After Bengals running back Jeremy Hill scored a touchdown in the first half of Sunday’s game against the Steelers, he pulled out a black-and-gold Terrible Towel and pretended to rip it up.
That touchdown gave the Bengals a 17-3 lead in a game they were dominating, but things turned sharply from there. The Steelers would score 21 points and pull out a 24-20 win. The Bengals had gained 162 yards to that point, but had only 60 the rest of the way.
Steelers guard Ramon Foster said after the game that the turnaround should have sent a message to Hill.
“Anybody that’s grabbed it has had something unfortunate happen,” Foster said, via ESPN.com. “I hate to say the towel is cursed when you disrespect it, but you can’t do that. That’s too early in the game to be doing that type of stuff. He’s a pro. I’m sure his coaches would take to him.”
That wasn’t the only thing that got under the Steelers’ skin during the game. Longtime thorn in their side Vontaze Burfict had a late hit on Ben Roethlisberger, which was part of what tackle Marcus Gilbert called “cheap shots, unnecessary stuff” from Cincinnati. Gilbert got a personal foul of his own for going after Burfict and explained, via Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, that he “just got tired of it.” Burfict also scrapped with guard David DeCastro, who delivered a blow to Burfict’s head on one high-speed collision during the game.
The Steelers got the last laugh on the scoreboard and their win officially eliminated the Bengals from playoff contention while leaving them with a chance to win the AFC North by beating the Ravens next weekend.
