Pittsburgh tops Cincy, finally hits its stride

Ben Roethlisberger threw for 224 yards and two scores, Le’Veon Bell added 192 total yards, and Pittsburgh’s defense dominated the Cincinnati Bengals in the second half of a 29-14 victory on Sunday.

A bit of a hot mess after getting upset at home by Jacksonville two weeks ago, the Steelers (5-2) have figured things out quickly. They shut down Kansas City on the road last Sunday and followed it up by suffocating Cincinnati in the second half to move into a tie for the AFC’s best record as their once-again promising season nears the midway point.

Pittsburgh held the Bengals (2-4) to 19 yards over the final two quarters, intercepting Andy Dalton twice and sacking him four times.

“The sky’s the limit,” Steelers linebacker Bud Dupree said. “Not even the sky’s the limit. We’re not going to put a ceiling on our head. We’re going to keep going up.”

Cincinnati came in looking 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 coordinator Ken Zampese fired two weeks into the season. Dalton finished 17 of 30 for 140 yards and the two picks while playing on a twisted ankle.

Dalton’s final pass symbolized a frustrating afternoon. Facing fourth down and trailing by two scores with 5 minutes left, Dalton scrambled to his left and then simply threw the ball away to seal Cincinnati’s eighth loss in its last night meetings with Pittsburgh.

“Any time you lose a division game, especially to the Steelers, the way they’re playing, every game counts,” said Bengals wide receiver A.J. Green after being held to three receptions for 41 yards. “It’s tough. It sets us behind even more.”

Chris Boswell added a Heinz Field-record 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, hitting Antonio Brown and JuJu SmithSchuster for TDs.