All is well that ends well

Steelers handle the Bengals 27-10

Santonio Holmes had a great game. In fact Hines, Nate and Holmes are turning into a very good trio of hands. Add Heath and Matt into the mix with Mewelde coming out of the backfield and Ben has options. It was nice to Limas get a couple touches.

Speaking of seeing. Where I live outside of Philadelphia I don't get the "network". I refuse to put the letters NFL in front of network because they are not very good at broadcasting a game. I do like there highlights though on NFL.com. My back up plan to go to a friends who has the NFL package hit a snaff fu so I ended up listening to Ian and Boomer on Westwood 1 radio. They do a decent job I think.

As far as the feature presentation. The weather was not the best but for Pittsburgh in late November you never expect great weather. Although I got my wish of Ben not exceeding 30 pass attempts I thought it was a little excessive for the conditions and who they were playing.

I find it odd that Philadelphia threw 58 times and the Steelers 30 against the Bengals. Am I out of line here? I know I am not an expert but really are the Bengals better at stopping the run then what I have seen? They are ranked 26 against the rush and give up an average of 130 yards per game! Only Cleveland, St Louis, Detroit, Oakland, KC, and surprisingly Green Bay are worse.

Any how Big Ben and the team started out a bit flat and uninspired but after awhile they did what they needed to do for the most part. Ben was right where I wanted with a couple extra attempts. He was 17 fro 30 and 243 Yards. Only 1 TD in the air but he ran for 1 also. Crazy big galute. Ben had a good night I thought.

As I mentioned above Santonio Holmes was really having quite a night and he got his bell rung. I did see the highlights of the game and that was definitely one of them. Nice to see Heath Miller back and sharp. Moore continues to have impeccable timing with his short dumps from Ben. Also ran the ball okay for the night.

Since I brought up the run game. I am not liking this at all. Yes they rushed for $1.21 on 37 carries that is only 3.3 yards per carry against the #26 ranked rush defense. And there is clearly a problem with Willie Parker. I think the workload of the last couple years may have taken a toll on his body. The man has a heart but it's time to make Moore the primary back and use Parker as a back up until he is truly healthy. That way during practice the team is working more with Moore and the plays he runs. Davis and Russell should get a little more practice also in case you have to pull the plug on Willie on short notice. Practice helps more than people realize. All in all I am concerned with the lack of rushing consistency.

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The defense had it's usual flying Wallenda's + brick wall style night. But it was Cincinnati so really I am no going to make a big deal over their play. Here is the skinny on the night. Bengals had 208 yards of offense, 11 first downs and 3 rushing yards. They only had one LaMarr Woodley sack though. The Bengals actually changed up their blocking schemes quite effectively putting bigger bodies on the smaller speed rushers Pittsburgh likes to send.

As our leader Mike Tomlin eloquently stated following the win, "we are who we are". 8 and 3 "is what it is". Simple yet profoundly accurate. The Steelers are for real but there is work to be done if a Lombardi Trophy is to be held.

Next test is New England. Not the team they were last year but a good team.

by Andy Natalie
ProFootball-fans.com Pittsburgh Steelers Correspondent