Steelers Need to Have Cooler Heads to Prevail on Sunday

For years, the Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Baltimore Ravens has been heralded as one if, if not THE nastiest rivalry in professional football.

With a down year for the Ravens, I think that the hatred has quickly shifted from Baltimore to Cincinnati. Obviously, there’s some history between these two teams going back many years, but let’s take a look just at what’s happened in recent history.

• Reggie Nelson hits Le’Veon Bell low in Pittsburgh late last season, ending his season. Mike Tomlin and Nelson briefly exchange words in a heated conversation following the game.
• First matchup this season, Vontaze Burfict ends Le’Veon Bell’s season on a (clean) hit that awkwardly twists Bell’s knee.
• Following the game, linebacker Vince Williams tweets “I catch Vontez on south beach im painting that boi on sight” to which Vontaze replied “why wait then u kno were I’m at”
• In the same game, Steelers safety Mike Mitchell was flagged for taunting when he got in AJ Green’s face following a third down stop.
• After the game, Bengals receiver Marvin Jones calls said of Mitchell “When you turn on the film, you don’t see him hitting anybody when they’re going head up. That’s fake tough.” That was in regards to a big hit that Mitchell laid on Jones during the game.
• Talking about that hit, Mitchell later said “I wish I would have went low,” after he saw Burfict supposedly celebrating the injury to teammate Le’Veon Bell.

Fast forward to this week, with the Bengals and Steelers set to play again at Paul Brown Stadium. Plenty of words have been said regarding the rivalry…

• Steelers guard David DeCastro had the first words, when asked if the Bengals were dirty. He denied that, but simply put it as “We don’t like them. They don’t like us, I’m not going to sit here and give you bulletin board material, but that’s as simple as it can be.”
• Bengals cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick agreed with that sentiment replying simply “Facts. Facts.”
• Marvin Jones said he’s ready for a physical game, saying “It’s going to be bloody on both sides. We expect that.”
• Always one to get in the last word, Mike Mitchell responded to that with “We won’t be the ones bleeding.”

That’s a lot of history in a very short amount of time!

Heath Miller fortunately had the right mindset, even if he doesn’t get to suit on Sunday due to an abdominal injury. When asked about Burfict and if there was any plans for revenge Sunday, he answered “We would be silly and unfocused on the task at hand, and it is too important of a game to let emotions get the best of us.”

On the Bengals side, Dre Kirkpatrick also alluded to some possible chippy play and stuff happening after the whistle. “That’s my teammate,” he said. “I’m going to do whatever it takes to protect my teammate. I’m not going to let anybody get cheap shots or anything like that if I’m there.

“Like I said, we know what time it is, we know what type of game this is. Hopefully we can keep our composure, hopefully he can keep his composure and let them be the village idiots.”

The last time the Bengals and Steelers played, they were nearly identical in all categories except one, turnovers.

These are two extremely talented teams playing each other, and I think it’s probably going to be another nail-biter. In those types of games, one stupid personal foul penalty and the wrong time can completely kill momentum and ultimately lose you a game.

Like Heath Miller said, this game is too important to get dragged into all that stuff. I think being physical and playing an intimidating brand of football is fine, but don’t let the Bengals players, Burfict in particular, drag you into a scuffle that is going to get you flagged.

On the other side, I don’t want to see anything like last time we played, where Mike Mitchell is giving the Bengals free first downs after the defense worked so hard to force a punt.

Hopefully, as Dre Kirkpatrick said, we can let them be the village idiots on Sunday.