Dalton Risner spent Monday afternoon doing what linemen hate most: replaying one snap that swallowed up everything before it.
For 55 plays, the Cincinnati Bengals guard had helped steady the offense. The line had held up well, giving up just four quarterback hits and no sacks. Then came the final sequence in Pittsburgh, and it all unraveled on the one play that mattered most in a 30-27 loss.
Burrow had just found Ja’Marr Chase for 13 yards, moving the Bengals to the Pittsburgh 38 and into Evan McPherson’s field goal range. But Cincinnati wasn’t settling.
With 53 seconds left, the plan was to go win it with a touchdown, not nurse the clock and hope for overtime. Burrow was looking deep for Tee Higgins.
“We got quarters (coverage), and we're throwing a post to Tee,” Bengals head coach Zac Taylor said. “It's a matchup we like, and our guys protected unbelievably the entire game.
So I don't pin that on those guys. It was just unfortunate it happened that way.
“But I thought the guys up front gave us everything we wanted the entirety of the game,” Taylor continued. “Really proud of how they played, and sometimes when you face a good defensive line, that's what's going to happen. They got us on one play there, and unfortunately it turned out bad for us.”
That one play came when Harmon beat Risner quickly and got to Burrow. Burrow tried to escape what would have been a sack and a loss that could have knocked Cincinnati out of field goal range, but in the scramble he lost the ball. Pittsburgh recovered it, and that was that - the Steelers’ only sack and only turnover of the game, delivered on the final snap.
Risner didn’t hide from it.
“It really doesn't matter if you have a clean day the whole day,” Risner said. “I could tell you guys that I had a really good game up until that point, up until the last play of the game, but you gotta be at your best when your best is required.
“That last football play, that last snap that we had, I wasn't at my best unfortunately, and it sucks,” he added. “It hurts.
It stings in a lot of ways. All you can do from that is get better, make sure it doesn't happen again.”
He said even a strong performance up to that point didn’t matter in the end.
“We got a lot of great things as an offense,” Risner said. “I had a great game up until the last football play.
But I could care less because at the end of the day, you want to win these games. I'd rather have a bad game and win the game.”
Risner was graded as the Bengals’ fourth-best player by PFF on Sunday, trailing Tee Higgins, Ja’Marr Chase and Burrow. His 82.7 grade was his second-best since joining Cincinnati and the third-best of his career, behind only his 84.2 against the Raiders in his NFL debut in Week 1 of 2019.
Even with that kind of day, the last snap is the one that will stick.
“You guys saw me last year through the ups and downs, and this was a bad play that I will remember for a long time,” he said. “And I'm not going to make excuses about it. I'm not going to try to make it sound better.
“I gave up a sack and, and it resulted in being a fumble and resulted in the game being over,” he added. “So, that sucks. It's a tough pill to swallow, but I'm going to swallow it and be a man about it, go back to the drawing board, continue to work.”
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Bengals Legend Blames One Reckless Decision For Steelers Loss
The Bengals loss to the Steelers has been picked apart from plenty of angles, but T.J. Houshmandzadeh zeroed in on one third-quarter sequence he changed the feel of the game. Speaking on the Speakeasy podcast, the former Cincinnati receiver blamed the decision to try to block a punt, a gamble that instead produced a roughing the kicker penalty and handed Pittsburgh a fresh break in a tight spot.
Houshmandzadeh called the call reckless, arguing that the odds of successfully blocking a punt in the NFL are so slim that the risk rarely justifies the reward. That backdrop matters because blocked punts remain one of the leagues rarest plays, with only 59 since 2020, which only sharpens the scrutiny on a decision that left the Bengals paying for a mistake rather than cashing in on one. [Read more 🡒]
Dalton Risner Saw One Bengals Positive Even In That Final Chaos
The Bengals had one last chance to steal the game from Pittsburgh, and it ended in the kind of scramble that leaves an offensive lineman replaying every second. Joe Burrow was sacked and fumbled on Cincinnatis final offensive snap, with the Steelers coming away with the recovery to close out the game in chaos.
Even in that finish, Dalton Risner found a silver lining for Cincinnati. The right guard pointed to tight end Erick All for the way he kept fighting for the loose ball after the official recovery, a small detail in a messy ending that at least showed the Bengals were still playing hard to the final whistle. [Read more 🡒]
Bengals Face A Stretch That Could Change Everything Before Madrid
The Bengals Week 3 loss to the Steelers only sharpened the focus on what comes next, because the road before the trip to Madrid looks like the kind of stretch that can define a season. Cincinnati is staring at a run of games against the Jaguars, Dolphins, Ravens and Titans, a mix that tests everything from pass rush and coverage to the ability to stay steady while injuries and coaching decisions continue to shape the week-to-week outlook.
Jacksonville and Miami bring their own challenges, while Baltimore always raises the stakes for Cincinnati in a division race that leaves little margin for error. Tennessee can be a different kind of test, but the bigger question is whether the Bengals can use this stretch to reset their footing before the spotlight shifts overseas, or whether the issues that surfaced against Pittsburgh keep following them into October. [Read more 🡒]