Dec 8, 2014 5 min read

A week after flittering away a game at home against the New Orleans Saints, the Steelers took firm control of their fate in Sunday’s 42-21 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals.

But it wasn’t without flaws.

The Steelers improved to 8-5 with their win over the Bengals (8-4-1) but allowed a pair of long pass plays to Cincinnati receiver A.J. Green, who finished with 11 receptions for 224 yards.

More than half of that yardage – 137 to be exact – came on receptions of 56 and 81 yards by Green, with the latter going for a touchdown that gave the Bengals a 21-17 lead on the final play of the third quarter.

Steelers cornerback Ike Taylor, who was following Green throughout the game, pulled himself from the game after the 81-yard score, sitting down with knee and shoulder injuries.

“If you’re not able to go 100 percent, you have to sit your butt down,” said Taylor. “I felt like, ‘Man, I can’t keep putting my team in that situation.’ As much as I want to be out there, playing corner you have to be able to run.

“Pretty much everybody, including the coaching staff, agreed.”

The Steelers went to a corner rotation that included William Gay, Brice McCain and Antwon Blake in the fourth quarter – the same group that manned the position before Taylor returned two weeks ago from a fractured arm.

Taylor, however, isn’t alone in his struggles. The Steelers have allowed 13 pass plays of 40 or more yards this season, 10 of which have come in their past eight games.

The Steelers have done a nice job of moving on from giving up the big plays, but they had plenty of practice doing so.

“Any time you have negative plays, or positive plays, you can’t sit there and dwell on it,” said Arthur Moats, who started in place of injured James Harrison’s at outside linebacker. “You have to just move on to the next play.

“We were all talking ‘next play, next play, we gotta get a turnover, we gotta make a big play happen.'”

Moats made that happen against the Bengals, falling on a fumble that set up the Steelers’ go-ahead score early in the fourth quarter.

But head coach Mike Tomlin must figure out which secondary combination can limit the big plays the Steelers are allowing.

“We’re still giving up big plays, which created problems for us,” said Tomlin.

“It’s less about the defense and more about the people. One of the things that is positive about our group is we have some guys back there who have played some football. Guys like Troy Polamalu, Ike Taylor, Mike Mitchell, and Will Gay are not young people, and they are able to flush it out, move forward and understand the next snap is the most important.”

The big plays marred what was otherwise a good defensive performance for the Steelers, who limited the Bengals to 16 first downs and 86 yards rushing – 20 of which came on a designed quarterback option run for a touchdown by Andy Dalton.

“I thought we did a good job of stopping the run,” said nose tackle Steve McLendon, who returned from a shoulder injury that kept him out of four of the previous six games.

“I thought that, as a group, we controlled the line of scrimmage.”

The Steelers will need to be better if they hope to take advantage of the position in which they currently sit.

If Pittsburgh wins its final three games, it is guaranteed to win the AFC North title. Anything less would have them thinking about a wildcard playoff spot.

“I feel like every game is a must win,” said McLendon. “I’m not saying that just because we won, but I feel like we should have won last week and every game that we lost.”

The Steelers scored 30 or more points seven times this season, matching the team record set in 1975 and again in 1979. … Martavis Bryant’s seven touchdown receptions tie him with Eric Green and Jimmy Orr for the second most by a Steelers rookie, two behind Louis Lipps (9). … Defensive end Cameron Heyward had a sack Sunday to move him past Jason Worilds (4.5) into the team lead with five, matching his personal high set last season.