Kovacevic: Class of the AFC? It sure isn't here

CINCINNATI -- As the sun was setting late Sunday afternoon, somewhere beyond the charcoal-thick skies above Paul Brown Stadium, the usual stream of sad-faced supporters of the Bengals glided glacially down the iconic, infamous 'Esca-loser.' Barely budging. Probably barely breathing.

Welcome, indeed, to the Bungle.

They came, these poor souls, like Charlie Brown leaning forward and glaring all stern-like at Lucy holding that football, expecting something different. This had been their year. They'd been coronated AFC North champs for several weeks. They were the top seed in the entire conference, for crying out loud.

And there went Lucy all over again, yanking away that football, rolling together those fingers into a tight fist and slugging away at will.

"We hit them, man. We hit them," Ryan Shazier was telling me well after the Steelers' 33-20 bullying was done. "They talked, and we hit them."

Oh, yeah. That, too.



'WHAT'S THE POINT IN TALKING?'

Let's rewind a bit. Way back to the beginning of the week, actually, when the Bengals began "yakking," to borrow Shazier's description. Marvin Jones, one of Cincinnati's receivers, told reporters here, "It's going to be bloody on both sides." Others chimed in, too, though there was barely a response at the far end of the Ohio River, save for Mike Mitchell's terse "We won't be the ones bleeding."

"We didn't have any reason to talk," David DeCastro would say after this game. "What's the point in talking? We had to prepare for a football game."

Which evidently is what they did, even though there was much blood -- meaning the bad kind -- still unsoaked from the teams' previous encounter, a 16-10 victory for the Bengals Nov. 1 at Heinz Field. That was mostly because of Vontaze Burfict's leg-whipping tackle that crushed Le'Veon Bell's knee and ended his season, but also because Burfict and a few teammates celebrated while Bell was down in pain.

Swell guy, huh?



Later that week, Vince Williams traded barbs, even threats with Burfict on Twitter. Still, Williams, among the most fiery and vocal players on the roster, held it together over the next six weeks, including an approach to our site to clarify his stance.

The same sentiment held true Sunday in warmups, when Burfict crossed the line both literally and figuratively. He broached the 50 and began shouting at Williams, who shouted back but didn't approach. And once James Harrison interjected his big body and bigger presence in between them, there was little more than jumping and jabber between the teams before all were dispersed.

Mike Tomlin had this to say about the scene: “You know, I’m not worried about that. We’re on our side of the 50 warming up, and the confrontation happened. You come into our area, there’s going to be a confrontation. We were in our proper place.”

Marvin Lewis offered this: "I don't know."

You betcha.

Harrison's explanation was similar to his coach's: "There are a lot of things that can happen when you go on the other side of somebody's 50." But he rejected any notion that he was looking for trouble himself: "I'm older and wiser."

To which Cam Heyward, overhearing from nearby, playfully barked out, "Peacemaker!"

The two principals had little to share.

Williams shrugged off questions about the incident, other than to say, "The tone was set when we got off the plane in Cincinnati. We were all business. We came here to play."

Well, he did say more. Not for public consumption. Not pretty. It'll stay here.

Burfict was approached for comment, too, but he profanely ordered reporters to leave his stall area. Which is fine because his body language spoke volumes when confronted by Harrison:



Oh, my! Hey, Vontaze! Where'd you go, man?

Once the ball was kicked, Burfict went right back to being Burfict, with an array of cheap shots and shoves after the whistle that were all but ignored by the impotent officiating crew.

One of those was a helmet crack at Ben Roethlisberger's ankles that was as filthy a play as one will witness in the NFL:



No flag, I swear.

Burfict finished with a team-high 11 tackles, all solo, which would indicate a strong performance until one considers that Cincinnati's defense funnels all rushers toward the inside linebacker. Think Hardy Nickerson.

Also, consider this gold shared by Marcus Gilbert when I asked about Burfict: "I don't know, maybe he's out there trying to make a point. He didn't make any plays on the field. He didn't make one play. I just don't understand why all that talking's going on. How about making some plays and helping your team win? That guy, he's a non-factor to us. We don't even worry about him. We were worried about Carlos Dunlap and Geno Atkins, not talkers. We ain't about that."

