Sloppy tackling plagues Bengals in loss to Steelers

The talk for much of the week leading up to Sunday’s game was how physical things get when the Cincinnati Bengals play the Pittsburgh Steelers.

But throughout the 29-14 loss at Heinz Field, the Bengals hardly looked like a hard-hitting team as they missed numerous tackles.

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“We still left a lot of plays out there, left a lot to be desired with our tackling,” defensive end Michael Johnson said. “We’re better than that. Everybody knows we’re better than that. It just wasn’t our day.”

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Pittsburgh running back Le’Veon Bell exploited the sloppy tackling to run for 134 yards on 35 carries. He also caught three passes for 58 yards, including a long of 42 in which he broke four tackles on his way to setting up the Cincinnati 17-yard line, setting up a Chris Boswell field goal that gave the Steelers the lead for good.

“(Missed tackles) created a lot of issues,” Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis said. “We created the big play to the running back. Tackling was something that I said at halftime we had to do better going into the second half.”

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