» Steelers take control of AFC North as their defense stuffs Bengals in the second half,

Bengals manage just one first down in dreadful second half.

Ben Roethlisberger threw for 224 yards and two touchdowns, Le’Veon Bell added 192 total yards and Pitts

burgh’s defense dominated the Cincinnati Bengals in the second half of a 29-14 victory Sunday.

The Steelers (5-2) relied on their stars to take the lead and then on their reinvigorated defense to give themselves a significant cushion over the rest of the underwhelming AFC North.

The Bengals (2-4) came in look

ing to add some street cred to their resurgence after their 0-3 start, but instead spent the second half reverting to the kind of

ineffective offense that got Ken Zampese fired two weeks into the season. The Steelers picked off Andy Dalton twice and sacked him three times over the final two quarters to pull away.

Chris Boswell added five field goals for Pittsburgh, which posted its highest points total and appears to be rounding into form as Halloween nears.

Two weeks after openly questioning whether he still “had it,” Roethlisberger put together easily his best half of the season. He hit Antonio Brown for a 7-yard touchdown to cap Pittsburgh’s first drive, found a wide-open JuJu Smith-Schuster for a 31-yard score in the second quarter and threw a perfectly placed 23-yard deep out to Brown late in the second quarter to spark a drive

that ended with a 24-yard Chris Boswell field goal that put the Steelers up 20-14 at the half.

Dalton and Cincinnati appeared ready to keep pace early. He connected with Brandon LaFell and Tyler Kroft on first-half touchdowns, but when the Steelers turned the pressure up, the Bengal-scrumbled while losing for the eighth time in their last nine meets

with their longtime nemesis. Cincinnati managed just one first down in the second half, much of which Dalton spent on the run or throwing picks. Joe Haden collected his first interception with Pittsburgh when he made a juggling grab that set up Boswell’s field goal. William Gay added one later in the third quarter on an ugly overthrow by Dalton.