A season-opening bout with the Pittsburgh Steelers was never going to be a pretty game for the Cincinnati Bengals and the 23-20 loss simply wasn’t.
But despite a rough first half, those Bengals charged back and forced overtime. Granted, that overtime doesn’t happen and the Bengals straight-up win if their long-snapper wasn’t injured.
Either way, they went to overtime and that long-snapper injury came up again when Evan McPherson missed a game-winning 29-yarder.
Keep in mind Week 1 is always unpredictable, even before the fact the Bengals had starters missing time during training camp and not playing at all during the preseason. That, plus Pittsburgh’s biggest strength (defensive line) ran up well against Cincinnati’s biggest weakness (offensive line).
All that aside, here’s everything we know from the game.