Bengals-Steelers Create Family Feud Atmosphere
Last Update: 11/15/2009 2:00 pm
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Marvin Lewis may be one of them the other 50 Sundays of the year but during Bengals-Steelers week, he is the devil incarnate. I'm sure Pittsburgh Post Gazette columnist Ron Cook will endure his share of barbs with the headline above his treatment of Sunday's Bengals-Steelers game:
"A rock upon which Bengals rebuilt".
It goes on to detail Marvin's ties to the Pittsburgh area as a player at Fort Cherry High School and later as an assistant at Pitt and then the Steelers. Along with Bengal's President Mike Browns' unwavering support of Marvin, "...when things went wrong here, I never believed they were Marvin's doing.
Mike has been as gracious as Marvin subdued about this years' success. As for the question of whether it will continue today depends on who you ask. The Bengals have an air about them that is reminiscent of Steelers teams we've seen descend upon Paul Brown Stadium over the years. Businesslike. Focused.
And then you see Chad OchoCinco tossing the ball with Hines Ward as they catch up with all the news that isn't fit to twitter. Paul Brown wouldn't have accomodated such, 'fraternization', in fact Major League Baseball for years posted signs prohibiting it and something called 'pepper'.
Long story kids; we'll leave the 'pepper' ban for another day.
Various members of the Bengals' traveling party do make a point of visiting with Ken Anderson, their long time quarterback and former coach who is now the Steelers' quarterbacks coach. Of course Defensive Coordinator Dick LeBeau's ties included a stint as Head Coach. And defensive backs coach Ray Horton, another former Bengal, would like nothing better than to spoil Cincinnati's afternoon.
The real consequences of this game though, extend well beyond one upsmanship between old friends and colleagues. Only three times in the past 30 seasons have both teams come into a meeting with winning records.
Both are 6-2 and tied for the Division lead so the importance can't be understated.
It all starts though with Carson Palmer who's history against the Steelers is steeped in legend. Having Carson in good health with a supporting cast led by Cedric Benson makes Sunday's task all the more doable. As Marvin put it, "Having him back makes the field feel like it's 70 yards long again."
It is how Carson and company negotiate all 100 yards of Heinz Fields' somewhat patchy turf that really matters.
Bengals 24-20 as I see it. I'll be blogging all game to see how it unfolds.
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Copyright 2009 The E.W. Scripps Co. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
