Typically, you’d scroll to the end of this article to get the answer.

This time, I’m going to come right out and say it: the Bengals are not the Steelers biggest rival.

This could be a short post, summed up by Cameron Heyward‘s quote the other day:

Cam Heyward: Ravens, not Bengals, are Steelers' biggest rivals https://t.co/DNJyj2Ylel pic.twitter.com/S7xwnNcpjQ

— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (@PittsburghPG) September 14, 2016

I’m quite sick of hearing how the Bengals are a rival. If dirty play, and disgusting, fruitless effort define a rivalry, then we’ve fallen all too far.

For all intents and purposes, the Cleveland Browns are a superior rival to the Bengals, with a rich history and classy play. (And the Browns still give us fits every now and then.)

And as Heyward said, the Ravens have won Super Bowls. Heck, they’ve won playoff games; playoff games against the Steelers and other teams.

The Bengals haven’t won a playoff game since 1991.

I know Cincy fans get sick and tired of hearing that stat, but it’s true: this is the NFL. The land of “what have you done for me lately.”

When the Steelers started going 8-8 for a couple of seasons, that sentiment was true even in the Steel City. We all know the chants to “Fire Tomlin” and “Fire Todd Haley.” But the Steelers stayed the course, and are again thought of among the league’s elite.

It’s not as if the Bengals aren’t talented, and aren’t considered a threat; they are. It’s that people won’t take them seriously until they win something.

When teams in your own division go further than you do, after winning a Division Title, those AFC North crowns don’t mean much. Just ask the 2014 iteration of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who lost their Wild Card encounter with their true rival, the Baltimore Ravens. (Yes, that’s what defines a rivalry: meaningful wins.)

So far those meaningful wins have come at the expense of the Bengals, by the hands of the Steelers. The 2014 regular season finale which saw Pittsburgh win the AFC North at home over them, or last year’s Wild Card win in the Bengal’s home stadium.

Those are the type of games that should define a rivalry. The Bengals think so, because they’re bitter. Yet, the Steelers just aren’t having any of it.

Why?

Because they’re not bitter, they’re better.

Afterall, it was Adam “Pacman” Jones who downplayed the dirty hit his teammate Vontaze Burfict laid on Steelers WR Antonio Brown, claiming that AB was “faking” his concussion.

Brown would miss the following week’s game.

There was back-and-forth banter with Brown responding to both Pacman and Burfict: it was a dog and pony show at it’s finest.

Even Cincinnati’s Defensive Coordinator, Paul Guenther, added to the animosity with several comments made in poor taste this offseason.

However, long before Brown was concussed and removed from the Steelers, the fuse was already lit. I would go as far back as a 2005 wildcard playoff game where Bengals QB Carson Palmer was hit low by Steelers DE Kimo Von Oelhoffen. Bengals fans are still whining about that game, and that play, trying to keep that fire lit, but most of the players on both sides of the ball from that game are long gone from the NFL.

Then there was the famous hit Terence Garvin put on Bengals punter Kevin Humber in 2013, during an Antonio Brown punt return. Many questioned if the hit were legal, and there was no flag on the play to suggest otherwise, but the NFL fined Garvin for the play which broke the punter’s jaw.

https://twitter.com/steelcityundrgr/status/775370879723266048

A year after Huber’s jaw was broken, return shots were fired by the Bengals when Le’Veon Bell was hit low by Bengals safety Reggie Nelson: the hit hyper-extended Bell’s knee and caused him to miss the following week’s wildcard playoff game.

Like the Huber hit, Bell’s injury drew the ire of Steelers who felt the hit was dirty.

Of course that hit occurred once against last season; Vontaze Burfict even celebrated after the play, which would send Bell to IR, missing the remainder of the season. Several Steelers took to the media, both traditional and social, to voice their displeasure with the hit, and Burfict’s behavior following the dive at Bell’s knees.

The two teams traded wins in each other’s building before the ugly Wild Card game, where penalty flags flew like the raindrops from the clouds that evening. Trash was thrown at QB Ben Roethlisberger, Brown was concussed, coaches were fined, and Pacman bumped a referee.

The Bengals cost themselves that game, but the trash talk continued, reining in everything from an expansion soccer franchise to Harambe, the gorilla killed at the Cincinnati zoo earlier this year.

Despite all of the tempers flaring, it’s this type of non-football activity which has created a fake impression that the Bengals are the Steelers rival. In order to be a rival, one must be an equal.

The Bengals have no Super Bowl trophies.

They haven’t won a playoff game in ages (1991, as mentioned above.)

Honestly, the Bengals have yet to win a meaningful game against the Steelers.

Generally, this is how these things work:

The Steeler eliminate the Ravens from the playoffs.

The Ravens eliminate the Steelers from the playoffs.

One team bests the other for the division title.

When is the last time the Bengals have won a game of consequence against the Steelers?

Never.

Bengals vs Steelers from two eras — the era between Sam Wyche and Marvin Lewis and the Marvin Lewis era. pic.twitter.com/ewxUCTUz3A

— Grumpy Middle-aged Sports Fan (Josh Kirkendall) (@Josh_Kirkendall) September 16, 2016

I can’t think of a crushing loss that the Steelers have suffered to Cincinnati in recent memory. They haven’t knocked the Steelers out of the playoffs, or playoff contention.

The Steelers have also won 5 of their last 6 games against the Bengals. That may keep the fire burning for a determined Bengals team to turn the tide, but for the Steelers, they’ve proven time and again they are the superior team in the series.

The only thing that remains, is for the Steelers to leave one of these games with all of their players healthy. That’s not exactly sportsmanship, and I’m not sure if it’s gladiator times again, as hard hits make for great television, but does it really make the Bengals Pittsburgh’s stop rival?

Not at all.

It just makes them an annoying, dirty team that the Steelers must survive against on Sunday.

And survive they must: the only thing the Bengals have proven to be able to take away from Pittsburgh is their health.

This Sunday, the bragging rights may be there, but the series is still a ways away from being a true back-and-forth rivalry.

Perhaps that’s the way Steelers Nation would like to keep it.