Win Earns the Bengals Their Stripes

PITTSBURGH — The Cincinnati Bengals aren’t supposed to win like this. Not against this team or against these odds. Not at this time of the season or in so big a game.

Somehow they did, and the franchise that could barely win a game of any kind for 12 seasons now has the kind of season-defining victory that can lead to championships.

Jon Kitna’s third touchdown pass, an 18-yarder to Matt Schobel in the rear of the end zone with 13 seconds left, finished a last-minute drive that carried the Bengals past the rival Pittsburgh Steelers, 24-20, Sunday.

The Bengals (7-5) not only won their fourth in a row and sixth in seven games to set up a first-place showdown next week in Baltimore, they all but eliminated the Steelers (4-8). Pittsburgh, which won six of the last nine titles in the AFC North or Central, is one loss away from its third losing season in the last five.

“In years past, we didn’t win the tough games,” Bengal running back Corey Dillon said. “Now we’re winning them. As long as I’ve been here, December was just December, it doesn’t mean too much. This is different.”

Tommy Maddox, 28 of 42 for 313 yards, gave Pittsburgh its first lead at 20-17 with a 16-yard touchdown pass to Hines Ward with 1:05 remaining. The Steelers had rallied from a 14-3 deficit behind Jerome Bettis’ one-yard touchdown run after a 75-play drive, and Jeff Reed’s 39-yard field goal.

But after Reed’s short kickoff into a strong wind and Brandon Bennett’s 27-yard return gave Cincinnati the ball at its 48, Kitna -- who has thrown 18 touchdown passes and only one interception in Cincinnati’s seven victories -- got the Bengals in the end zone in four plays.

Asked about the Bengals’ mind-set with half the field to cover in barely a minute, Coach Marvin Lewis said, “Let’s go win the game.”

Kitna hit Peter Warrick for 18 yards and Bennett ran for 16 yards. After an incompletion, Kitna found Schobel for the Bengals’ biggest touchdown since they last won a division in 1990.

Back then, they used an early-December 16-12 win in Pittsburgh as a springboard to a title.

“I said the division had to go through Pittsburgh,” said Ward, who made 13 catches for 149 yards. “They came into Pittsburgh and stole a big victory.”

Lewis intends to do the same next week in Baltimore, even if he wouldn’t guarantee it, as Chad Johnson did before the Bengals upset Kansas City.

“We’re going to win three in a row on the road,” Lewis said. “That’s not a prediction, it’s our goal.”