“That’s for the referees to decide,” Bengals defensive end Michael Johnson said when asked whether it was a dirty hit. “I didn’t see any flags, so I guess it was clean.”
Cincinnati kicker Mike Nugent, who took over for Huber and averaged 40 yards on two punts, said his focus was on his teammate on the ground rather than the replays on the scoreboard.
“Seeing the way he was laying down there, you automatically think the worst,” Huber said. “Working with someone every day like that, that’s family. It’s tough to see someone in pain like that.
“I wish I could comment more on it, but I have to see it on film,” Nugent added. “It makes you wonder how someone breaks their jaw. It had to be a pretty high hit, obviously. But again before I see something on film, it’s tough to comment.”
For Bengals safety Chris Crocker, it was the second time he has seen a teammate suffer a broken jaw against the Pittsburgh Steelers. In 2008 Pittsburgh wide receiver Hines Ward broke Keith Rivers’ jaw on a blindside block that has since been outlawed.
“I didn’t see the shot,” Crocker said. “I saw the guy on the ground, and I ran out to him. I mean goodness, you lose a punter, you only have one of those guys. That’s tough. I feel for the guy. I just know he took a really good shot. You lose a punter, that’s going to hurt your team in a game. Yeah, it affected us.”
Double duty: Pressed into emergency duty after Bengals punter Kevin Huber suffered a fractured jaw, Mike Nugent had punts of 43 and 37 yards to finish with a better average (40.0) than Pittsburgh punter Mat McBriar (three punts for 38.3) on a cold, windy night in Pittsburgh.
“Darrin (Simmons, the special teams coordinator) does a good job of getting us prepared for that,” Nugent said. “We do little drills here and there to make sure if that does happen, we’re prepared for it. It was one of those situations where I got out there and I wasn’t freaking out like ‘Oh my god, I haven’t punted a football in game in probably 14 years.’ ”
Nugent actually had an 18-yard as a rookie with the New York Jets in 2005.
“It was a field goal snap and you just tap it down there,” he said. “I haven’t had a regular punt since my junior year in high school.”
Hump day: Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis entered Sunday night's game with a career record of 88-88-1 and a chance to climb over the .500 mark for the first time since December 2009.
Lewis was 55-53-1 following a 23-13 victory against Detroit that clinched the team’s last division championship, but he’s gone 33-35 since despite leading the Bengals to back-to-back playoff appearances.
Streak snapped: The Bengals came into Pittsburgh having not allowed a sack in three consecutive games, tying a franchise record.
But that streak came to an end in a hurry when Steelers defensive end Ziggy Hood sacked Andy Dalton on Cincinnati’s second offensive series.
That, however, would be the only sack the Steelers would record.
Dre's day: Bengals cornerback Dre Kirkpatrick made his first NFL start with mixed results.
Kirkpatrick struggled early and missed a few tackles, but things got better after that.
“I knew they were going to try to come at me,” he said. “As the game went on I settled in, I got comfortable and think I did a great job after that.”
Kirkpatrick finished with four tackles.
Hot hand: Mike Pollak started his fourth consecutive game at right guard Sunday night despite the fact that Kevin Zeitler was healthy and active for the second week in a row.
Zeitler started the first 26 games of his NFL career before suffering a foot injury Nov. 10 in Baltimore.
In Pollak’s first three starts the Bengals went 3-0 and averaged 141.6 rushing yards.
Sunday night the team rushed for only 57 yards on 22 attempts (2.6 per carry).
Forgettable first: The 21 points the Steelers scored in the 13-plus minutes Sunday night were the most against the Bengals in a first quarter since they allowed 21 in a 44-7 loss to Chicago on Sept. 28, 1986.
The Bengals had only allowed 54 first-quarter points in their first 13 games this season, an average of 4.2 per contest.
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