Dec 1, 2003 By Mike Ciarochi 6 min read

PITTSBURGH – The Steelers thought they had won the game when they scored with 1:05 remaining in the fourth quarter. Instead, the Cincinnati Bengals took advantage of a short field and scored a game-winning touchdown with 13 seconds remaining to beat the Steelers, 24-20. The loss drops the Steelers to 4-8 and all but mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. The Bengals improved to 7-5 by winning for the sixth time in seven games. They remain tied with Baltimore for the lead in the AFC North Division.

“It hurts,” Steelers coach Bill Cowher said. “That’s a very disappointed group of guys in that locker room. Give Cincinnati a lot of credit. They made plays at the end of the game, which is what championship teams have to be able to do.”

Cowher said he didn’t try to milk more time off the clock, thinking instead that his defense would be able to make plays to hold the lead the offense had handed the team.

“I want to score, take the lead and win the game,” he said. “You look at us defensively, all three plays they made were plays we could have stopped.”

Cincinnati scored first when Kitna passed to Kelley Washington for a 51-yad touchdown with 8:58 remaining in the first quarter. Washington beat Chad Scott up the sideline for the easy score that capped a 5-play, 73-yard drive.

“We were in man-to-man defense,” Cowher said. “What more do I need to say?”

Jeff Reed’s 23-yard field goal 9:08 before halftime cut Cincinnati’s lead to 7-3. It capped a 13-play, 65-yard drive that included a 17-yard completion to Plaxico Burress on third-and-11.

The Bengals extended their lead to 14-3 when Kitna hooked up with Chad Johnson from 4 yards out 1:54 before the half. The score capped a 16-play, 82-yard drive.

The Steelers had a chance to score before the half ended, but turned the ball over, much to Cowher’s dismay. After Maddox marched the team into field goal range, he was sacked and injured. Charlie Batch replaced him and passed to Burress for a first down. Antwaan Randle El dropped a touchdown pass before the questionable play.

“It was a good throw by Charlie,” Randle El said. “I just took my eyes off the ball and that’s how you catch a football is with your eyes. That one hit me right in the hands. No excuses.”

Batch was flushed out of the pocket and appeared to be sacked when he attempted a pass. However, it was ruled a fumble and Cincinnati recovered. The Bengals ran a play to end the half. Cowher argued with referee Bernie Kukar coming off the field, but to no avail. The replay official quickly confirmed to Kukar that Batch’s pass was a lateral.

“It wasn’t Bernie’s fault,” Cowher said. “I don’t know who the replay guy is, but you would think he would at least look at that play.”

Cowher was told the replay official was Pittsburgh native and retired official Dale Hamer, he said, “Maybe that’s why he retired.”

Jerome Bettis capped an improbable 12-play, 75-yard scoring drive with a 1-yard burst on fourth-and-1 with 1:10 remaining in the third quarter to cut the Bengals lead to 14-10. The drive was full of forward and backward movement by the Steelers. It included three penalties worth 30 yards, 15 against each team. The Steelers still moved to a first-and-goal from the 6-yard line and Bettis got all 6 of the yards, 5 on first down and 1 on fourth down.

Reed’s second field goal, from 39-yards away, got the Steelers to within a point, 14-13, with 11:27 remaining. The 7-play, 19-yard drive got started when safety Troy Polamalu sacked Kitna on third-and-16 from his 14-yard line and Kyle Richardson’s ensuing punt went only to the Bengals’ 40.

It was the first career sack for Polamalu, the team’s first-round draft choice.

The Bengals next possession was as back-and-forth as the Steelers first drive of the half. The Steelers forced the Bengals into a third-and-long situation when Kitna passed to Chad Johnson for 68 yards. Then Cincinnati proceeded to march backward with a series of penalties, including two delay-of-game infractions. The Bengals settled for Shayne Graham’s 44-yard field goal – and a 17-13 lead – at the end of a 7-play, 43-yard drive.

The Steelers got the ball back with 4:20 remaining and needed a touchdown to pull out a win. Maddox completed his first four passes to move the ball into Bengals’ territory at the 49-yard line. He completed a third-and-5 pass to Randle El for a first down, then passed to Amos Zereoue for 5 and to Ward for 4 at the two-minute warning.

Bettis converted a third-and-1 with a 2-yard run before Maddox passed to Ward for 13 yards and a first down at the 16-yard line. He then completed the drive by hitting Ward for 16 yards and the score with 1:05 remaining to give the Steelers their first lead of the game, 20-17. The drive covered 80 yards in 11 plays.

Cincinnati got a break when Reed’s kickoff landed at the 20 and it was returned to the Bengals’ 48-yard line.

“I hit the ball solid,” Reed said. “The wind was a factor all game. When you see a guy get a 70-yard punt going one way and it only goes 40 the other way, you know the wind is strong. But that’s not an excuse. I just didn’t get it done. I hit it solid, it just went more up than out.”

Kitna passed to Peter Warrick for 18 yards before Brandon Bennett ran for 16 yards to a first-and-10 at the Steelers’ 18-yard line with 24 seconds remaining. Kitna passed incomplete in the end zone to Warrick, then hit Matt Schobel for 18 yards and a touchdown with 13 seconds remaining.

“It was a straight cover-2 defense and I had the deep middle,” dejected linebacker James Farrior said. “He threw the ball as I was turning my hips. If I had been deeper, I’d have made a play on it. But I got beat.”

So did the Steelers. What started as a season of promise ended, for all intents and purposes, with a thud.