It’s clear the Cincinnati Bengals were the hungrier team on Monday night. They were more physical in all aspects of the game, especially on defense.
The Athletic’s Mark Kaboly, who has covered the Pittsburgh Steelers since 2002, revealed in a tweet on Tuesday that his source said the “Bengals went into the game wanting to put some big hits” on Smith-Schuster.
Did they ever!
Bengals safety Vonn Bell blasted Steelers receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster late in the first quarter. The hit jarred the ball loose from JuJu’s arms, linebacker Jordan Evans recovered, and three minutes later, Cincinnati scored its first touchdown of the night.
What I heard from source in the know was that Bengals went into the game wanting to put some big hits on JuJu Smith-Schuster not necessarily all because of TikTok logo stuff but that some on team from a couple years ago still harbored bad feelings from when he knocked out Burfict
— Mark Kaboly (@MarkKaboly) December 22, 2020
The hit that rocked JuJu wasn’t payback for dancing and spiking the ball on the Bengals logo during pregame warm-ups as much as it was avenging the crackback block Smith-Schuster put on linebacker Vontaze Burfict in 2017.
Smith-Schuster received a one-game suspension for hitting and taunting Burfict, which he appealed and lost.
Three seasons later, anger still festers in some Bengals players’ minds, and they thought Smith-Schuster should know.
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