him in navigating the sideline.
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Of course, the Bengals were not really letting Bell score but it isn’t every day that you see a scoring play come together in just this fashion. Bell made only one true “move” in high-stepping against the first defender that approached and, from there, the pursuit was lacking in that it almost appeared as if the Bengals believed Bell would run out of bounds on his own.
Le’Veon Bell is very good at football and, in today’s NFL culture, no one wants to give Pittsburgh a free 15-yard penalty by laying the wood on a hit once he crosses onto the white chalk of the sideline. Still, this was a comical instance of under-pursuit at an inopportune time and the end result was a 35-yard touchdown for the road team.
