5 players to watch when the Steelers face the Bengals Monday Night

All eyes shift to Monday Night Football this week as Steelers Nation anxiously anticipates another game against a Cincinnati Bengals team desperate to stay alive in this year’s playoff race.

Here are five players you should have your eyes on during this game.

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Artie Burns & Coty Sensabaugh

Right off of the bat, the two names that jump off of the page are the Steelers corners. Burns and Sensabaugh will have to contain a “Steelers killer” in Bengals WR A.J. Green, who has come up big against the black and gold in the past but hasn’t had a huge game for quite some time.

In their first encounter this season, Green was held to three catches for 41 yards. It will be up to this pair of cornerbacks to live up to the billing, as neither roams the field to cover a specific player.

Vontaze Burfict

Can anyone really take their eyes off of this circus act?

Sorry, I usually don’t let emotion get the better of my writing, but I don’t trust Burfict, who took Le’Veon Bell and Antonio Brown in prior games with dirty hits, was accused of spitting on Steelers offensive linemen in another, and even kicked fullback Roosevelt Nix on the ground in the previous contest.

Those are more than enough reasons to watch a player who could be the dirtiest in all of football.

Le’Veon Bell

After Burfict made some off the cuff comments about Joe Mixon being every bit as good as Le’Veon Bell, the latter took to social media responding that Mixon was imitating his running style.

Look for each of these guys to plead their case in primetime, with Bell, especially, trying to capitalize on his 192 all-purpose yards from their Week 7 clash.

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Carl Lawson

The Bengals rookie linebacker has seven sacks on the season, including 1.5 sacks last weekend against the Cleveland Browns. Lawson is one of few bright spots from this year’s draft for the Bengals and will look to continue his progress against Pittsburgh.

Lawson will likely line up against Steelers left tackle Alejandro Villanueva, Ben’s blindside protector. Hopefully, Ben won’t be the one getting blindsided!

Chris Boswell

This is a bonus, since I named two players in the first bullet point. In their last two matchups, the Steelers kicker is 11-for-11 in field goal attempts. He almost single-handedly defeated the Bengals last season and could be leaned upon to do the same in a hostile environment again this Sunday.

Following a stone cold 53-yard Heinz Field record-tying game-winning boot as time expired last Sunday, what does Boswell do for encoure?


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