The Cincinnati Bengals have made the playoffs in two straight seasons and after losing in Week 1 to the Chicago Bears after a comeback by Jay Cutler, the team welcomes the Pittsburgh Steelers to Paul Brown Stadium for Monday Night Football on ESPN.
CHECK here for the Bengals and Steelers live stream.
The second week of the season had plenty of entertaining matchups with the Packers taking down the Washington Redskins and the Seattle Seahawks defeating the 49ers, but the Monday night game could end up being the best of the bunch. The AFC north usually plays tough against each other no matter the venue and the Steelers will be trying their best to not drop to 0-2 after suffering a very disappointing loss to the Titans in Week 1.
Monday night game: Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Cincinnati Bengals
Broadcast: ESPN channel 36 on Cablevision
Start Time: Game broadcast starts at 8:30 PM from Paul Brown Stadium
The Steelers are coming into the game very banged up after losing Le'Veon Bell in the preseason along with LaRod Stephens-Howling, Larry Foote and Maurkice Puncey in week 1 and now they must find a way to bounce back after all that bad luck. The team decided to bring back cut running back Jonathan Dwyer after they didn't like what they saw from Felix Jones and Isaac Redman in the first game against the Titans and now with Howling out, they are already down their leading rusher from this season.
Ben Roethlisberger did not play very well in Week 1 either and now the team will try and get back on track against a tough Bengals defense that includes Geno Atkins as well as former Steelers linebacker James Harrison, who will be playing against his former team for the first time since signing with the Bengals. The Steelers have a chance to get back into things after starting 0-2, as they have historically been able to recover from that record to make the playoffs, but Cincy has not been so lucky in recent years and if they fall to 0-2, it could be a long season for the team that has been the wild card for two straight seasons.
The Bengals have lost to the Texans in each of their last two postseason games and on Monday night, they will need players like Andy Dalton and AJ Green to step up. In the opening game Green had himself quite the day, making nine catches for 162 yards and two touchdowns in the loss, while Dalton passed for 282 yards in the game.
Both teams are dealing with issues running the ball and the Bengals are not much better off than the Steelers right now, but they are hoping for a productive game from rookie Giovani Bernard and so are fantasy football owners.