In the grand scheme of things Sunday, the Steelers would have beaten the Bengals without safety Robert Golden throwing a pass to receiver Darrius Heyward-Bey on a fake punt.
But it wouldn't have been nearly as much fun.
As it was, Golden's 44-yard pass to Heyward-Bey in the fourth quarter of the Steelers' 29-14 win at Heinz Field turned out to be the perfect punctuation point on a solid all-around performance. Offensively, defensively and on special teams, the Steelers were the better team in this game.
"Rob G, he made a great throw," said Heyward-Bey. "He did all of the work."
But the question was, whose call was it to make in that situation? I asked Heyward-Bey.
"Him and Danny Smith," Heyward-Bey said, referring to the special teams coordinator.
The Steelers have a special signal that Smith gives Golden, one of the up-backs who protects punter Jordan Berry. Though the Bengals hadn't previously left Heyward-Bey, one of the team's outside gunners in punt coverage, they left him alone on the outside in this situation.
So with the Steelers leading 26-14 with just under seven minutes remaining in the game, the signal came in just before the ball was set to be snapped.
"You definitely want to put (the throw) out there a little bit and let him go get it," said Golden, who lofted a rainbow. "We have been practicing it the past three or four years. We were able to connect on it. That's all that matters."
Mike Tomlin was obviously happy with it:
The pass was the second of Golden's career. The last was a 25-yard play to cornerback Antwon Blake in the regular-season opener against Cleveland in 2014. This one, however, was to the speedy Heyward-Bey, perhaps the fastest player on the team, even at 30.
"Two-for-two," said Golden, who now owns a 118.8 career passer rating.
TUITT'S BACK
I spoke with Stephon Tuitt after the game, which he missed with a back injury.
Tuitt told me he suffered the back injury on Wednesday, forcing him to miss his third game of the season, but he expects to be in the lineup next week when the Steelers are at Detroit. He missed two games earlier this season with an arm injury suffered in the regular-season opener at Cleveland.
"It was a weightlifting injury on Wednesday," Tuitt told me.
OTHER INJURY UPDATES
• Vance McDonald sustained a knee injury and was limited to special teams. Tomlin cited that injury alone after the game but didn't elaborate.
• Marcus Gilbert, out again because of his aggravated hamstring injury, wasn't seen in the locker room.
BEN SEEING RED
After the Steelers failed to get two plays off in the final 12 seconds of the first half, Ben Roethlisberger wasn't afraid to show his displeasure, including to Tomlin.
The Steelers attempted a running play out of the shotgun on second-and-goal from the 5 after McDonald dropped a pass in the back of the end zone on first down.
Le'Veon Bell was dropped for a 1-yard loss, and instead of using their remaining timeout when the play ended with seven seconds remaining, the Steelers allowed the clock to tick down to three seconds.
An obviously exasperated Roethlisberger gestured to the sidelines, then continued to discuss the decision with Tomlin.
It was one of five failures by the Steelers in the red zone in six chances, the only negative for the team in a dominating victory. The Steelers entered the game having scored touchdowns on just 50 percent of their trips inside the opposing 20.
"I think we need to figure out how to make some plays," said Bell of the team's red zone issues. "We had a throw in the end zone that was dropped. We make that play, we aren't talking about red zone struggles. We got in the red zone near the end of the second quarter, going into halftime, so time kind of played with us, too. We didn't really have enough time to run, throw, play the pass, hit a run inside. They stopped it."
NUMBERS, MILESTONES
• JuJu Smith-Schuster's three touchdown catches are the most in NFL history by a player before his 21st birthday. He turns 21 on Nov. 22.
• Ryan Shazier's game-high eight tackles, including five solos and one for a loss, means he has led or tied for the team lead in tackles in five of the Steelers' seven games.
• Cam Heyward's sack, his fourth of the season, raised his career total to 29, fourth-most by a Steelers defensive lineman since sacks became an official statistic in 1982.
• The Steelers have won 10 in a row against the Bengals in October.
• This marked the third time the Steelers have opened a season 3-0 inside the AFC North. The other two were in 2007 and 2008.
• Roethlisberger tied Aaron Rodgers for the ninth-most touchdown passes in NFL history. Both have 310.
MATT SUNDAY GALLERY
Steelers vs. Bengals, Heinz Field, Oct. 22, 2017. - MATT SUNDAY / DKPS
