) -Gary Russell had a 2-yard run for his first career touchdown, Ben Roethlisberger found Heath Miller for another score and the Pittsburgh Steelers led the Cincinnati Bengals 20-7 after three quarters on Thursday night.
Jeff Reed kicked field goals of 37 and 38 yards for Pittsburgh at a snowy Heinz Field, where the Steelers were playing their third game in 12 days.
Ryan Fitzpatrick threw a 10-yard touchdown pass to Glenn Holt during the first quarter to give the Bengals the early lead. But other than that 11-play, 62-yard drive on Cincinnati’s second possession of the game, the Bengals had only two first downs and 48 yards of offense heading into the fourth.
Miller’s 3-yard touchdown came 4:44 into the second quarter. The score was set up by a 37-yard pass from Roethlisberger to Hines Ward that got the Steelers to the Bengals 13 and a run by Russell on 4th and 1 at the 4 four plays later.
Reed connected in the second and third, and Russell added a 3-yard run with 21 seconds to play in the third.
Temperature at kickoff was 31 degrees, and snow began falling not long after kickoff, picking up in intensity off and on throughout the game until a white dusting covered the field by the end of the third.
g into the fourth. Santonio Holmes was the game’s leading receiver with 84 yards on five catches.
Roethlisberger was 15-for-26 for 208 yards and no interceptions. Willie Parker had only 37 yards on 14 carries for the Steelers (7-3), who lead the AFC North by a game over the Baltimore Ravens. Pittsburgh has won 10 of its past 12 games against division opponents.
Holt didn’t have a catch this season heading into the game and was in the starting lineup only because Chad Ocho Cinco was deactivated by Bengals coach Marvin Lewis earlier Thursday. Ocho Cinco, formerly known as Chad Johnson, violated an unspecified team rule.
Holt had two catches for 16 yards and the touchdown for Cincinnati (1-8-1), which is unbeaten in its past two after an 0-8 start. T.J. Houshmandzadeh had four for 20 yards. Cedric Benson had only 28 yards on 11 carries against the league’s No. 1 defense.
The Bengals were without quarterback Carson Palmer for the seventh consecutive game due to an elbow injury.
The Steelers have won eight of the past 10 meetings with the Bengals and beat them 38-10 on Oct. 19 in Cincinnati.
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