| Advertisement |
Oct. 1 (UPI) -- The Pittsburgh Steelers held the Cincinnati Bengals to three points and 175 total yards in a dominant Monday Night Football victory. Pittsburgh [1-3] also collected eight sacks in the 27-3 triumph Monday at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh. Steelers quarterback Mason Rudolph completed 24 of 28 passes for 229 yards and two scores in the win. Running back James Conner had 125 yards from scrimmage and a touchdown on 18 touches.
Advertisement
"Unbelievable team win," Rudolph told reporters. "A lot of leadership in the locker room and guys that know how to win and guys who have won a lot of games in their careers.
"We stuck together all week even with the rough start. Our message all week was stack one and then start stacking more. That is the plan moving forward and we have a heck of a group of guys that are going to do that."
The Bengals [0-4] took a 3-0 lead in the first quarter after a 28-yard field goal from Randy Bullock. Pittsburgh took a 7-3 edge on a Rudolph touchdown pass to Conner in the second quarter and never looked back. The Steelers also got a 29-yard field goal from Chris Boswell to take a 10-3 lead at halftime.
"I think our defense started it off," Conner said. "The defense created a turnover early and those big sacks on third down. Just playing off each other and the momentum."
The Steelers continued to stack points after an 8-play, 80-yard scoring drive to open the second half. Jaylen Samuels had a 2-yard rushing score to cap off the drive. Rudolph found Diontae Johnson on a 43-yard touchdown pass for a 24-3 lead with 9:32 remaining in the third quarter.
Boswell connected on a 49-yard field goal in the fourth quarter for the final points of the game.
Bengals quarterback Andy Dalton completed 21 of 37 passes for 171 yards and an interception in the loss. Running back Joe Mixon had 62 yards on 15 carries for the Bengals.
Cameron Heyward had four tackles, 2.5 sacks and a forced fumble for the Steelers.
"Can't say enough about Mason [Rudolph]," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. "We gave him a game ball in there for his first start and win. So, I thought that was appropriate. We just need to learn from this. Learn from positive experiences like we have from some of the negative ones and keep getting better. I think that's just the nature of this thing."
The Steelers host the Baltimore Ravens in another AFC North matchup at 1 p.m. EDT Sunday in Pittsburgh. The Bengals host the Arizona Cardinals at 1 p.m. EDT Sunday at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati.
"It's important for us right now to take it one game at a time," Bengals coach Zac Taylor said. "I mean, I know that sounds like coach-speak, but it's the truth. We've got to go out and find our first win, and then we've got to build off of that and keep building, but right now we don't have that winning feeling, and so we've got to get that before we talk about anything else that goes on this season."
