What's that old sports adage? You've got to beat the best to be the best?
Excuse the Bengals while they lick the end of their pencils and check that box.
The Bengals passed a supreme test on Sunday at Heinz Field, beating the defending Super Bowl champion Steelers by the oh so AFC North score of 18-12.
"This was the most physical, grinding game I've ever been on the sideline for. That was a big win. Our defense played a great game," Bengals coach Marvin Lewis said.
The Steelers failed their test, in their own back yard, at the hands of a Bengals team playing Pittsburgh's brand of smashmouth football, and got their butts swept in the season series by Cincinnati for the first time in 11 years.
Now here's a quick test for the rest of the league.
It's one simple question. When was the last time the Bengals started 5-0 in the division and 4-0 on the road in the same season?
(I'm humming music from Jeopardy while everybody thinks...)
Pencils down.
It's a trick question. The Bengals have never started a season the way they have this year in the division and on the road.
The Bengals are road warriors!
They are North warriors!
Heck, they might be home warriors in the playoffs if they keep this up.
Can they be American Football Conference warriors, and battle for the Super Bowl championship? The weaponry is there.
Big time offense?
Check.
Stingy defense?
Double-check.
Special teams?
Triple-check.
The Bengals can check every box plus the boxes next to good coaching, great team-oriented play and incredible heart. They're still the Cardiac Cats, until they're not.
And when they check the papers on Monday, they'll find themselves all alone at the the top of the AFC North standings with a 7-2 record, one game ahead of the 6-3 Steelers, who got swept at Heinz Field like November's fallen leaves get relegated to the street curb in your home town (presumably not Pittsburgh).
When one phase of the Bengals' triple-threat attack goes awry, like, say, when rookie Kevin Huber mishandled the first-quarter point-after snap following Bernard Scott's kickoff return for a touchdown or when the Bengals were down to their third tailback against the NFL's top-ranked rushing defense or when they couldn't get a first down to save their lives, the team goes into its all-for-one mode and makes do.
Now the league has to make way for the Bengals, who are one of three NFL teams that will carry into Week 11 unbeaten records both on the road and in their division. The others are the Colts and Saints, who have been dominating the season's first-half discussion about top Super Bowl contenders.
You'll have to pardon the Bengals, please, as they elbow their way into that discussion with a defensive attitude.
The Bengals defense, ranked second against the run entering play, held the Steelers to 80 yards rushing, 226 total, after tailback Rashard Mendenhall averaged 105 yards over the previous five games and Ben Roethlisberger put himself among the league leaders in passing yardage, completion percentage and quarterback rating the first half of the season.
Mendenhall finished with 36 yards on 13 carries. Big Ben was 20-of-40 passing for 174 yards and an interception snared by Bengals lineman Frostee Rucker on a tipped ball. Playmaker Santonio Holmes was the only Steelers receiver who was able to hurt the Bengals with seven catches for 88 yards. Bengals killers Hines Ward and Heath Miller were non-factors.
The Bengals put constant pressure on Big Ben. Thanks in large part to tight coverage in the secondary, they generated eight quarterback hurries, seven knockdowns, four batted balls and four sacks, two by Johnathan Fanene, who has flat out stood out as Antwan Odom's injury replacement at right end.
"We were below the line. That's not winning football on a lot of fronts, specifically when you're playing a quality team as the Bengals are," Steelers coach Mike Tomlin said. "We weren't able to execute in the red zone today offensively."
Nope.
The Bengals have swept both of last season's AFC championship game finalists, Baltimore and Pittsburgh, and they have the third-easiest schedule coming up over the final seven games. The Steelers had won five in a row since losing to the Bengals the first time, 23-20, at Paul Brown Stadium on Sept. 27. Pittsburgh had won 10 in a row at home dating to last season, and had not lost to the Bengals at home in three years. Steelers coach Tomlin lost for the first time in eight home games against a division team.
There's an old biblical question in Jeremiah: Shall iron break the northern iron and the steel? (I won't get into explaining it, but it sure sounds good here, doesn't it?)
Here's a modern answer in Cincinnati - Hell yeah!
Even in a game where they were outbooted, the Bengals kicked the Steelers out of a first-place tie and hopped in the driver's seat in the AFC North with sole possession of first place.
Shayne Graham missed his first field-goal try when he hit the post on a 52-yard attempt in the first quarter, but he converted four straight in the second half, and the Bengals held the Steelers without a touchdown as Jeff Reed provided all the Pittsburgh scoring while matching Graham with four field goals, without a miss.
Scott's dazzling 96-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, the Bengals first since Glenn Holt took one 100 yards for a score against Buffalo in November of 2007, was his first professional TD.
"It was a (difficult) kick," Scott said. "I just picked it up and tried to go back to where the return side was. I tried to make a play and just ran it to the end zone."
Scott (13 carries for 33 yards) also took over at tailback in the second half when Cedric Benson (7 carries for 22 yards) left the game with a strained hip. When Scott got a little banged up himself and left before returning to the field to complete the game, Brian Leonard (4 carries for 8 yards) was the Bengals' go-to back.
It didn't matter who was back there, the Bengals could not run the ball.
"It was a team win, but our defense won this game," Bengals quarterback Carson Palmer said. "Field goals wins games, touchdowns win games. We'll take this."
Palmer wasn't his usual efficient self against Dick LeBeau's blitzkrieg Steelers defense, even though Palmer's personal friend and nemesis, Steelers All-Pro safety Troy Polamalu, missed all but the opening series after aggravating a knee injury that sidelined him for the previous four games. Palmer finished 18-for-30 passing for a pedestrian 178 yards, while Laveranues Coles was the only Cincy receiver who did any real damage with team-highs of five catches for 67 yards.
A lackluster passing and running attack didn't seem to faze the Bengals. That's because special teams and especially good defense made for a spectacular victory in Pittsburgh, a place that's specialized in sticking it to the 'Nati. The Bengals had won in Pittsburgh only 13 times in 40 years.
But the Bengals looked at all those Terrible Towel wavers inside Heinz Field on Sunday and flew some figurative sign language at the golden nonsense while sending the Steelers a literal message - If Pittsburgh wants to get back to the Super Bowl this season, that road, if it travels into the AFC playoffs, may very well have to go through Cincinnati.