{"id":24583,"date":"2023-12-22T14:59:41","date_gmt":"2023-12-22T19:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/?p=24583"},"modified":"2023-12-22T14:59:42","modified_gmt":"2023-12-22T19:59:42","slug":"saturday-nfl-football-week-16-game-1-cincinnati-bengals-at-pittsburgh-steelers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/nfl\/saturday-nfl-football-week-16-game-1-cincinnati-bengals-at-pittsburgh-steelers\/","title":{"rendered":"SATURDAY NFL FOOTBALL WEEK 16 GAME 1: CINCINNATI BENGALS AT PITTSBURGH STEELERS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

BY ADAM GREENE<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s Christmas Eve and Santa Claus has seen fit to bring us two games with actual playoff implications. We open our Eve afternoon with what might turn out to be an AFC Wild Card elimination game as the Cincinnati Bengals travel to the Steel City to take on the slumping Pittsburgh Steelers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This rivalry goes all the way back to the AFL-NFL league merger when the Steelers were shipped over to the AFC\/AFL from the NFC\/NFL. This will be the 109th<\/sup> all time meeting between the two franchises with Pittsburgh holding a commanding 69-39 advantage in the series. Cincy has made some headway recently, winning four of their last six contests, but fell to Pittsburgh earlier this season, 16-10, on Nov. 26.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kenny Picket (now injured) was 24 of 33 passing for 278 yards, no touchdowns and no interceptions in the win. Najee Harris rushed 15 times for 99 yards and a score. Pat Freiermuth caught nine balls for 120 yards.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the loss, Jake Browning was 19 of 26 passing for 227 yards, one touchdown and a pick. Ja\u2019Marr Chase caught four passes for 81 yards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CINCINNATI BENGALS AT PITTSBURGH STEELERS <\/strong>(+2, O\/U: 37)<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Location:<\/strong> Acrisure Stadium, Pittsburgh, Pa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broadcast:<\/strong> NBC<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kickoff:<\/strong> Dec. 23, 4:30 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CINCINNATI BENGALS (8-6)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jake Browning continued to shock the world by playing Joe Burrow-esque, leading Cincinnati to its third consecutive victory, 27-24, over the Minnesota Vikings last week. Browning finished 29 of 42 passing for 324 yards, two touchdowns and an interception in the win. He was sacked four times. Joe Mixon rushed 10 times for 47 yards and a score. Ja\u2019Marr Chase caught four passes for 64 yards. Tee Higgins hauled in four passes as well for 61 yards and two TDs. The defense sacked Nick Mullens three times and picked him off twice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PITTSBURGH STEELERS (7-7)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Steelers\u2019 downward spiral continued as they dropped their third game in a row, this time a 30-13 beat down by the Indianapolis Colts last week. Mitchell Trubisky, likely making his last career start for Pittsburgh, was 16 of 23 passing for 169 yards, one touchdown and two picks in the loss. He was sacked three times. Mason Rudolph finally got in late, going 2 for 3 for three whole yards. He was sacked once. Jaylen Warren rushed 10 times for 40 yards. Diontae Johnson caught four passes for 62 yards and a TD. The defense sacked Gardner Minshew II three times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE PICK<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in the preseason I picked Pittsburgh to finish 8-9 and post the first losing season under Mike Tomlin. For a while, in spite of the worst offense in the league and the worst offensive coordinator, Matt Canada, in NFL history, it appeared the Steelers would avoid that fate. But, at some point, the Monkey\u2019s Paw Art Rooney wished upon had to finally strike and it seems, at present, to be giving Pittsburgh the finger. The Steelers will be on their third QB in this one, Mason Rudolph, and we should get another classic duel with Jake Browning we\u2019ll all be telling our grandchildren about. Bengals 27, Steelers 16<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last week<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Straight up:<\/strong> 10-6<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Against the spread:<\/strong> 8-8<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Season<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Straight up:<\/strong> 112-70<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Against the spread:<\/strong> 100-82<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow Adam Greene on Twitter <\/em><\/a>@TheFirstMan<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connect with us our socials on <\/em>Twitter<\/em><\/a> and <\/em>Instagram<\/em><\/a> for the latest sports news, viral moments, betting odds and the occasional memes.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY ADAM GREENE It\u2019s Christmas Eve and Santa Claus has seen fit to bring us two games with actual playoff…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":24221,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[129],"tags":[146,159],"class_list":["post-24583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nfl","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-draft"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24583","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24583"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24584,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24583\/revisions\/24584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.betonline.ag\/news-room\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}