Antonio Brown burns Bengals to keep Steelers alive in AFC North

Late in Sunday’s game, the Cincinnati Bengals looked poised to vanquish the hopes of the rival Pittsburgh Steelers in the AFC North.

A Joe Mixon touchdown run gave Cincinnati a 21-20 lead with 1:18 remaining and had the Bengals looking at a 5-1 start that would have buried the Steelers at the bottom of the division at 2-3-1.

Then what tends to happen in these Steelers-Bengals matchups happened.

The Steelers found themselves facing third-and-10 with 29 seconds remaining on their own 41-yard line in desperate need of a big play. They got three of them.

Ben Roethlisberger found Antonio Brown for the game-winning touchdown with 10 seconds remaining to keep hope alive in Pittsburgh. (Getty)

Ben Roethlisberger looked deep for JuJu Smith-Schuster, who got held by Dre Kirkpatrick to give Pittsburgh a new set of downs.

Roethlisberger connected with Smith-Schuster on the next play for a 23-yard gain to get the Steelers in reasonable field goal territory.

Then, on first-and-10 at the Bengals 31, the Steelers dialed up the perfect play. Cincinnati came with an all-out blitz, and Antonio Brown found a seam up the middle just beyond the line of scrimmage. Roethlisberger dumped it to his All-Pro wide receiver, who did the work from there to score the go-ahead touchdown with 10 seconds left.

The Bengals got the ball back with 10 seconds left and couldn’t find a miracle. The Steelers held on for a 28-21 win, and all of the sudden, things are a lot more interesting in the AFC North.

The touchdown was the first of the day for Roethlisberger, who had a big day in the air otherwise with 364 yards and no turnovers.

Let's block ads! (Why?)