Joe Burrow threw for four touchdowns on Sunday and the visiting Cincinnati Bengals avenged a Week 1 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers with a 37-30 win.
Burrow completed 24 of 39 passes for 355 yards and a pair of interceptions. Three of his scoring strikes went to backup running back Samaje Perine, who entered the game for good early in the third quarter after starter Joe Mixon departed with a concussion.
Cincinnati (6-4) took the lead for good when Burrow flipped a 1-yard touchdown toss to Trenton Irwin with 7:02 left in the third quarter. Pittsburgh pulled within a point on Matthew Wright’s 34-yard field goal less than three minutes later but didn’t score again until Najee Harris’ 1-yard plunge with 45 seconds left in the game.
Evan McPherson connected from 54 yards out in the last minute of the quarter and Burrow found Perine for a 6-yard scoring strike at the 4:30 mark of the fourth quarter. McPherson added a 44-yard field goal with 3:18 remaining.
Rookie quarterback Kenny Pickett hit 25 of 42 passes for 265 yards with a touchdown, but it wasn’t enough to keep the Steelers from dropping to 3-7. Harris rushed 20 times for a game-high 90 yards and two scores.
McPherson and Wright each kicked the first of their three field goals to open the scoring in the first quarter. The Bengals found the end zone with 39 seconds left in the period when Burrow flipped a screen pass to Perine, who took it 29 yards for a 10-3 lead.
Pickett and Pittsburgh answered the challenge in a 17-point second quarter. Harris scored on a 19-yard run — the first TD run of more than 8 yards for the Steelers this year — to tie the game just over two minutes into the second quarter.
After Burrow hit Perine on a checkdown for 11 yards and a 17-10 Cincinnati advantage, Pickett found George Pickens for a 24-yard touchdown pass with 1:47 left in the half. Wright converted a 30-yard field goal as time expired to make it 20-17 Pittsburgh at the break.
–Field Level Media