'NOT ON OUR WATCH!'

There's a genuine enmity between these teams, one that at least temporarily trumps that between the Steelers and the banged-up Ravens or godforsaken Browns. But there's also a grudging respect. Roethlisberger jokingly called the game "a little chippy," and most others on both sides used similar terminology. The only outright hostility expressed was between the visitors and Burfict.

Not all of it was verbal.

Burfict left the game in the fourth quarter with concussion symptoms, but he was back on the Cincinnati sideline for Landry Jones' closing kneel. And apparently having discovered his sportsmanlike side in the interim, he strolled onto the field afterward looking to shake hands with the opponents.

Only no one obliged. One after the other, the Steelers refused, even as they shook every other hand extended their way.

Visibly exasperated, Burfict then trotted over to Tomlin. Maybe the head coach would be an exception.

Nope.

The Steelers weren't talking much about that, other than one player who blurted out a rather nasty word generally associated with one's hindquarters.

Good for them.

I've written this through ups and downs and second-string running backs and third-string kickers and fourth-string quarterbacks, but this is the toughest, most tenacious, most together group of Steelers I've covered.

Oh, they've got talent, too. Roethlisberger didn't throw a touchdown or top 300 yards, but his 30-of-39 precision for 282 yards was as rapid-fire decisive as I've seen him, especially with all the checkdowns he executed. Heath Miller went from injured to iffy to sensational, with catches on all 10 of his targets. Antonio Brown and Martavis Bryant each caught seven. DeAngelo Williams banged through bodies for 76 hard yards. Willie Gay had his fifth career pick-6, matching Rod Woodson's team record.

There were blemishes, predictably, with the secondary. But the toughness, tenacity and togetherness on the defense, I dare say, doesn't take anything of a back seat to the offense, and that's not to be dismissed:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqz4JpElGH8

That's solidified by Heyward and the other veteran leaders, but it begins at the top. And it especially did so on this day. Several players told me that, before kickoff but after those warmups, Tomlin and Roethlisberger delivered above-and-beyond speeches about, of all things, everyone keeping their cool.

"I honestly can't tell you how much that meant to all of us, what they said," Alejandro Villanueva said. "Everyone was all fired up and everything, but what we needed to do most of all was focus on our execution. We needed to make the plays. We needed to do the right things to win the game. And if we did that, we knew we'd appreciate that a lot more than any talking."

Villanueva paused and added, "I really don't think people know how much Coach Tomlin means to this team, what he brings for us."

When the coach and quarterback were done, by all accounts, Gilbert stood up and bellowed simply this: "Not this week! Not on our watch!"

The reference was to the Bengals having a chance to clinch the division against their greatest nemesis.

And that's still the operative term, by the way. People have taken to calling the Steelers and Bengals rivals. Sorry, but that defies the definition. Rivals are on fairly equal footing. There's give and take. But when one team dominates the other, there's a nemesis and then there's ... well, the Bengals.

The Steelers have won nine of the past 12 meetings overall and -- get this -- 21 of their past 26 visits here, whether at old Riverfront Stadium or at Paul Brown.

That's not a rivalry. That's not even interesting.

Right now, almost entirely because of Roethlisberger's early injury, the Steelers are 8-5 to the Bengals' 10-3. That's no separation at all. And when hearing all the bleakness from the home locker room about Andy Dalton's fractured thumb -- some players spoke openly of not having him for the playoffs -- those three games will now be quarterbacked by AJ McCarron, and good luck with that amid a history of not winning a playoff game since 1990, way back when the Ickey Shuffle was a thing.

And the Steelers, who have now won nine in a row in December?

"I like our direction," David DeCastro said. "I like how we're going upward."

“It’s sky high," Gilbert said of the general confidence. "This is playoff football. We knew we had to rise to the occasion, and we play better December playoff football than anybody. It’s in our DNA."

He just couldn't resist finishing that off.

"It’s not in theirs.”