Cincinnati Could Finally FLIP The Script Against Pittsburgh!

And later on, I'll be talking about Orlando Brown and comments that Dan Pitcher and Joe Burrow made about his role on the offensive line.

But let's talk about the historical context of the Bengals-Steelers rivalry.

So this has been one of Cincinnati's toughest divisional games since the current AFC North alignment began back in 2002.

Pittsburgh is 34-14 against Cincinnati, a 70% winning percentage.

And that's tied for 6th best divisional winning percentage in the NFL during that span.

And at home since 2002, Pittsburgh is 19-5 against Cincinnati.

with Cincinnati's road record at Pittsburgh being 9-15.

So the Steelers have gotten the best of the Bengals historically for the majority of their AFC North tenure.

Obviously a 70% win percentage, being sixth best in the NFL, is pretty good.

But it has gotten a little bit better since Zach Taylor... has been here.

They split the season series last year in 2025.

It was their third split in four years.

And since taking over in 2019, he's 6-8 against the Steelers.

So the last few years have been a lot better.

Back in the early 2000s when Mike Tomlin and the Steelers were at their peak, winning Super Bowls, being one of the best teams in the NFL.

The last handful of years, it hasn't been the same Steelers.

And the Bengals have been the one who have kind of taken control back.

But 6-8, still a losing record, but much improved, obviously, from past preference, past groups.

I think it's interesting when you look at the historical context why Sunday matters so much, because these are two drastically different teams than they have been in the past.

Cincinnati enters 2-0.

Steelers are 1-1.

The Bengals are coming off a 20-6 win against Houston, while Pittsburgh lost 20-3 to New England, so two drastically different game scripts there.

Cincinnati has a plus-20 point differential through two games, and they are plus-3 in the turnover margin.

And both defenses have allowed 16.5 points per game.

So this, again, much like the rest of their matchups, is going to be a defensive game.