PITTSBURGH —The Pittsburgh Steelers overcame the adversity of injuries to two of their star offensive players, and some further self-inflicted adversity, to beat the Cincinnati Bengals , 34-12 on Sunday.
The Steelers lost starting quarterback Aaron Rodgers to a left hand injury at halftime, and on the next possession, also lost starting running back Jaylen Warren — who had been a huge part of the team's first-half offensive success.
But the offense kept plugging along, with Mason Rudolph leading two scoring drives in relief and Kenneth Gainwell caught two touchdown passes, one from Rodgers and one from Rudolph, to lead the Steelers to victory.
Though the Steelers never trailed in the game, they didn't make things easy on themselves. Pittsburgh took a 10-6 lead into the half, and it was cut to just a one-point margin in the third quarter when Joe Flacco engineered a field goal drive on the opening series.
The Steelers answered with a Rudolph-and-Gainwell led drive that ended in Chris Boswell 's second field goal of the game to make it 13-9.
Then, the Pittsburgh defense appeared to throw a knockout punch when Kyle Dugger intercepted Flacco, and returned it 74 yards for a pick six. But just as quickly, the Steelers' secondary let the Bengals back into the game.
After Cincinnati had elected to punt on a 4th and 1 near midfield, Jalen Ramsey was given a personal foul penalty and ejected from the game for punching Bengals wide receiver Ja'Marr Chase.
The extra set of downs let the Bengals get a field goal to again draw to within a score, but then Rudolph led a quick touchdown drive, connecting with Gainwell on a five-yard touchdown.
James Pierre , the Steelers' longtime backup cornerback who had been pressed into starting duty thanks to an injury to Darius Slay , finally sealed things. Brandin Echols forced a fumble from Bengals tight end Noah Fant in the flat and Pierre scooped it up and ran 32 yards down the sideline for the first career touchdown for the sixth-year vet.
Pierre finished with six tackles and also had two passes defended in his first start of the season, and more importantly, helped hold down Bengals star receivers Chase and Tee Higgins .
Primarily facing Pierre, Chase had three catches for 30 yards, while Joey Porter Jr. and company held Higgins to three catches for 63 yards. He did have the lone Cincinnati touchdown in the first quarter, when he got matched up against rookie linebacker Jack Sawyer in coverage.
Flacco, who had chewed the Steelers up in their first meeting three weeks earlier, finished a pedestrian 23 of 40 for 199 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
Rudolph was 12 of 16 for 127 yards and a score in relief of Rodgers, who exited at 9 of 15 for 116 yards a touchdown. Warren finished with 62 yards on 10 carries. Gainwell was the leading receiver with 81 yards on seven catches.
The Steelers, now 6-4, remain in first place in the AFC North. They will go on the road in Week 12, visiting the Chicago Bears .
This article originally appeared on Steelers Now : Steelers Fight Through Adversity, Beat Bengals 34-12
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