PITTSBURGH — Ben Roethlisberger has his best game of the season so far and the Pittsburgh Steelers remained the only undefeated team this season after securing a 36-10 victory over AFC North rivals Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday evening.
With the win, the Steelers became the NFL’s first team to get to a 9-0 record since 2015 when the Cam Newton-led Carolina Panthers achieved the feat and went on to reach the Super Bowl.
Sunday’s win over the Bengals also means Pittsburgh has now won the first nine games of a season for the first time in franchise history.
The Steelers got off to a bright start on the day, scoring the first 12 points of the game before extend the advantage to take a 29-7 lead over Cincinnati through three quarters.
Veteran quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who missed practice during the week because of COVID-19 protocols and was only removed from the reserve/COVID-19 list Saturday in time for an extended walk-through with the team, threw a season-high four touchdown passes for 333 yards, which is also a season-high and went 27 of 46.
“Even if you’re not out there, you can hear it and be a part of it, so it was definitely different,” Roethlisberger said Saturday as he prepared for today’s game.
“I watched every play of practice, but you just watch it on your iPad at home so you don’t get to hear all those things. It was definitely a lot different than anything I have experienced before.”
Roethlisberger threw TD passes to Chase Claypool (2), Diontae Johnson and JuJu Smith-Schuster and carried the bulk of the offense with the Steelers totaling just 44 yards on the ground.
With his four touchdowns on Sunday, the Steelers quarterback set a franchise record with 124 multi-touchdown games, which sits him eighth in NFL history.
According to ESPN Stats & Information, it was the first time Roethlisberger was throwing for four touchdown passes since Week 10, 2018, against the Panthers.
Joe Burrow was 21 of 40 for 213 yards and a touchdown for the Bengels (2-6), while Tee Higgins caught seven of his nine targets for 115 yards and a score.
